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Does mindfulness practice promote psychological functioning or is it the other way around? A daily diary study.

ABSTRACT: Mindfulness-based interventions are commonly used to reduce psychological symptoms and enhance positive qualities of human functioning. However, the influence of mindfulness practice dosage remains poorly understood, limiting dissemination and implementation efforts. The current study examined the association between practice dosage and several constructs related to psychological functioning (positive and negative affect, state mindfulness) over the course of a standardized mindfulness-based intervention (Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement). Twenty-five participants completed daily diary assessments for 12 weeks. Two-part gamma regression models examined the dichotomous (did practice occur?) and continuous (how much practice?) components of practice minutes. Practice time and outcomes showed same-day relationships in the expected directions. Lagged models, however, showed no evidence that current day practice time predicts subsequent day outcomes. In contrast, higher current day negative affect predicted less subsequent day practice time, and higher current day mindfulness predicted more subsequent day practice time. In a post hoc analysis, practice time moderated the link between day-to-day affect, strengthening the link for positive affect and weakening the link for negative affect. Collectively, these findings suggest that the causal direction linking practice time and outcome may flow from outcome to practice time, rather than the reverse-with potential recursive relationships between these factors. Further examination of lagged relationships between practice time and outcome as well as random assignment of participants to varying practice dosages (e.g., in within-person microrandomized trials) may help clarify the influence of this central treatment ingredient within mindfulness-based interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

SUBMITTER: Goldberg SB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7484416 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Restoration skills training (ReST) is a mindfulness-based course that draws on restorative nature experience to facilitate the meditation practice and teach widely applicable adaptation skills. Previous studies comparing ReST to conventional mindfulness training (CMT) showed that ReST has important advantages: it supports beginning meditators in connecting with restorative environmental qualities and in meditating with less effort; it restores their attention regulation capabilities; and it helps them complete the course and establish a regular meditation habit. However, mindfulness theory indicates that effortful training may be necessary to achieve generalized improvements in psychological functioning. Therefore, this study tests whether the less effortful and more acceptable ReST approach is attended by any meaningful disadvantage compared to CMT in terms of its effects on central aspects psychological functioning. We analyze data from four rounds of development of the ReST course, in each of which we compared it to a parallel and formally matched CMT course. Randomly assigned participants (total course starters = 152) provided ratings of dispositional mindfulness, cognitive functioning, and chronic stress before and after the 5-week ReST and CMT courses. Round 4 also included a separately recruited passive control condition. ReST and CMT were attended by similar average improvements in the three outcomes, although the effects on chronic stress were inconsistent. Moderate to large improvements in the three outcomes could also be affirmed in contrasts with the passive controls. Using a reliable change index, we saw that over one third of the ReST and CMT participants enjoyed reliably improved psychological functioning. The risk of experiencing deteriorated functioning was no greater with either ReST or CMT than for passive control group participants. None of the contrasts exceeded our stringent criterion for inferiority of ReST compared with CMT. We conclude that ReST is a promising alternative for otherwise healthy people with stress or concentration problems who would be less likely to complete more effortful CMT. By adapting the meditation practices to draw on restorative setting characteristics, ReST can mitigate the demands otherwise incurred in early stages of mindfulness training without compromising the acquisition of widely applicable mindfulness skills.

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Does mindfulness practice promote psychological functioning or is it the other way around? A daily diary study.

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