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Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation
Abstract
One proposed pathway for the documented psychological effects of mindfulness (cultivating awareness and acceptance of the present moment) has been through its facilitation of adaptive emotion regulation. Although conceptual overlap between the two constructs complicates interpretation of correlational findings, an emerging body of laboratory, experimental, and treatment outcome studies provides preliminary support of proposed conceptual models. These findings indicate that the practice of mindfulness is associated with healthy emotion regulation (e.g., reduced intensity of distress, enhanced emotional recovery, reduced negative self-referential processing, and/or enhanced ability to engage in goal-directed behaviors) and may play a causal role in these effects. More experimental and longitudinal research is needed to determine the exact nature, temporal unfolding, and causality of these associations.Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation
... Such mindfulness practices may tap the capacities that are likely to underlie individual differences in the ability to use adaptive regulatory selection strategies (20). For example, MBIs are believed to increase deliberate executive control, enhance sensitivity to body-related emotional information, and cultivate the ability to attend to broader aspects of difficult situations, which may thus facilitate their appraisal in novel ways (10,17,21,26,(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42). The contemplative practices used in MBIs enable the enhanced implementation of different regulatory strategies (such as skillful engagement with an emotional experience or distracting from it by turning one's attention to the breath) (20,37,43,44). ...
... For example, MBIs are believed to increase deliberate executive control, enhance sensitivity to body-related emotional information, and cultivate the ability to attend to broader aspects of difficult situations, which may thus facilitate their appraisal in novel ways (10,17,21,26,(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42). The contemplative practices used in MBIs enable the enhanced implementation of different regulatory strategies (such as skillful engagement with an emotional experience or distracting from it by turning one's attention to the breath) (20,37,43,44). This is assumed to improve an individual's ability to evaluate the emotional context, detect the need to implement (or adjust) regulation strategies, and enable the selection and switching between different regulatory strategies rather than automatically defaulting to specific strategies (e.g., (37,39,(45)(46)(47)). ...
... The contemplative practices used in MBIs enable the enhanced implementation of different regulatory strategies (such as skillful engagement with an emotional experience or distracting from it by turning one's attention to the breath) (20,37,43,44). This is assumed to improve an individual's ability to evaluate the emotional context, detect the need to implement (or adjust) regulation strategies, and enable the selection and switching between different regulatory strategies rather than automatically defaulting to specific strategies (e.g., (37,39,(45)(46)(47)). In addition, MBIs may stimulate the capacity to positively reappraise adverse events. ...
Objectives:
The ability to select the most adaptive regulatory strategy as a function of the emotional context plays a pivotal role in psychological health. Recently, we showed that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can improve the sensitivity of regulatory strategy selection to emotional intensity. Yet, the mechanisms underlying this improvement are unclear. In this study we tested the hypothesis that MBIs support adaptive regulatory selection by increasing sensitivity to interoceptive signals associated with the emotional stimuli.
Methods:
Participants (N = 84, mean ± SD age = 30.9 ± 8.3; 54% women) were randomized to either a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program or a waitlist control condition. Before and after the MBSR program, physiological measures for autonomic nervous system activity were obtained and participants performed a task examining emotion regulation selections (reappraisal vs. distraction) when confronted with low or high negative intensity images. They also completed a battery of mindfulness, interoception and wellbeing self-report measures. A cross-classified model was employed for the main analyses.
Results:
The participants assigned to the MBSR were overall more likely to choose reappraisal than distraction (b = 0.26, posterior SD = 0.13, 95% CI [0.02, 0.52]) after the program. Interoceptive signals in response to negative images were associated with subsequent regulatory selections (b = 0.02, posterior SD = 0.01, 95% CI [0.01, 0.03]) in the MBSR group. Specifically, lower cardiac reactivity was associated with the choice to reappraise whereas higher cardiac reactivity was related to the choice to distract. Greater differences in cardiac reactivity between states that prompt reappraisal and states that prompt distraction were associated with higher wellbeing (Satisfaction with Life Scale, Pearson r (29) = .527, p = 0.003).
Conclusion:
Mindfulness appears to increase the sensitivity of regulatory selections to interoceptive signals, and this is associated with subjective wellbeing. This may be a central pathway through which MBIs exert their positive effects on mental health and resilience.
... Nas últimas três décadas observou-se um notório crescimento do interesse científico pelos benefícios promovidos pela prática de mindfulness (1) . Evidências empíricas apontam que essa prática pode permitir que as pessoas lidem com suas emoções de maneira mais adaptativa (2)(3) . Associado a mindfulness, o processo de regulação emocional também vem sendo amplamente investigado (4) , trazendo evidências de que ambos contribuem para a saúde mental e o bem-estar pessoal (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11) . ...
... Mindfulness desempenha um papel mais amplo nos processos de regulação das emoções, afetando as etapas regulatórias mais centrais. Esta visão é compartilhada nos artigos de revisão (2,5) e teóricos (85) . ...
Objetivo: este estudo de revisão sistemática de literatura buscou analisar as relações entre mindfulness e regulação emocional. Método: foram consultadas diversas bases de dado nacionais e internacionais e selecionou-se para análise 60 artigos publicados no período de 2009 a 2019. Resultados: Em termos conceituais, mindfulness é prevalentemente considerado como um traço, e menos como um estado ou habilidade. Os resultados dos estudos empíricos sugerem que mindfulness mostra-se associado ao uso de estratégias de regulação emocional adaptativas favorecendo o funcionamento psíquico saudável. Apontam-se também os limites e contribuições desta revisão. Conclusão: Há a necessidade de mais estudos que considerem o aspecto processual de mindfulness e que possibilitem capturar avivência subjetiva da prática, tendo em visto a prevalência de estudos quantitativos que fizeram uso de escalas de autorrelato.
... This process could allow one to safely experience distress without having to avoid it and discover they diminish over time. There is significant neuroscientific and psychological evidence that MM is associated with adaptive emotion regulation (Lutz et al., 2014;Roemer et al., 2015). As summarized by Roemer et al. (2015), MM interventions have been associated with reductions in intensity of distress, emotional reactivity, and negative self-referential processing (e.g., self-criticism) as well as greater experience of positive emotional responses. ...
... There is significant neuroscientific and psychological evidence that MM is associated with adaptive emotion regulation (Lutz et al., 2014;Roemer et al., 2015). As summarized by Roemer et al. (2015), MM interventions have been associated with reductions in intensity of distress, emotional reactivity, and negative self-referential processing (e.g., self-criticism) as well as greater experience of positive emotional responses. Furthermore, in a study where participants responded to a film clip that evoked a range of affective responses (arguably ambiguous due to the complexity of emotions), participants who completed a brief mindfulness intervention showed significantly less negative affect and a trend towards more adaptive regulation compared to a control (Erisman & Roemer, 2010). ...
Facing ambiguity is ubiquitous and perhaps more apparent as the world faces economic, health, and social crises. Ambiguity tolerance (AT) reflects one's ability to manage novel, complex, and insoluble situations and has important implications on learning, intrapersonal behaviour, and decision making. While AT can increase passively over time, there is some research pointing to mindfulness as a method for cultivating AT. Both forms of Western mindfulness (meditative and Langer) positively correlate with AT; however, no study has explored the direct impact of mindfulness induction. 165 undergraduate participants completed baseline measures of AT, trait meditative (MM) and Langer mindfulness (LM), and self-compassion (SC). Participants were randomly assigned to a condition (meditative, Langer, or mind-wandering control) and responded to measures of AT. Measures of state mindfulness were taken pre-post induction to confirm manipulation success and participants provided feedback on the induction tasks. Regression analyses revealed nonreactivity to inner experience (facet of MM), LM, and SC are significantly associated with AT. However, only nonreactivity adds significantly to the variation in AT beyond what is attributable to LM. Repeated measure ANOVAs confirmed state MM and LM were elevated post-induction compared to the control. However, state mindfulness remained enhanced at the experiment's end only for MM and not LM. Participants also reported finding the LM task more difficult than MM but noted greater focus and ability to follow task instructions. No significant effect of induction was found on AT. Future studies could examine how a combination of MM and LM interventions might enhance AT.
... Mindfulness has been considered an ally in the process of emotion regulation. Recent studies have demonstrated positive effects of mindfulness on the individual's health, decreasing the intensity of distress, accelerating emotional recovery, and increasing the ability to engage in goal-oriented behavior (Bullis et al., 2014;MacDonald & Baxter, 2017;Mahmoudzadeh et al., 2015;Mandal et al., 2017;Roemer et al., 2015;Shapiro et al., 2006). In mindfulness training, individuals learn to self-regulate their attention (sustaining it or changing the focus, when necessary). ...
... This posture can generate a change in the perception of the demands of the context, as reported by graduate students, with the visualization of aspects not previously perceived. The conscious sustaining of attention enables the development of a more flexible and adaptive emotion regulation, facilitated by the expansion of awareness and perception of the here and now (Alkoby et al., 2018;Roemer et al., 2015;Shapiro et al., 2006). ...
Recent studies point to an increase in psychological distress among graduate students. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of mindfulness practices on emotion regulation, on the perception of stress, and on the psychological well-being of graduate students. Forty-five (45) graduate students participated in the study, divided into an intervention and a control group. Questionnaires were applied for self-assessment of mindfulness, perceived stress, and psychological well-being, in addition to qualitative interviews in the pre- and post-timeframes of a mindfulness-based intervention. Quantitative data were analyzed using ANOVAs for repeated measures, while the interviews were analyzed using the thematic content analysis technique. The results indicated increases in the levels of mindfulness and psychological well-being, and a reduction in perceived stress in the intervention group, post-intervention. The interviews indicated the presence of ambivalent emotions in relation to graduate studies and the development of new strategies to cope with the stress in this work context. The main contribution of the study was to present empirical evidence of the effectiveness of mindfulness practices in the graduate-level education context, allowing students to become more capable of dealing with the challenges of an academic career.
... In this context, self-regulation refers to "the exercise of control over one's self, especially with regard to bringing the self into line with preferred standards" (Vohs & Baumeister, 2004, p. 2). An increased capacity to tolerate, regulate, and more productively cope with negative emotions can eventually lead to the extinguishment of previous stressors and associated maladaptive habits (Arch & Landy, 2015;Farb et al., 2013;Garland & Howard, 2013;Roemer et al., 2015;Sayers et al., 2015;Vago & Nakamura, 2011). One can more readily disengage from default, conditioned reactions, which affords the opportunity to reappraise situations and choose a different, potentially adaptive response. ...
... Higher levels of mindfulness have been found to positively correlate with enhanced self-regulated functioning (Deci & Ryan, 1985;Roemer et al., 2015), higher levels of life satisfaction (Brown & Ryan, 2003), eudaimonic well-being (Hanley et al., 2015), conscientiousness (Giluk, 2009;Thompson & Waltz, 2007), autonomy (Brown & Ryan, 2003), optimism (Brown & Ryan, 2003), self-compassion (Chiesa et al., 2014), empathy (Birnie et al., 2010;Dekeyser et al., 2008;Shapiro et al., 1998), emotional intelligence (Schutte & Malouff, 2011), perspective-taking (Schutte et al., 2001), relationship satisfaction (Carson et al., 2004), and agreeableness (Thompson & Waltz, 2007). Mindfulness has also been found to negatively correlate with depression (Cash & Whittingham, 2010), neuroticism (Giluk, 2009), cognitive reactivity (Raes et al., 2009), social anxiety (Rasmussen & Pidgeon, 2011), rumination (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000, difficulties in emotional regulation (Baer et al., 2006), experiential avoidance (Baer et al., 2004), and unpleasant emotional experiences (Baer et al., 2006;Broderick, 2005;Brown & Ryan, 2003). ...
Background
There is clear consensus among influential education reports that an expansive range of intrapersonal (e.g., self-regulation) and interpersonal competencies (e.g., empathy) highly influence educational and career success. Research on teaching and learning these competencies is limited in engineering education.
Purpose/Hypothesis
This study explores the impacts of a mindfulness training program on first-year engineering students and aims to understand potential impacts on the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies.
Design/Method
A four-session mindfulness-based program was designed, developed, and facilitated to cultivate intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies. Qualitative data were collected from a total of 35 students through a post-survey (n = 32), 3-month follow-up survey (n = 24), and interviews (n = 18). A thematic analysis process accompanied by validity and trustworthiness checks was employed to analyze the data.
Results
The results suggest that the majority of students became more mindful, which led to improved intrapersonal competencies (e.g., self-regulation, focus, resilience, and well-being) and interpersonal competencies (e.g., empathy, communication, teamwork, and leadership).
Discussion/Conclusions
The study provides compelling evidence that mindfulness training can support the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies among engineering students, which can support their overall academic experience, personal, and professional development. Future design and development work will be needed to evaluate the integration and scalability potential of mindfulness training within engineering programs.
... Remarkably, in individuals with elevated anxiety, the association with cognitive failures remained even after neuroticism has been controlled for (Merckelbach et al. (1996), which can be explained by the presence of possible third variables (e.g., anxiety, and/or depression). Also, measures of mindfulness were found to overlap with emotion regulation, which is negatively associated with psychopathology (Roemer et al., 2015). ...
... Merckelbach et al. (1996) pointed out that in individuals with elevated anxiety, the association with cognitive failures remained even after neuroticism has been controlled. Moreover, Roemer et al. (2015) indicated that measures of mindfulness can overlap with emotion regulation that is negatively associated with psychopathology. For that reason, it is possible that in our study a third-variable problem exists, where some other observed variable (e.g., anxiety/depression) causes both the predictor and outcome leading to a mistaken causal relationship (Merckelbach et al., 1996). ...
Neuroticism has been linked to an increased likelihood of cognitive failures, including episodes of inattentiveness, forgetfulness, or accidents causing difficulties in successfully executing everyday tasks and impacting health and quality of life. Cognitive failures associated with trait neuroticism can prompt some negative psychological outcomes and risky behaviors. Accumulating evidence shows that augmenting mindfulness can benefit cognitive health and general well-being. However, little is known regarding potential cognitive-behavioral pathways through which individual differences in trait neuroticism could influence the propensity to cognitive failures. Using a sample of 1003 undergraduate college students (females: n = 779) consisting of self-reported questionnaire data, we conducted correlational and mediational analyses to investigate the interrelationship between neuroticism, mindfulness, and cognitive failures. Higher neuroticism scores (females: r = −0.388, males: r = −0.390) and higher cognitive failures scores (females: r = −0.339, males: r = −0.407, p < .001) were significantly correlated with lower self-reported mindfulness scores. Mindfulness significantly mediated the relationship between neuroticism and cognitive failures (β = 0.50, 95%, CI: 0.37, 0.65). These findings indicate that higher mindfulness may help ameliorate negative effects of neuroticism on everyday cognitive failures. Future research will determine how college students may benefit from positive impact of mindfulness to improve their psychological and physical health.
... Mindful individuals only observe their internal experiences and do not reactively judge the emotions they are feeling. They are more willing to face up to unpleasant experiences (Roemer et al., 2015). Mindfulness also causes decentring, or a more detached and less reactive view of emotions. ...
... The results are supported by the findings of previous studies, in which it was found that mindful individuals could understand, manage, and regulate their emotions more effectively (Roemer et al., 2015;Roos et al., 2015). Impulsive individuals usually have difficulty managing negative emotions, so the increase in emotion regulation would help control the impulses that trigger impulsive behaviors (Park & Dhandra, 2017). ...
During adolescence, impulsivity usually escalates, increasing the risk of addiction and affecting academic achievement negatively. Mindfulness has been found to be one of the ways to regulate impulsivity, and emotion regulation can mediate the relationship between mindfulness and impulsivity. This research therefore aims to establish whether emotion regulation mediates the relationship between mindfulness and impulsivity amongst high school students. Quantitative research employing Hayes’ PROCESS mediation analysis was conducted. The participants, 390 Indonesian high school students aged 15-18, were collected using online questionnaires measuring mindfulness, impulsivity, and emotion dysregulation. The results show that emotion regulation partially mediated the relationship between mindfulness and impulsivity (ab = -.11, BootSE = 0.02, BootCI 95% [-0.16, -0.07]). Mindfulness increased emotion regulation skills, which in turn reduced impulsivity in high school students. The implications of the study are important in helping adolescents manage impulsiveness during the period of vulnerability to risk-taking. The use of mindfulness in schools could help manage the emotional and behavioral problems of high school adolescents.
... Moreover, it is suggested that teaching self-compassion skills can encourage individuals who engage in NSSI to tolerate their emotional states and engage in more healthy, self-compassionate ways of regulating these negatively selflabeled emotions (Van Vliet & Kalnins, 2011). Cumulative electrophysiological, neurobiological, and psychological evidence supports a link between both mindfulness and self-compassion with emotion regulation suggesting that these constructs are associated with the enhanced ability to adaptively regulate emotions (e.g., Finlay-Jones, 2017; Lin, Fisher, Roberts, & Moser, 2016;Lutz et al., 2014;Roemer, Williston, & Rollins, 2015). Given the relationship between NSSI and emotion regulation, there is a strong theoretical foundation suggesting that emotion regulation may serve as a mechanism in explaining the relationship between mindfulness, self-compassion and engagement in NSSI. ...
... This is congruent with the proposition that mindfulness may reduce the likelihood individuals engage in NSSI by improving emotion regulation skills. This result is in line with the body of research suggesting that the pathway for the psychological effect of mindfulness is through emotion regulation (e.g., Roemer et al., 2015). Similarly, there was an indirect effect of self-coldness on NSSI through emotion dysregulation, suggesting that the relationship between selfcoldness and NSSI group status is fully mediated by the degree to which individuals have difficulties in regulating their emotions. ...
Objective
The objective of the current study was to investigate whether mindfulness and self-compassion are negatively associated with engagement in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and whether emotion dysregulation would mediate this relation.
Method
343 participants (82.2% female; M age = 23.98; SD = 7.47) were recruited from university and community settings, and completed online questionnaires. Two groups of participants were created: those with lifetime engagement in NSSI (n = 153) and a comparison group with no prior engagement in NSSI (n = 190).
Results
First, two one-way MANOVAs revealed significant mean differences (NSSI/comparison) across the self-compassion dimensions and specific mindfulness facets. Second, logistic regressions revealed that the self-coldness dimension of self-compassion significantly predicted engagement in NSSI, and specific mindfulness facets (nonjudging and acting with awareness) were found to negatively predict NSSI engagement. Lastly, mediation analyses revealed that emotion dysregulation fully mediated the relationships between both mindfulness total and self-coldness, and NSSI group status.
Conclusion
The present study demonstrates preliminary support for the protective role of key mindfulness facets and potential risk of the self-coldness aspect of self-compassion in NSSI engagement. Implications for potential use of treatment protocols may include teaching key aspects of mindfulness and self-compassion as healthier and kinder alternatives to coping with dysregulated emotions.
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Highlights
• Mindfulness and self-compassion significantly differ between NSSI/comparison groups
• Key mindfulness facets and self-compassion dimensions negatively predict engagement in NSSI
• Emotion dysregulation fully mediates self-coldness and mindfulness with NSSI group status
... When considering the psychological effects of mindfulness-based interventions, it is also crucial to consider the interaction between mindfulness and emotion regulation. Several studies found an overlap between them: awareness and acceptance, two components of mindfulness, are typically exploited in some emotion regulation strategies, both from a conceptual 14 and from a neuroanatomical point of view 15 , even though interventions based on the two constructs differ fundamentally in terms of the underlying processes they address 16 . Concerning specific emotion regulation strategies, some studies found mindfulness-based interventions to be linked to increasing use of cognitive reappraisal and decreasing use of expressive suppression 17,18 . ...
... A focus on emotion regulation strategies is crucial: we reported that higher difficulty perceived in practice is related to more frequent use of basic strategies to regulate emotions (i.e., expressive suppression) and less frequent use of advanced strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal). This result is in line with previous literature showing analogous results 17,18 and supports thus the hypothesis of overlap between "mindfulness" and "emotion regulation" theoretical constructs 14 , even though cognitive reappraisal strategies are never explicitly taught in mindfulness practices 16 . ...
Mindfulness interventions were shown to be effective in improving well-being and reducing perceived stress in several conditions. These effects were also found in online mindfulness-based training, especially in employees in organizational environments. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of an online mindfulness intervention on healthy employees, especially after the first Italian Covid-19 lockdown. Participants in the intervention group underwent an 8-week mindfulness online training program based on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) protocol compared to a control (no-intervention) group. All participants filled in weekly surveys for the whole intervention duration via online questionnaires to measure their habits, mindfulness (FFMQ-15), emotion regulation (ERQ), positive and negative affect (PANAS), depression, anxiety and stress (DASS-21), resilience (RSA) and insomnia (ISI). 69 participants in the intervention group and 63 in the no-treatment control group were considered in the longitudinal analyses. We found significant differences between the intervention and control groups over time in the measures of mindfulness (in particular the nonreactivity subscale), positive affect, depression, and insomnia. Moreover, we found that the frequency of practice and ease perceived in practicing were positively correlated to several indices of well-being (mindfulness, positive affect, cognitive reappraisal) and negatively correlated to several indices of stress (negative affect, depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, expressive suppression). These results show the importance and effectiveness of online mindfulness training programs to cope with stress among employees, especially after the Covid-19 lockdown.
... I meditatori con più esperienza potrebbero non aver bisogno di controllare attivamente le risposte emozionali poiché hanno automatizzato un'attitudine di non-reattività e di accettazione nei confronti dell'esperienza del momento presente, sia essa associata a un'emozione positiva o negativa. Sembra quindi che la meditazione abbia conseguenze differenti sulla regolazione emotiva in base al livello di esperienza dei praticanti (Chiesa, Serretti e Jakobsen, 2013;Roemer et al., 2015), ma non possiamo escludere che entrambi i processi di regolazione, top-down e bottom-up, coesistano e che gli individui possano affidarsi a uno o all'altro in base al contesto. ...
... Following a ten day volunteer course in mindfulness, those who practice mindfulness techniques improved their scores on these scales significantly compared to the control group (Chambers, Lo & Allen, 2007). In a meta-analysis of other research on emotional regulation, Roemer, Williston and Rollins (2015) found that those who participate in the various disciplines of mindfulness consistently score better on tests for emotional regulation than control groups regardless of whether or not results are self-reported or externally evaluated. ...
This was the final submission for a graduate Psychology of Mindfulness course.
Mindfulness is generally considered to be the contraction of two larger concepts: practiced, focused attention and non-judgmental perspective reorientation (Lindsay & Creswell, 2017). Attention is a skill that can be trained in order to increase its executive function and its duration through the use of meditation (Lindsay & Creswell, 2017). The reorientation of one’s perspective from a position of subjective egocentric judgement to one of acceptance and neutrality uses this process of focusing attention as a medium for analyzing the environment, the self and the relationship between the two (Brown, Ryan & Creswell, 2007). Jon Kabat-Zinn (1994), the pioneer that brought the concept of mindfulness into mainstream western psychology, discusses this process and its relationship in his book, Wherever You Go, There You Are. It is the direct antithesis to the title of this paper which is a reference to the dream-like state that Kabat-Zinn describes as everyday life without the moment-to-moment wakefulness that meditation and mindfulness can bring (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). An ever-increasing body of experimental research has repeatedly supported the conclusions that Kabat-Zinn reached in fields as diverse as cognitive psychology, neurobiology and family counseling. The data is here gathered and analyzed using Kabat-Zinn’s (1994) Wherever You Go, There You Are as a point of reference from which to anchor concepts.
Keywords: Mindfulness, attention, reflection, meditation, Kabat-Zinn
... Some studies have also evaluated the effectiveness of mindfulness-based training programs and found that they can reduce impulsivity and aggression levels of children in school (i Farrés et al., 2019;Lattimore et al., 2011;Oberle et al., 2012). Other studies have also indicated a positive association of mindfulness with self-regulation (Leyland et al., 2019;Montague, 2008) and self-efficacy (Logan & Laursen, 2019), emotional organization (Hülsheger et al., 2013;Roemer et al., 2015), sympathy (McConville et al., 2017), improving attention level and self-control (Enoch, 2015), reducing stress (Lindsay et al., 2018), controlling anger (Gouda et al., 2016). improving quality of life and reducing mental health problems such as anxiety and depression (Amutio et al., 2015;Thornton et al., 2017). ...
In recent years, many studies showed positive effects of implementing mindfulness practices according to some cognitive and psychical well-being measurements among many participants; especially, adolescents and adults. Few studies appeared on the effectiveness of mindfulness practices for students with learning disabilities. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the effectiveness of mindfulness training programs on the impulsivity levels for participants with learning disabilities in inclusive elementary schools in Saudi Arabia. Thirty participating children with learning disabilities were divided randomly into two equivalent groups (experimental and control groups). Pre-and post-assessment using the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11, Patton et al., 1995) were completed before and after the end of mindfulness sessions scheduled for ten weeks. Results indicated that the experimental group of children with learning disabilities significantly reduced their impulsivity in all impulsivity scale domains on the BIS-11. The authors discussed the impact of mindfulness intervention in reducing the impulsive behavior of students with learning disabilities. Finally, implications and recommendations were also noted in this study. Received: 30 March 2021 / Accepted: 5 June 2021 / Published: 8 July 2021
... In this regard, mindfulness and emotion regulation are two psychological constructs that have shown a clear interrelationship, with the first serving as a regulator of the second (Chiesa et al., 2013;Roemer et al., 2015). Currently, it is thought that mindfulness practice can either give rise to a top-down control, in short-term users, or bottom-up control, in long-term users, which helps to regulate emotions (for a review, see Chiesa et al., 2013). ...
Dispositional mindfulness and emotion regulation are two psychological constructs closely interrelated, and both appear to improve with the long-term practice of mindfulness meditation. These constructs appear to be related to subcortical, prefrontal, and posterior brain areas involved in emotional processing, cognitive control, self-awareness, and mind wandering. However, no studies have yet discerned the neural basis of dispositional mindfulness that are minimally associated with emotion regulation. In the present study, we use a novel brain structural network analysis approach to study the relationship between structural networks and dispositional mindfulness, measured with two different and widely used instruments [Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)], taking into account the effect of emotion regulation difficulties. We observed a number of different brain regions associated with the different scales and dimensions. The total score of FFMQ and MAAS overlap with the bilateral parahippocampal and fusiform gyri. Additionally, MAAS scores were related to the bilateral hippocampus and the FFMQ total score to the right insula and bilateral amygdala. These results indicate that, depending on the instrument used, the characteristics measured could differ and could also involve different brain systems. However, it seems that brain areas related to emotional reactivity and semantic processing are generally related to Dispositional or trait mindfulness (DM), regardless of the instrument used.
... MAT posits that although monitoring and describing one's present moment experience are important aspects of mindfulness, they are most effective at facilitating emotion regulation and improving outcomes when accompanied by acceptance of one's experience (Lindsay & Creswell, 2015, 2017, 2019. Existing research indeed suggests that higher levels of mindfulness are associated with more effective emotion regulation (Hill & Updegraff, 2012;Roemer, Williston, & Rollins, 2015); when mindfulness is introduced, positive emotion regulation increases via processes such as reappraising adverse experiences and savoring pleasant ones (Garland, Gaylord, & Fredrickson, 2011, Garland, Farb, Goldin, & Fredrickson, 2015. Further, mindfulness is associated with augmented emotion identification and description (Baer, Smith, & Allen, 2004). ...
Objective
Emotion regulation has been proposed as a mechanism driving sexual orientation disparities in suicide ideation (SI), but little research has examined the role of affect lability in the association of sexual minority identity and SI. As prior research has found trait mindfulness to be associated with lower SI, the objective of the present study was to examine the buffering role of mindfulness in the associations of sexual orientation, affect lability, and SI.
Method
The present study used a moderated mediation model to examine a cross-sectional dataset consisting of heterosexual (n = 1511) and sexual minority (n = 355) U.S. college students (N = 1866), to examine whether five facets of mindfulness moderated the indirect association of sexual minority identity on SI via affect lability.
Results
As predicted, sexual minority identity was associated with higher affect lability, which in turn was associated with higher SI. Acting with awareness (i.e., attending to the present activities), describing (i.e., the ability to verbalize inner experiences), and non-judging (i.e., refraining from judging inner experiences) buffered the indirect association of sexual minority identity on SI via affect lability, such that the indirect association weakened at higher levels of those mindfulness facets.
Conclusions
Our results provide a better understanding of the emotion regulation mechanisms underlying the higher risk of SI among sexual minorities. Future research is needed to examine mindfulness facets as buffers against SI among other communities, and to examine the efficacy of emotion regulation and mindfulness interventions in reducing suicide ideation and other aspects of suicidality (i.e., plans/attempts).
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Highlights
• Sexual orientation disparities in suicide ideation (SI) and affect lability.
• Sexual minority identity linked to higher SI via higher affect lability.
• Three mindfulness facets attenuated indirect association of identity on SI.
... Instead of denying and rejecting unpleasant experiences, i.e., non-constructive ER styles, mindfulness teaches individuals to accept such experiences as they are and to be conscious of themselves and their responses to the bad experiences (Desbordes et al. 2015). Mindfulness Training (MT) also assists individuals to be responsive to any existing thought, sensation, or emotion by performing some exercises, including mindful breathing, attention to the body and sitting meditation (Roemer Williston & Rollins 2015;Wahbeh et al. 2014). Considering concepts, such as acceptance, desensitization, presence at the moment, increased awareness, confrontation, observation without judgment, and release, mindfulness reduces avoidance symptoms and consequences, promotes the therapeutic effects, and prevents relapses among individuals with SD (Yaghubi & Zargar 2018). ...
Background: Drug craving is a strong and resistant yearn to consume drugs; if not met, his condition would be followed by biopsychological issues, such as fatigue, anxiety, aggression, and depression. This study determined the effects of mindfulness training and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) on drug craving and emotion regulation in clients with substance dependence. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test and a control group design. The research population included all the clients with drug use disorders, referring to midterm substance-dependence treatment centers in Baghmalek City, Iran, in 2018. Using a convenience sampling method, 60 clients with drug use disorders, willing to participate in the project were selected. Accordingly, they were randomly assigned into two experimental groups (mindfulness training & dialectical behavior therapy), and a control group (n=20/group). The research instruments included the Substance Craving Questionnaire-NOW (SCQ-NOW) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). The first experimental group underwent twelve 45-minute weekly sessions of mindfulness training. Besides, the second experimental group received twelve 45-minute weekly sessions of dialectical behavior therapy. The control group received no treatment. Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) was applied in SPSS to analyze the obtained data. Results: The Mean±SD post-test scores of drug craving for mindfulness training, dialectical behavior therapy, and control groups were 130.02±8.01, 124.75±7.58, and 212.19±12.32, respectively. The collected results suggested that the provided intervention programs effectively reduced drug craving and improved emotion regulation in the examined clients (P=0.0001). Additionally, there was no significant difference between the effects of mindfulness training and dialectical behavior therapy on drug craving and emotion regulation. Conclusion: In addition to decreasing drug craving, mindfulness training and dialectical behavior therapy can improve emotion regulation in subjects with drug use disorders.
... They should also help these individuals to improve their psychological flexibility and their ability to accept their emotional response, to identify adaptive emotion regulation strategies. These individuals could learn how to reduce stress and negative affect through third-wave cognitive behavioral therapies such as Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Lantheaume, 2018;Roemer et al., 2015;Van Gordon et al., 2016). ...
The present research aimed to study the relationship between emotion dysregulation, impulsivity, anxiety, depression and sexual addiction. A survey was conducted among 398 voluntary subjects recruited online through specialized forums. The participants completed validated questionnaires. Our results showed that individuals with sexual addiction reported more difficulty regulating emotions and higher levels of impulsivity than those individuals who were not defined as having a sexual addiction. In addition, anxiety and depression were significantly associated with sexual addiction. Furthermore, anxiety and depression seemed to partially mediate the links between impulsivity, emotion dysregulation and this addiction. Finally, emotion dysregulation and impulsivity had mediating effects on the relationship between anxious-depressive affects and sexual addiction. Despite the limitations of this study, our results seem to be consistent with the literature on sexual addiction and have clinical and research implications.
... Several aspects of the Y4Y program may have contributed to these beneficial effects. The program emphasized different meditation practices, which have been shown to improve healthy regulation of emotions, including awareness of emotions and enhanced goal-directed behaviors (Chambers et al., 2009;Roemer et al., 2015). Beyond the meditation practices, the program's teachings of the yogic principles asked students to reflect on longer-term goals and values, such as what they consider "right actions" or "right livelihoods" and how they want to pursue them. ...
Adolescence is a critical age for developing difficulties with emotion regulation and other psychosocial problems. Yoga programs implemented in schools may be a promising method of intervention, as previous research suggests that they improve emotion regulation and other psychological outcomes in adolescents. This study examined the effects of the Kundalini Yoga-based Y.O.G.A for Youth (Y4Y) after-school program on adolescents’ self-reported emotion dysregulation and psychological functioning. A sample of 119 students, ages 11–14, was recruited through after-school programs for middle school students in the North Carolina school system. Within four public schools, participants participated in 6 weeks of either the Y4Y after-school program (n = 52), or an alternate activity (n = 66) and completed self-report measures of emotion dysregulation, anxiety, depression, stress and mindfulness before and after the 6 weeks. Results from this study suggest that the students who participated in the Y4Y program reported significant decreases in emotion dysregulation over the 6-week program. They also reported significant decreases in anger, depression and fatigue over one yoga session. Students in the comparison condition only reported significant decreases in fatigue over one session of the program but reported no significant changes in any of the other outcomes. Results from exploratory between-subject analyses also suggested that the Y4Y program’s impact on depression, stress and anxiety depended on the school setting in which they were implemented. These findings suggest that the Y4Y program improved emotion dysregulation in adolescent students. However, some of its benefits may be influenced by the school environment.
... According to some models of mindfulness, it also incorporates nonjudgmental and nonreactive orientation to internal experiences (Baer et al., 2006). As a quality of cognition and consciousness, mindfulness underlies the regulation of emotional and attentional reactions to stress and other negative stimuli (Garland et al., 2015;Roemer et al., 2015). For example, young adults with high levels of mindfulness have been found to report lower self-reported stress as well as cortisol levels (Zimmaro et al., 2016). ...
Objectives
There has been increasing interest in recent years on the links between parents’ mindfulness and their parenting. The present meta-analysis systematically synthesized the research on the associations between mindfulness and mindful, positive, and negative parenting. The mediating role of mindful parenting in the indirect link between mindfulness and child outcomes was also explored using meta-structural equation modeling (meta-SEM).MethodsA systematic search was conducted for relevant literature published up to August 2020 in five databases. A total of 30 studies were identified and data were extracted. Random-effects models were used to investigate the pooled correlations. Validity of pooled correlations was analyzed by examining outliers, publication bias with trim-and-fill analyses, between-study heterogeneity, and subgroup analyses.ResultsPooled correlations were significantly positive between mindfulness and both mindful parenting (rp = .468) and positive parenting (rp = .237), and significantly negative for negative parenting (rp = − .167). Exploratory meta-SEM results indicated positive, moderate effects between mindfulness and mindful parenting, and negative, small effects between mindfulness and children’s internalizing and externalizing difficulties. However, mindful parenting did not significantly mediate the link between mindfulness and children’s difficulties.Conclusions
Given the increasing attention on mindfulness in family settings, we discuss the results in relation to existing models of mindful parenting. Directions for future research are presented, including the use of observational or child-reported parenting measures and father samples.Meta-analysis Pre-registrationosf.io/dut8a
... They can realistically accept their situation and their feelings. In addition to this, mindfullness can help individuals display more positive behaviours instead of reacting in an incompatible way (Bajaj & Pande, 2016;Roemer, Williston & Rollins, 2015). Accordingly, adolescents with high mindfullness as a result of indifference to the school courses, having doubts about the importance and beneficals of the lessons in their minds rather than spending time in the social media, may be capable of displaying coping behaviours (Yang, Zhou, Liu & Fan, 2019). ...
The aim of this study is to examine the mediating role of the mindfullness in the relationship between the school burnout and problematic smart phone (PSU) and social media use (SMA). The participants of the research consists of 411 students studying in the high schools in the city centre Erzurum in Turkey in 2020. Research data were obtained through the Smart phone Addiction Scale-short version, The Social Media Addiction Scale short form, the awareness scale for children and adolescents, and the Student form of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The relationship between the variables of the research was examined by Pearson coorelation analyses. The SPSS-22 program was used for correlation analysis and the Jamovi 1.0.7 program was used for analyses on the mediating role of mindfullness. At the end of the study, it was found out that there is a mediating role in the relationship between mindfullness, exhaustion sub-size of the school burnout scale, and PSU and SMA. In the other result of the research, it has been found out that mindfullness mediated the relationship between the depersonalization dimension of the school burnout and SMA In another conclusion obtained from the study, mindfullness has been found not to mediate the relationship between the competence dimension of the school burnout, PSU and SMA. Also, in another similar conclusion, mindfullness has been found not mediate the relationship between the competence dimension of the school burnout and PSU.
... Eles "ativam o potencial biológico-neuronal dos seres humanos, levam a uma melhoria qualitativa das faculdades cognitivas (e.g., atenção, memória de trabalho, flexibilidade cognitiva) e prossociais (e.g., comportamento altruísta e sensibilidade ao outro) dos 'sujeitos de conhecimento" (Oliveira & Antunes, 2014, p. 58). A investigação em contexto educacional aponta, a nível dos professores, para melhorias no bem-estar (e.g., Lomas et al., 2017), na regulação emocional (e.g., Roemer, Williston & Rollins, 2015), na capacidade de atenção (e.g., Sedlmeier et al., 2012), na autocompaixão (Carvalho, Pinto & Marôco, 2017). A nível dos alunos, os efeitos positivos repercutem-se na aprendizagem e no rendimento escolar (e.g., Semple & Droutman, 2017), decorrentes de modificações na capacidade de regulação emocional (e.g., Eva & Thayer, 2017), na autoestima (e.g., Burke, 2010), na redução de comportamentos problemáticos e na melhoria de competências sociais e de empatia (e.g., Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015), na afetividade positiva e negativa (Carvalho, Pinto & Marôco, 2017). ...
São cada vez maiores os desafios solicitados aos professores, cujos alunos
vivem num mundo virtual cheio de cor, som, com rápidas alterações e que dificilmente
se mantêm atentos num mundo real. Trazer para a sala de aula alguns elementos que
os jogos possibilitam, é o que a gamificação propõe. É possível ao professor recorrer
à gamificação de forma a envolver e a motivar os alunos na aprendizagem, através do
recurso a ferramentas que simulam elementos de jogos. Assim, perante o desafio de
preparar tutoriais que possam ser úteis para as exigências da sala de aula dos dias de
hoje, escolhemos ferramentas digitais com características de gamificação que podem
ser utilizadas em sala de aula para captar a atenção dos alunos, motivá-los na realização
de tarefas e auxiliá-los a apreender conteúdos. Apresentamos tutoriais das ferramentas
Classroom Screen, Super Teacher Tools, Mentimenter e Tinycards. Estas permitem, de
forma simples, criar momentos desafiadores, divertidos e envolventes para os alunos,
proporcionando uma experiência de aprendizagem mais gratificante.
... When adolescents deal with negative circumstances such as negative parent-child relationships, mindfulness may help them to focus on the present and accept their negative experiences rather than judging them, resulting in more positive outcomes such as high psychological needs satisfaction (Ciesla et al., 2012). For example, individuals with higher mindfulness tend to be more likely to form a reasonable emotional regulation strategy than those with lower mindfulness, and those strategies can increase psychological needs satisfaction without being affected by the quality of the parent-child relationships (Emery et al., 2016;Roemer et al., 2015). Third, we consider mindfulness to be a potentially significant moderator in the association between psychological needs satisfaction and depressive symptom (Hollis-Walker & Colosimo, 2011;Jones et al., 2016). ...
Prior studies have revealed that positive parent–child relationships are negatively associated with college students’ depressive symptom. However, the underlying mechanisms of this relation whether specific mediators or moderators are at play are little known. Therefore, the current study examined the potential mediating role of psychological needs satisfaction and the moderating role of mindfulness in the link between parent–child relationships and depressive symptom among college students. A total of 900 college students from Shenzhen, China (53.40% male; Mage = 19.82, SD = 1.01, range from 17 to 27 years) completed questionnaires regarding parent–child relationships, psychological needs satisfaction, mindfulness, and depressive symptom. This study found that (1) parent–child relationships are negatively related to college students’ depressive symptom; (2) psychological needs satisfaction could be a potential mediator in the link between parent–child relationships and depressive symptom; and (3) mindfulness could moderate both the relation between parent–child relationships and depressive symptom as well as that between psychological needs satisfaction and depressive symptom, and those relations were weaker among college students with high levels of mindfulness than those with low levels of mindfulness. The current study highlights the mediating and moderating mechanisms that may underlie the correlation between parent–child relationships and depressive symptom, which may contribute to the development of more effective intervention and prevention programs for alleviating college students’ depressive symptom.
... The results of this study also show that the ability to regulate emotion is one of the mediating mechanisms between mindfulness and envy. A possible explanation for this may be that people with a higher level of mindfulness have a more open and more receptive attitude toward the present experience, which in turn improves their ability to regulate their emotions (Roemer et al., 2015), helping them reduce negative emotions (Desrosiers et al., 2013). Freudenthaler et al. (2017) have also indicated that when people experience negative emotions, those with a higher level of mindfulness tend to perceive and accept their own emotional experience. ...
Envy is a mixed negative emotion that is characterized by feelings of hostility, inferiority, resentment, and depression. It has been found that mindfulness is negatively associated with envy. This paper aimed to explore the interaction between mindfulness and envy by referring to the mindful emotion regulation model, and it also examines the mediation of emotional intelligence. Six hundred and seventy-six participants (182 men and 494 women) completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Dispositional Envy Scale, and the Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale. Results suggest that mindfulness is significantly and negatively correlated with envy. Meanwhile, a multiple mediation analysis indicated that regulation of emotion and use of emotion partially mediate the impact of mindfulness on envy. The current study not only provides a theoretical basis for possible mechanisms underlying the inhibition of envy, but also provides valuable guidance for developing mindfulness-based intervention programs aiming at reducing the negative effects of envy.
... For another, by fostering a non-judgmental stance toward inner and outer experiences, mindfulness encourages engagement with unpleasant sensations. Thus, mindfulness practice is found to counteract suppression (Roemer et al., 2009;Roemer et al., 2015) as well as experiential avoidance (i.e., the unwillingness to experience feelings, thoughts, and sensations and attempts to alter them, see Mitmansgruber et al., 2009). Vice versa, this implies that the willingness to expose oneself to uncomfortable emotions and sensations increases. ...
Though research provides ample evidence that mindfulness shapes psychological processes and states that are linked to political attitudes and behavior, political science has so far largely ignored mindfulness as a potential explanatory factor shaping political attitudes and actions. This literature review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the concept of mindfulness and outlines potential linkages between mindfulness and outlines political attitudes. I begin by identifying gaps in the literature on political attitude formation and change as well as its linkage to political behavior. I then introduce mindfulness as a multifaceted concept, discussing its definitional features and unravelling the mechanisms of mindfulness affecting cognitive and emotional abilities. Building on this foundation, I review research on correlates and effects of mindfulness on attitudes and behaviors related to the political domain, such as pro-environmentalism and pro-social behavior. Critically reflecting on extant research on mindfulness, I propose possible research avenues for political science that enhance its dialogue with neuroscience and social psychology.
... Various mechanisms have been proposed to account for the beneficial effects of mindfulness on mental wellbeing (Brown et al., 2007;Baer, 2009;Hölzel et al., 2011). These include an increase in emotion regulation (Garland et al., 2011;Desrosiers et al., 2013;Roemer et al., 2015;Watford and Stafford, 2015;Alkoby et al., 2018), attention regulation (Shapiro et al., 2006), decentering (Fresco et al., 2007), reperceiving (Shapiro et al., 2006), and body awareness (Hölzel et al., 2011). Recently, there have also been initial investigations of the effects of mindfulness on the ability to tolerate uncertainty (Kraemer et al., 2016;Papenfuss et al., 2021). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic imposed extreme living conditions of social distancing, which triggered negative mental health problems and created challenges in seeking mental health support. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been found to enhance wellbeing and mental health by reducing stress and anxiety and improving emotion regulation. Preliminary evidence suggests that online, synchronous MBIs may produce beneficial effects similar to face-to-face programs. However, the effectiveness of such online-MBIs to support mental health in highly stressful times, such as a global pandemic, requires further study. To this end, we investigated the effect of an online 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program on aspects of mental health during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants ( N =92) who expressed interest in discounted online-MBSR programs were recruited for the study. The division into experimental and control groups was based on actual enrollment to the courses. Those who enrolled in a program were assigned to the experimental condition and those who decided not to enroll served as controls. Participants were assessed pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 1-month post-intervention for levels of mindfulness, perceived stress, anxiety, emotion regulation, and intolerance of uncertainty. Differences between the groups were tested using the general linear mixed effects model (GLMM) and Individual Growth Curve Models (IGCM) in intent to treat analysis. The findings indicated that, relative to the control group, MBSR improved mindfulness abilities ( p <0.001), decreased anxiety ( p <0.001), and stress ( p <0.001) and increased emotion regulation ( p <0.001). These effects were found to persist 1 month after the end of the program, despite the increased governmental public-health restrictions due to COVID-19 at that time. The ability to tolerate uncertainty, a central characteristic of the pandemic, was not found to be affected by the program. A mediation analysis revealed that the effect of the intervention on mental health improvement was partially mediated by the improvement in emotion regulation. Overall, the findings provide positive evidence for the feasibility of an online-MBSR program to support the mental health of individuals from the general population through the mediation of emotion regulation in challenging times, such as a global pandemic.
... Based on the organism-environment interaction model (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998) and existing research on the protective role of mindfulness, the present study confirmed that cumulative social-environmental risks and trait mindfulness could jointly influence adolescent mobile phone addiction. The underlying mechanisms of the protective role of mindfulness may involve enhancing emotion regulation (Guendelman et al., 2017;Roemer et al., 2015), improving cognitive reappraisal (Garland et al., 2015;Troy et al., 2013), and increasing self-control (Elkins-Brown et al., 2017;Friese et al., 2012). Firstly, the emotional regulation model of mindfulness suggests that treating experiences objectively and with non-judgmental acceptance allows individuals to get rid of emotional valence at the point of generation of emotions, so that individuals do not fall into an automatic evaluation process that leads to habitual negative reactions (Chambers et al., 2009). ...
Researchers have explored some environmental factors influencing adolescent mobile phone addiction from different perspectives (e.g., family, school, peers). Few studies, however, have comprehensively tested these influencing factors from multiple environmental systems in a single model and analyzed the interactive effects of cumulative social-environmental risk and individual trait. Moreover, most of previous studies focused on general mobile phone addiction, but have not distinguished and compared different types of mobile phone addiction. Based on prior theoretical and empirical evidence, the present study included eleven environmental factors from family, school, and peer environments (i.e., father-child relationship, mother–child relationship, parental conflict, parental monitoring, parental phubbing, school connectedness, teacher-student relationship, classmate relationship, peer pressure, peer victimization, and deviant peer affiliation). We tested whether cumulative social-environmental risk interacted with trait mindfulness in predicting adolescent mobile phone addiction, and compared whether the interactive effect varied with different types of mobile phone addiction. A total of 1,202 adolescents between 11 and 18 years of age completed the anonymous self-report survey. Results showed that cumulative social-environmental risk index positively predicted four types of mobile phone addiction (i.e., mobile social networking addiction, mobile game addiction, mobile information acquisition addiction, and mobile short-form video addiction), and the predictive effect of cumulative risk index on all four types of mobile phone addiction was stronger than that of any single environmental factor. Trait mindfulness negatively predicted these four types of mobile phone addiction. Moreover, the cumulative social-environmental risk index interacted with trait mindfulness to influence adolescent mobile phone addiction, in that the predictive effects of the cumulative social-environmental risk index on all four types of adolescent mobile phone addiction were stronger among adolescents with low levels of trait mindfulness than for those with high levels of trait mindfulness. However, the effect size of the protective role of mindfulness differed across the four types of mobile phone addiction, with the moderating effect of trait mindfulness being strongest between the cumulative social-environmental risk index and adolescent mobile short-form video addiction compared to other three types of mobile phone addiction. The findings highlight the cumulative risk effect of multiple environmental factors and the protective effect of trait mindfulness in the development of different types of adolescent mobile phone addiction. Limitations and implications are discussed.
... Mindfulness, which may be defined as the purposeful awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance of present moment experiences , has been found to lessen the stress response and decrease emotion dysregulation (Palmer & Rodger, 2009;Roemer et al., 2015). Accordingly, it has been suggested as a protective factor for NSSI engagement in university students (e.g., Per et al., 2021). ...
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a prevalent behaviour among university students. Dispositional mindfulness, which may be fostered through repeated mindfulness practice, has been proposed as a protective factor for engagement in NSSI through its positive impact on coping self-efficacy. However, students' receptivity to mindfulness practice may be an important precursor to their ability to incur the benefits of dispositional mindfulness. Moreover, whether brief mindfulness practices function differently in university students with and without a history of NSSI remains in question. The overarching purpose of this thesis was thus to explore, across two studies, the potential impacts of mindfulness receptivity and a brief mindfulness induction in university students with and without a history of NSSI. The main objectives of Study 1 were to (a) explore group differences in mindfulness receptivity, dispositional mindfulness, and coping self-efficacy, and (b) assess the indirect effect of dispositional mindfulness on the relationship between mindfulness receptivity and coping self-efficacy, in university students with and without a history of NSSI. University students with a history of NSSI (n = 114; Mage = 21.15 years, SD = 2.24 years; 78.1% female) and students without such a history (n = 132; Mage = 21.86 years, SD = 2.78 years; 85.6% female) completed online measures of mindfulness receptivity, dispositional mindfulness, and coping self-efficacy. Results from one-way ANOVAs revealed that students with a history of NSSI reported lower dispositional mindfulness and coping self-efficacy, but comparable mindfulness receptivity, relative to those without such a history. In addition, results from mediation analyses revealed that mindfulness receptivity positively predicted coping self-efficacy; dispositional mindfulness fully mediated this relationship for students with a history of NSSI, and partially mediated this relationship for those without such a history. The main objectives of Study 2 were then to investigate the impact of a brief mindfulness induction on (a) MINDFULNESS AND NON-SUICIDAL SELF-INJURY IN UNIVERSITY iii two facets of state mindfulness (i.e., mind and body) and (b) state stress, following a stress induction task, in university students with versus without a history of NSSI. University students with a history of NSSI (n = 82; Mage = 21.30 years, SD = 2.92; 87.8% female) and a matched group of students without such a history (n = 82; Mage = 21.71 years, SD = 3.18; 87.8% female) completed baseline measures of state mindfulness and state stress before being randomly assigned to complete either a brief mindfulness induction or a control task. All participants then underwent a stress induction and completed post measures of state mindfulness and state stress. Results from three-way mixed ANOVAs revealed a three-way interaction, whereby students with a history of NSSI who completed a control task reported significantly lower state mindfulness of the body after a stress induction than students without a history of NSSI. Moreover, students with a history of NSSI who completed the mindfulness activity reported significantly greater state mindfulness of the body following the stress induction than students with a history of NSSI who completed a control task. Findings from this thesis provide preliminary evidence for the importance of mindfulness receptivity in fostering dispositional mindfulness and coping self-efficacy in university students, and underscore the unique responsiveness of university students with a history of NSSI to a brief mindfulness practice in the face of a stressful experience. Taken together, results from both studies point to the acceptability and effectiveness of brief mindfulness practices, particularly among university students with a history of NSSI. Overall, findings may be informative for research and practice surrounding mindfulness-based NSSI prevention and intervention.
... Why might this be the case? Mindfulness meditation has consistently been linked to greater regulation of positive and negative emotions (for a review see Roemer et al., 2015;Fredrickson et al., 2017;Eberth & Sedlmeier, 2012), and thus may be particularly suited for anxiously attached individuals, who tend to struggle most with emotion regulation. Our findings suggest that mindfulness meditation training may dampen the hyperactive regulation style characteristic of anxious attachment, possibly through cultivating equanimous and decentered states of conscious experience, thereby reducing negative reactivity or ruminating thought patterns (Feldman et al, 2010). ...
... Promoting the development of emotion regulation of victimized adolescents could improve the evolutionary course of difficulties arising from adversity. Strategies such as cognitive reappraisal (i.e., changing thoughts and beliefs about the meaning of a stimulus or situation; Schäfer et al., 2017), distress tolerance skills (e.g., dialectical behavioral therapy; Linehan, 1993) or mindfulness-based therapy (i.e., paying attention intentionally to the present moment without being self-critical or judgmental; Roemer et al., 2015;Sibinga et al., 2016) may facilitate greater emotion regulation. However, the present study also suggests that other factorsboth individual and socialmay come into play in explaining the association between cumulative interpersonal childhood adversity and PTSS. ...
Background
Emotion regulation has been identified as an explanatory factor in the association between interpersonal childhood adversity and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). However, most studies focused on adults or older adolescents, neglecting youth from the community, especially gender and sexually diverse (GSD) adolescents, who have a higher risk for exposure to adverse events and psychological difficulties, compared to their heterosexual, cisgender (HC) peers.
Objective
The present cross-sectional study aimed to examine the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties in the association between cumulative interpersonal childhood adversity and PTSS across HC and GSD adolescents.
Methods
A sample of 2904 ninth grade students (Mage = 14.53, SD = 0.61) completed a self-report survey. Multigroup path analyses were conducted to examine the proposed mediation model in all groups, and comparisons were made using chi-square difference tests.
Results
Greater difficulties in emotion regulation mediated the association between greater cumulative interpersonal childhood adversity (β = 0.36, p < .001) and greater PTSS (β = 0.35, p < .001) – regardless of HC or GSD status – although the direct association between cumulative interpersonal childhood adversity and PTSS was significantly stronger among GSD boys (β = 0.36, p < .001) and GSD girls (β = 0.35, p < .001) than among HC boys (β = 0.21, p < .001) and HC girls (β = 0.25, p < .001).
Conclusions
Findings offer a modifiable target for prevention and/or intervention among middle adolescents, as emotion regulation difficulties may partially explain the presence of PTSS following cumulative interpersonal childhood adversity.
... We also found a significant prospective relationship between mindfulness and better social functioning. There is increasing evidence linking mindfulness to better emotion regulation ability [13,[58][59][60][61], which in turn is associated with less anxiety and depression [62] as well as better social functioning [63]. Experimental research has demonstrated a positive relationship between mindfulness and constructive responses to interpersonal conflict [64], suggesting that mindfulness may help manage difficult social interactions. ...
Medical personnel working in emergency rooms (ER) are at increased risk of mental health problems and suicidality. There is increasing evidence that mindfulness-based interventions can improve burnout and other mental health outcomes in health care providers. In contrast, few longitudinal prospective studies have examined protective functions of dispositional mindfulness in this population. The objective of this study was to examine whether mindfulness prospectively predicts anxiety, depression, and social impairment in a sample of emergency care professionals. The authors administered online surveys to ER personnel prior to work in ER, and at 3 and 6 months follow up. Participants were 190 ER personnel (73% residents, 16% medical students, 11% nurses). Linear mixed effects regression was used to model longitudinal 3-month and 6-month follow up of depression, anxiety, and social impairment. Predictors included time-varying contemporaneous work stressors, perceived social support at work and life events, and baseline dispositional mindfulness, demographics, and workplace characteristics. Mindfulness indexed when starting ER work predicted less depression, anxiety, and social impairment 6 months later. Mindfulness remained a strong predictor of mental health outcomes after controlling for time-varying stressful events in emergency care, negative life events, and social support at work. Mindfulness moderated the adverse impact of poor social support at work on depression. To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study to show that mindfulness prospectively and robustly predicts anxiety, depression, and social impairment. Results support the role of mindfulness as a potential resilience factor in at-risk health care providers.
... Concerning the third research question, we hypothesized a significant reduction in experiential avoidance (i.e., the tendency to avoid unpleasant internal experiences) [47,48], a significant reduction in unconstructive rumination (i.e., abstract, analytical thinking focused on past and future events) [49][50][51][52][53], a significant increase in constructive rumination (i.e., concrete thinking on one's present moment experience) [50], a significant increase in general self-efficacy (i.e., confidence in one's ability to carry out specific behaviors in different domains of life) [54,55], a significant increase in the self-efficacy dimension of emotion regulation (i.e., confidence in one's ability to regulate one's emotions) [56,57], a significant reduction in the actual-ideal self-discrepancy gap (i.e., the discrepancy between who people believe they are and who they would like to be) [58] and the distress elicited by this discrepancy [59], no change in the actual-ought self-discrepancy gap (i.e., the discrepancy between who people believe they are and who they believe others would want them to be) [58,59], and a significant reduction in the distress elicited by the actual-ought self-discrepancy in the MBI group in comparison to the control group. ...
Body awareness (BA) has long been proposed as a working mechanism of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), yet research on the mediating role of BA is scarce. Hence, the present study assesses the impact of an 8-week MBI on self-reported and indirect measures of BA, investigates the potential mediating role of BA in the relationship between an MBI and symptomatology, evaluates the impact of an MBI on important psychological processes (i.e., experiential avoidance, rumination, self-efficacy, and self-discrepancy), and explores whether these variables act alongside BA in mediating the relationship between an MBI and symptomatology. A non-randomized controlled trial was conducted with 148 participants (n = 89 in the MBI group; n = 59 in the control group) who completed questionnaires assessing BA and the above-mentioned psychological processes before and after an MBI. A sub-sample of participants (n = 86) completed a task that evaluates BA indirectly. Results showed a significant effect of MBI on the self-reported BA but not on the indirect measure of BA. The MBI significantly reduced symptomatology, and this effect was mediated by regulatory and belief-related dimensions of BA. Multiple mediator models showed a significant mediation via various pathways involving improved BA and various transdiagnostic psychological processes.
... The awareness practices that characterize mindfulnessbased interventions are thought to improve emotion regulation by cultivating a more fine-grained awareness of what is occurring in one's mind [Hill and Updegraff (2012), Roemer et al. (2015), Carsley et al. (2018)]. ...
In this perspective piece, we briefly review embodied cognition and embodied learning. We then present a translational research model based on this research to inform teachers, educational psychologists, and practitioners on the benefits of embodied cognition and embodied learning for classroom applications. While many teachers already employ the body in teaching, especially in early schooling, many teachers’ understandings of the science and benefits of sensorimotor engagement or embodied cognition across grades levels and the content areas is little understood. Here, we outline seven goals in our model and four major “action” steps
... The awareness practices that characterize mindfulnessbased interventions are thought to improve emotion regulation by cultivating a more fine-grained awareness of what is occurring in one's mind [Hill and Updegraff (2012), Roemer et al. (2015), Carsley et al. (2018)]. ...
In this perspective piece, we briefly review embodied cognition and embodied learning. We then present a translational research model based on this research to inform teachers, educational psychologists, and practitioners on the benefits of embodied cognition and embodied learning for classroom applications. While many teachers already employ the body in teaching, especially in early schooling, many teachers’ understandings of the science and benefits of sensorimotor engagement or embodied cognition across grades levels and the content areas is little understood. Here, we outline seven goals in our model and four major “action” steps. To address steps 1 and 2, we recap previously published reviews of the experimental evidence of embodied cognition (and embodied learning) research across multiple learning fields, with a focus on how both simple embodied learning activities—as well as those based on more sophisticated technologies of AR, VR, and mixed reality—are being vetted in the classroom. Step 3 of our model outlines how researchers, teachers, policy makers, and designers can work together to help translate this knowledge in support of these goals. In the final step (step 4), we extract generalized, practical embodied learning principles, which can be easily adopted by teachers in the classroom without extensive training. We end with a call for educators and policy makers to use these principles to identify learning objectives and outcomes, as well as track outcomes to assess whether program objectives and competency requirements are met.
... Discussions on mindful emotion regulation (MER) have scattered in the literature, which, in general, links MER to positive psychological outcomes (Chambers et al., 2009;Chiesa et al., 2013;Garland et al., 2015;Teper et al., 2013;Roemer et al., 2015;Rosenbaum et al., 2020). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced unprecedented challenges and demands for parents or caregivers of children who experienced disruptions in social support and feelings of isolation. Mindful emotion regulation may be a resilient factor for parents’ psychosocial outcomes. Mindful emotion regulation refers to individuals’ inherent capacities to regulate emotions mindfully, i.e., through paying attention to one’s experiences in the present moment nonjudgmentally. Based on the theoretical and empirical literature associating mindful emotion regulation with loneliness and perceived social support, the current study tested the effects of mindful emotion regulation on later changes in perceived social support and loneliness in U.S. parents during the pandemic. Participants were 147 parents/caregivers who were living with at least one child or adolescent in their household during the pandemic in the USA. Data were collected from a national online sample at four time points: baseline (April 7–21, 2020), 30-, 60-, and 90-days later. Results of longitudinal mediational structural equation modeling showed that mindful emotion regulation was directly associated with increased perceived social support and decreased loneliness. Moreover, mindful emotion regulation was also associated with perceived social support indirectly through its effects on loneliness. Focusing on the needs of parents is important for promoting family and child wellbeing to ameliorate negative health consequences. More research is needed to elucidate whether and how mindful emotion regulation may be beneficial for parents in the social relationship domain.
... In addition, mindfulness can stimulate interest in what one is doing (Lyddy and Good, 2017), which can give rise to forms of positive affect that benefit from engagement (Ryan et al., 2021). Mindfulness also allows for more attuned forms of emotion regulation (Teper et al., 2013), which can be used to regulate both positive and negative affective states (Roemer et al., 2015). Hence, many of the benefits of mindfulness should be experienced in subjective (or affect-related) terms (Brown et al., 2007;Goodman et al., 2015). ...
Mindfulness, defined in terms of greater attention and awareness concerning present experience, seems to have a number of psychological benefits, but very little of this research has focused on possible benefits within the workplace. Even so, mindfulness appears to buffer against stress and negative affect, which often predispose employees to deviant behaviors. Conversely, mindful employees may be more engaged with their jobs, which could support organizational citizenship. Two studies (total N = 418) pursued these ideas. In Study 1, part-time employees who were higher in dispositional mindfulness were less prone to job negative affect, which in turn predicted lower levels of workplace deviance. In Study 2, more mindful full-time employees were more engaged, and less stressed, and these variables mediated a portion of the relationship between mindfulness and organizational citizenship. Collectively, the two studies link mindfulness to both traditional forms of voluntary work behavior while highlighting mediational pathways.
... 5 December 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 703658 fine-grained neuroscientific accounts of how each feature contributes to enhancing emotional granularity would be valuable. To develop such accounts, it may be fruitful to integrate the constructionist model described here with relevant facets of the growing literature on mindfulness and emotion regulation, such as using awareness practice to expand beyond a narrow focus on threat and attend to other situational features (Hill and Updegraff, 2012;Roemer et al., 2015). ...
An emerging focus in affective science is the expertise that underlies healthy emotionality. A growing literature highlights emotional granularity – the ability to make fine-grained distinctions in one’s affective feelings – as an important skill. Cross-sectional evidence indicating the benefits of emotional granularity raises the question of how emotional granularity might be intentionally cultivated through training. To address this question, we present shared theoretical features of centuries-old Buddhist philosophy and modern constructionist theory that motivate the hypothesis that contemplative practices may improve granularity. We then examine the specific mindfulness-style practices originating in Buddhist traditions that are hypothesized to bolster granularity. We conclude with future directions to empirically test whether emotional granularity can be intentionally cultivated.
... When considering the psychological effects of mindfulness-based interventions, it is also crucial to consider the interaction between mindfulness and emotion regulation. Several studies found an overlap between them: awareness and acceptance, two components of mindfulness, are typically exploited in some emotion regulation strategies, both from a conceptual 14 and from a neuroanatomical point of view 15 , even though interventions based on the two constructs differ fundamentally in terms of the underlying processes they address 16 . Concerning speci c emotion regulation strategies, some studies found mindfulness-based interventions to be linked to increasing use of cognitive reappraisal and decreasing use of expressive suppression 17,18 . ...
Mindfulness interventions were shown to be effective in improving well-being and reducing perceived stress in several conditions. These effects were also found in online mindfulness-based training, especially on employees in organizational environments. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of online mindfulness intervention on healthy employees especially after the first Italian Covid-19 lockdown.
Participants in the intervention group underwent an 8-week mindfulness online training program based on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) protocol compared to a control (no-intervention) group. All participants filled in weekly surveys for the whole intervention duration via online questionnaires to measure their habits, mindfulness (FFMQ-15), emotion regulation (ERQ), positive and negative affect (PANAS), depression, anxiety and stress (DASS-21), resilience (RSA) and insomnia (ISI). 46 participants in the intervention group and 54 in the control group completed at least half of the weekly questionnaires and were considered in the longitudinal analyses.
We found significant differences between the intervention and control groups over time in the measures of mindfulness (in particular the nonreactivity subscale), positive affect, depression, and insomnia. Moreover, we found that the frequency of practice and ease perceived in practicing were positively correlated to several indices of well-being (mindfulness, positive affect, cognitive reappraisal) and negatively correlated to several indices of stress (negative affect, depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, expressive suppression).
These results show the importance and effectiveness of online mindfulness training programs to cope with stress among employees, especially after the Covid-19 lockdown.
Neuroticism has recently received increased attention in the psychology field due to the finding of high implications of neuroticism on an individual’s life and broader public health. This study aims to investigate the effect of a brief 6-week breathing-based mindfulness intervention (BMI) on undergraduate neurotic students’ emotion regulation. We acquired data of their psychological states, physiological changes, and electroencephalogram (EEG), before and after BMI, in resting states and tasks. Through behavioral analysis, we found the students’ anxiety and stress levels significantly reduced after BMI, with p-values of 0.013 and 0.027, respectively. Furthermore, a significant difference between students in emotion regulation strategy, that is, suppression, was also shown. The EEG analysis demonstrated significant differences between students before and after MI in resting states and tasks. Fp1 and O2 channels were identified as the most significant channels in evaluating the effect of BMI. The potential of these channels for classifying (single-channel-based) before and after BMI conditions during eyes-opened and eyes-closed baseline trials were displayed by a good performance in terms of accuracy (~77%), sensitivity (76–80%), specificity (73–77%), and area-under-the-curve (AUC) (0.66–0.8) obtained by k-nearest neighbor (KNN) and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms. Mindfulness can thus improve the self-regulation of the emotional state of neurotic students based on the psychometric and electrophysiological analyses conducted in this study.
There is increasing evidence of the potential therapeutic value of the psychedelic brew ayahuasca for disorders like depression, PTSD, and anxiety. While the focus has been on ayahuasca’s capacity to reduce symptoms of these disorders, including enhancing mood state and well-being, little attention has been paid to the (higher-order) cognitive processes that may be enhanced or that may play a role in this. Examples of such processes include flexible (creative) thinking, empathy, and emotion regulation, which are crucial for everyday interactions and cooperation, and have been found to be decreased in certain pathological populations. The aim of the present chapter is to review the acute and long-term effects of ayahuasca on (higher-order) cognitive processes, such as flexible (creative) thinking, empathy, and emotion regulation, and look for the link between these cognitive effects and subjective mood state and well-being. Findings show that, although objective evidence is limited due to a scarcity of studies, previous studies with ayahuasca and similar psychedelics, like psilocybin and LSD, support the notion that ayahuasca can enhance previously mentioned higher-order cognitive processes. Importantly, evidence is given to suggest that this enhancement outlasts the acute stage, thus potentially persisting over time. Unfortunately, no study assessed the relationship between these cognitive effects and mood and well-being. It is concluded that, while these findings partially explain why ayahuasca has therapeutic utility in the treatment of certain psychopathologies, future clinical research into the therapeutic effects of ayahuasca could assess the relationship between the effect on (higher-order) cognitive and emotional processes and mood and well-being and test the role both play in symptom alleviation in the pathological population in the short and longer term.
Purpose
This study used a mindfulness- and acceptance-based mobile app to examine the relationships between resilience, mindfulness, experiential avoidance, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.
Design and Methods
A quasi-experimental pre–posttest, single-group study design was used. A total of 23 college student veterans used the app for 4 weeks. Outcomes of resilience, mindfulness, experiential avoidance, and PTSD were measured at three time-points (baseline, end of Week 2, and end of Week 4).
Findings
All outcomes significantly improved at postintervention. Improvements in resilience and PTSD significantly correlated with improvement in mindfulness.
Practice Implications
Mindfulness- and acceptance-based mobile apps can be safely used by individuals with PTSD as a complementary approach to enhance resilient coping with PTSD.
Childhood witnessing domestic violence (CWDV) exerts short- and long-term negative impacts on emotional and behavioral health. The present study investigated the epidemiological features of CWDV, and its negative impact on psychological outcomes in a sample of Chinese college students. The mediating role of emotion regulation strategies on CWDV associations with psychological outcomes and gender differences in these relationships were examined. A total of 3,126 respondents (1,034 males; 2,086 females; 6 missing data in gender) completed the study questionnaire, which included demographic characteristics, CWDV, and suicide attempt history items as well as the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and Affect Lability Scale-18 (ALS-18). Overall, 43.03% of the respondents reported CWDV, including 44.87% of males and 42.09% of females. Higher frequencies of CWDV were found to be related to the following factors: unstable marital status of parents; not being an only child; being a left-behind child, family financial difficulties, consumption of alcohol in the past year, and being in relatively poor physical condition. Among males, ERQ suppression scores were significantly higher for those men who experienced “often or every day” CWDV than for men who indicated that they did not have any history of CWDV (Bonferroni-corrected p = 0.047). More frequent CWDV was associated with higher ALS-18 scores and increased risk of suicide attempts in males and females (p < 0.05), and emotion regulation (suppression) was found to mediate the association between CWDV and affective lability among males. This study revealed high rates of CWDV, and serious impacts of CWDV on mental health in male and female Chinese college students. In males, but not females, emotion regulation strategy use, use of suppression, was found to act as a mediator in the association of CWDV with affective lability. Our findings suggest that interventions for individuals with CWDV should focus on the emotional regulation, which may help them improve mental health, especially in males.
Objective
Growing evidence links mindful awareness to the regulation of emotion, yet little is known about the temporal features of this association. This preliminary prospective study aimed to test the bidirectional relationship between mindful awareness, emotion regulation, anxiety, and depressive symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum.
Method
One-hundred forty-nine women completed an online survey at any stage during pregnancy and at 3-6 months postpartum. Psychosocial variables were assessed using validated, self-report measures.
Results
Bootstrapped mediation analysis demonstrated a bidirectional association between mindful awareness and emotion regulation for anxiety, but not depressive symptoms.
Conclusions
Results provide partial support for the hypothesized bidirectional relationship, whereby mindful awareness facilitates adaptive regulation of anxiety, but not depressive symptoms, and in turn, emotion regulation enhances the ability for present moment awareness.
KEY POINTS
What is already known about this topic:
(1) Mindfulness and emotion regulation are conceptually and empirically related.
(2) Emotion regulation has been proposed as a pathway through which mindfulness exerts influence on mental health.
(3) Mindfulness has also been linked with emotion regulation.
What this topic adds:
(1) Preliminary support for a temporal bidirectional relationship.
(2) Preliminary support for a reciprocal relationship in a perinatal context.
(3) Reciprocal relationship may not be evidenced in relation to depression.
Background
Youper is a widely used, commercially available mobile app that uses artificial intelligence therapy for the treatment of anxiety and depression.
Objective
Our study examined the acceptability and effectiveness of Youper. Further, we tested the cumulative regulation hypothesis, which posits that cumulative emotion regulation successes with repeated intervention engagement will predict longer-term anxiety and depression symptom reduction.
Methods
We examined data from paying Youper users (N=4517) who allowed their data to be used for research. To characterize the acceptability of Youper, we asked users to rate the app on a 5-star scale and measured retention statistics for users’ first 4 weeks of subscription. To examine effectiveness, we examined longitudinal measures of anxiety and depression symptoms. To test the cumulative regulation hypothesis, we used the proportion of successful emotion regulation attempts to predict symptom reduction.
Results
Youper users rated the app highly (mean 4.36 stars, SD 0.84), and 42.66% (1927/4517) of users were retained by week 4. Symptoms decreased in the first 2 weeks of app use (anxiety: d=0.57; depression: d=0.46). Anxiety improvements were maintained in the subsequent 2 weeks, but depression symptoms increased slightly with a very small effect size (d=0.05). A higher proportion of successful emotion regulation attempts significantly predicted greater anxiety and depression symptom reduction.
Conclusions
Youper is a low-cost, completely self-guided treatment that is accessible to users who may not otherwise access mental health care. Our findings demonstrate the acceptability and effectiveness of Youper as a treatment for anxiety and depression symptoms and support continued study of Youper in a randomized clinical trial.
Trait mindfulness is associated with sexual satisfaction, but their temporal relation is unexplored. Using a short-term longitudinal design, the present study not only examines their temporal relation but also extends extant research by also investigating relationship mindfulness and potential mechanisms that might account for any temporal relation that exists between the two forms of mindfulness and sexual quality. Participants were sexually active emerging adults ( N = 104) in romantic relationships who initially completed measures of trait and relationship mindfulness, and 6 weeks later measures of relationship satisfaction and difficulties in emotion regulation. After another 6 weeks, they completed a measure of sexual quality. Relationship mindfulness was related to sexual satisfaction 12 weeks later via relationship satisfaction, whereas trait mindfulness was related to later sexual dissatisfaction via difficulties in emotion regulation. These results suggest that the temporal relationship between mindfulness and sexual quality is indirect and more nuanced than previously thought. Several avenues for future research are suggested.
Background
: Little is known about how cyberbullying victimization may influence adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and what conditions may buffer the detrimental effects of cyberbullying victimization. By integrating multiple theories, this study investigated emotion reactivity as an underlying mediator and mindfulness as a potential moderator to explain the link between cyberbullying victimization and NSSI among Chinese adolescents.
Method
: A total of 2,523 participants with an age range of 11 to 16 years old (Mage = 13.22, SD = 1.60, 48.4% girls) completed assessments.
Results
: After controlling SES, age, gender, traditional bullying victimization, and child maltreatment, latent moderated structural equation modeling revealed that emotion reactivity mediated the association between cyberbullying victimization and NSSI. In addition, dispositional mindfulness was found to buffer the relation between cyberbullying victimization and NSSI, but not the relation between cyberbullying victimization and emotion reactivity.
Limitations
: This study was cross-sectional in nature and relied exclusively upon self-report measures.
Conclusions
: The findings provide researchers and practitioners with a deeper understanding of the relation between cyberbullying victimization and NSSI among adolescents and its underlying mechanism. Suggested intervention and prevention strategies include helping youth reduce emotion reactivity to break the cyberbullying victimization to NSSI cycle and to enhance youths’ mindfulness to buffer against the ill effects of cyberbullying victimization.
Fear of losing control over one's emotions has gained increased research interest. Mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) has been found to improve emotional disturbance in clinical and nonclinical samples. However, no studies have concurrently examined the direct effects of MBSR on reduced fear of emotions among university students in Chinese culture, as well as its indirect effects on reduced fear of emotions via improvements in the cognitive‐behavioral processes. A total of 106 college students were randomly assigned to MBSR or to a control group. Assignment to the MBSR intervention led to increases in mindfulness and decentering, and decreases in rumination, emotion regulation difficulties, Affective Control Scale (ACS)‐anger, ACS‐depression, ACS‐anxiety, ACS‐positive emotion and total ACS score, as compared to the control group. The reduction of fear of positive emotion was less than that in fear of anger, depression and anxiety. MBSR was effective to reduce the fear of emotions in college students. Moreover, college students in Chinese culture tended to have a more moderate experience of positive emotions. Attention (mindfulness) and thought (decentering and rumination) may be possible cognitive mechanisms for explaining how MBSR may reduce fear of emotions in college students. Our findings provide important information that can be applied to the design of future studies or mental health resources for reducing fear of emotions in university programs.
The study of brain changes in response to mindfulness (MF) practice could serve as a way to expand our understanding of key cognitive processes such as consciousness, attention, or executive functions. The aim of this work is to offer an updated review of the studies that have investigated the effects of MF on cognition; specifically, the processes of consciousness, attention, and executive functioning, measured by evoked potentials (EP). The main studies on this topic from 2006 to the present are reviewed and the principal findings are grouped according to the EP measured, mainly N1, N2, and P3. The convergent evidence derived from the updated research allows us to propose a hypothetical model of the existing correlations between the influences of MF on cognitive processes and the associated EP components. However, the methodological limitations found mean that we should take these results with caution and advise a methodological refinement for future research.
Mindfulness is an ancient practice, derived from Buddhism and recently adapted for the treatment of depression and other psychological conditions. The mechanism of action is thought to involve the extinction of habitual or conditioned responses to internal cognitive and emotional content. In turn, this relies on mechanisms of attentional control and emotion regulation. The resulting state of consciousness is sometimes described as equanimity. This conceptual review paper explores the process of achieving equanimity within a homeostatic framework. The result is a model of moodfulness, which combines mindfulness with Homeostatically Protected Mood to provide a new theoretical view of recovery from symptoms of depression. This model presents a case for mindfulness restoration of mood homeostasis following homeostatic defeat.
Inducing mindfulness has shown a promising effect on reducing aggression in both clinical and nonclinical populations, possibly because mindfulness can improve emotion regulation. The present study examined the association between mindfulness and aggression through potential mediating effects of several emotion regulation strategies. University and community samples of U.S. adults completed questionnaires on mindfulness, emotion regulation strategies, and trait aggression. Results indicate that mindfulness was associated with rumination and expressive suppression, which mediated the mindfulness‐aggression relationship. Most facets of mindfulness were unrelated to the use of reflection and cognitive reappraisal. The nonjudging of experience facet of mindfulness was negatively related to hostility through rumination and expressive suppression. In contrast, the observing mindfulness facet was positively related to verbal aggression and hostility; these relations were mediated by rumination and expressive suppression.
People respond to stressful events in different ways, depending on the event and on the regulatory strategies they choose. Coping and emotion regulation theorists have proposed dynamic models in which these two factors, the person and the situation, interact over time to inform adaptation. In practice, however, researchers have tended to assume that particular regulatory strategies are consistently beneficial or maladaptive. We label this assumption the fallacy of uniform efficacy and contrast it with findings from a number of related literatures that have suggested the emergence of a broader but as yet poorly defined construct that we refer to as regulatory flexibility. In this review, we articulate this broader construct and define both its features and limitations. Specifically, we propose a heuristic individual differences framework and review research on three sequential components of flexibility for which propensities and abilities vary: sensitivity to context, availability of a diverse repertoire of regulatory strategies, and responsiveness to feedback. We consider the methodological limitations of research on each component, review questions that future research on flexibility might address, and consider how the components might relate to each other and to broader conceptualizations about stability and change across persons and situations.
© The Author(s) 2013.
This article reports differences across 23 countries on 2 processes of emotion regulation––reappraisal and suppression. Cultural dimensions were correlated with country means on both and the relationship between them. Cultures that emphasized the maintenance of social order––that is, those that were long-term oriented and valued embeddedness and hierarchy––tended to have higher scores on suppres-sion, and reappraisal and suppression tended to be positively correlated. In contrast, cultures that minimized the maintenance of social order and valued individual Affective Autonomy and Egalitarianism tended to have lower scores on Suppression, and Reappraisal and Suppression tended to be negatively correlated. Moreover, country-level emotion regulation was significantly correlated with country-level indices of both positive and negative adjustment. The 37 coauthors of this article, in alphabetical order by last name, are as follows:
Recent research suggests that mindfulness benefits emotion regulation and smoking cessation. However, the mechanisms by which mindfulness affects emotional and behavioral functioning are unclear. One potential mechanism, lower affective volatility, has not been empirically tested during smoking cessation. This study examined longitudinal associations among mindfulness and emotional responding over the course of smoking cessation treatment among predominantly low-socioeconomic status (SES) African American smokers, who are at high risk for relapse to smoking and tobacco-related health disparities. Participants (N = 399, 51% female, mean age = 42, 48% with annual income <$10,000) completed a baseline measure of trait mindfulness. Negative affect, positive affect, and depressive symptoms were assessed at five time points during smoking cessation treatment (up to 31 days postquit). Volatility indices were calculated to quantify within-person instability of emotional symptoms over time. Over and above demographic characteristics, nicotine dependence, and abstinence status, greater baseline trait mindfulness predicted lower volatility of negative affect and depressive symptoms surrounding the quit attempt and up to 1 month postquit, ps < 0.05. Although volatility did not mediate the association between greater mindfulness and smoking cessation, these results are the first to show that mindfulness is linked to lower affective volatility (or greater stability) of negative emotions during the course of smoking cessation. The present study suggests that mindfulness is linked to greater emotional stability and augments the study of mindfulness in diverse populations. Future studies should examine the effects of mindfulness-based interventions on volatility and whether lower volatility explains effects of mindfulness-based treatments on smoking cessation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
Emotion regulation has been conceptualized as a process by which individuals modify their emotional experiences, expressions, and physiology and the situations eliciting such emotions in order to produce appropriate responses to the ever-changing demands posed by the environment. Thus, context plays a central role in emotion regulation. This is particularly relevant to the work on emotion regulation in psychopathology, because psychological disorders are characterized by rigid responses to the environment. However, this recognition of the importance of context has appeared primarily in the theoretical realm, with the empirical work lagging behind. In this review, the author proposes an approach to systematically evaluate the contextual factors shaping emotion regulation. Such an approach consists of specifying the components that characterize emotion regulation and then systematically evaluating deviations within each of these components and their underlying dimensions. Initial guidelines for how to combine such dimensions and components in order to capture substantial and meaningful contextual influences are presented. This approach is offered to inspire theoretical and empirical work that it is hoped will result in the development of a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the relationship between context and emotion regulation.
© The Author(s) 2013.
We examined coping self-efficacy as one potential mediator of the relationship between four specific mindfulness skills (observing, describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgment) and emotion regulation difficulties. Participants were 180 undergraduate students (M
age = 21.13; 71 % female; 82 % Caucasian) who completed self-report measures for course credit. Pearson correlations, independent samples t test, and ANOVAs were used to examine bivariate relationships between study variables. Simple mediation was examined in a path analysis framework by testing the indirect effect of mindfulness skills on emotion regulation difficulties through coping self-efficacy. Results indicated that a greater use of describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgment were associated with greater coping self-efficacy, and coping self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between each of those skills and emotion regulation difficulties (indirect effects: b weight = −0.26 to −0.29, p < 0.01). The mindfulness skill of observing was not related to coping self-efficacy or emotion regulation difficulties. Findings suggest that coping self-efficacy partially explains the relationships between mindfulness and emotion regulation difficulties. Clinicians administering mindfulness-based interventions should be aware of the role of coping self-efficacy in the relationship between mindfulness and emotion regulation.
Although the psychological benefits of mindfulness training on emotion regulation are well-documented, the precise mechanisms underlying these effects remain unclear. In the present account, we propose a new linkage between mindfulness and improved emotion regulation—one that highlights the role played by executive control. Specifically, we suggest that the present-moment awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance that is cultivated by mindfulness
training is crucial in promoting executive control because it increases sensitivity to affective cues in the experiential
field. This refined attunement and openness to subtle changes in affective states fosters executive control because it improves response to incipient affective cues that help signal the need for control. This, in turn, enhances emotion regulation. In presenting our model, we discuss how new findings in executive control can improve our understanding of how mindfulness increases the capacity for effective emotion regulation.
The effect of mindfulness meditation (MM) on attentional control in emotional contexts was examined. In Study 1, MM practitioners
(N=28) categorized tones presented 1 or 4s following the onset of affective pictures. Reaction times (RTs) to tones for affective
minus neutral pictures provided an index of emotional interference. Participants with more MM experience showed less interference
from affective pictures and reported higher mindfulness and psychological well-being. Study 2 was a controlled, randomized
experimental study in which participants (N=82) received MM training, relaxation meditation (RM) training, or no intervention (waiting-list control; WLC). Behavioral,
self-report, and psychophysiological measures were administered before and after a 7-week intervention period. Although both
MM and RM resulted in smaller skin conductance responses to unpleasant pictures and increased well-being, reductions in emotional
interference from unpleasant pictures were specific to MM. These findings indicate that MM attenuates prolonged reactivity
to emotional stimuli.
The stress-reductive effect of mindfulness practice is well-established, yet less is known about the cognitive mechanisms
underlying this salutary outcome. We conducted a prospective observational study of 339 participants (mean age 45.7 ± 13.4)
undergoing an 8-week mindfulness-based stress and pain management course and found support for our hypotheses that a) pre-post
intervention increases in dispositional mindfulness are reciprocally linked with increases in positive reappraisal coping
and b) the stress-reductive effects of increases in dispositional mindfulness are mediated by increases in positive reappraisal
independent of changes in catastrophizing. Positive reappraisal and mindfulness appear to serially and mutually enhance one
another, creating the dynamics of an upward spiral. Through mindfulness practice, individuals may engender a broadened state
of awareness that facilitates empowering interpretations of stressful life events, leading to substantially reduced distress.
Study findings have implications for cognitive therapy that couples mindfulness practices with restructuring techniques oriented
toward benefit finding and positive reappraisal.
KeywordsMindfulness–Reappraisal–Stress–Catastrophizing–Positive emotion–Upward spiral
Background:
Individual differences in mindfulness have been associated with numerous self-report indicators of stress, but research has not examined how mindfulness may buffer neuroendocrine and psychological stress responses under controlled laboratory conditions. The present study investigated the role of trait mindfulness in buffering cortisol and affective responses to a social evaluative stress challenge versus a control task.
Methods:
Participants completed measures of trait mindfulness, perceived stress, anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation before being randomized to complete the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirschbaum et al., 1993) or a control task. At points throughout the session, participants provided five saliva samples to assess cortisol response patterns, and completed four self-report measures of anxiety and negative affect to assess psychological responses.
Results:
In accord with hypotheses, higher trait mindfulness predicted lower cortisol responses to the TSST, relative to the control task, as well as lower anxiety and negative affect. These relations remained significant when controlling for the role of other variables that predicted cortisol and affective responses.
Conclusions:
The findings suggest that trait mindfulness modulates cortisol and affective responses to an acute social stressor. Further research is needed to understand the neural pathways through which mindfulness impacts these responses.
Given recent attention to emotion regulation as a potentially unifying function of diverse symptom
presentations, there is a need for comprehensive measures that adequately assess difficulties in emotion
regulation among adults. This paper (a) proposes an integrative conceptualization of emotion
regulation as involving not just the modulation of emotional arousal, but also the awareness, understanding,
and acceptance of emotions, and the ability to act in desired ways regardless of emotional
state; and (b) begins to explore the factor structure and psychometric properties of a new measure, the
Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Two samples of undergraduate students completed
questionnaire packets. Preliminary findings suggest that the DERS has high internal consistency, good
test–retest reliability, and adequate construct and predictive validity.
Cultivation of mindfulness, the nonjudgmental awareness of experiences in the present moment, produces beneficial effects on well-being and ameliorates psychiatric and stress-related symptoms. Mindfulness meditation has therefore increasingly been incorporated into psychotherapeutic interventions. Although the number of publications in the field has sharply increased over the last two decades, there is a paucity of theoretical reviews that integrate the existing literature into a comprehensive theoretical framework. In this article, we explore several components through which mindfulness meditation exerts its effects: (a) attention regulation, (b) body awareness, (c) emotion regulation (including reappraisal and exposure, extinction, and reconsolidation), and (d) change in perspective on the self. Recent empirical research, including practitioners' self-reports and experimental data, provides evidence supporting these mechanisms. Functional and structural neuroimaging studies have begun to explore the neuroscientific processes underlying these components. Evidence suggests that mindfulness practice is associated with neuroplastic changes in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, temporo-parietal junction, fronto-limbic network, and default mode network structures. The authors suggest that the mechanisms described here work synergistically, establishing a process of enhanced self-regulation. Differentiating between these components seems useful to guide future basic research and to specifically target areas of development in the treatment of psychological disorders.
© Association for Psychological Science 2011.
The high likelihood of recurrence in depression is linked to a progressive increase in emotional reactivity to stress (stress sensitization). Mindfulness-based therapies teach mindfulness skills designed to decrease emotional reactivity in the face of negative affect-producing stressors. The primary aim of the current study was to assess whether Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is efficacious in reducing emotional reactivity to social evaluative threat in a clinical sample with recurrent depression. A secondary aim was to assess whether improvement in emotional reactivity mediates improvements in depressive symptoms. Fifty-two individuals with partially remitted depression were randomized into an 8-week MBCT course or a waitlist control condition. All participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) before and after the 8-week trial period. Emotional reactivity to stress was assessed with the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory at several time points before, during, and after the stressor. MBCT was associated with decreased emotional reactivity to social stress, specifically during the recovery (post-stressor) phase of the TSST. Waitlist controls showed an increase in anticipatory (pre-stressor) anxiety that was absent in the MBCT group. Improvements in emotional reactivity partially mediated improvements in depressive symptoms. Limitations include small sample size, lack of objective or treatment adherence measures, and non-generalizability to more severely depressed populations. Given that emotional reactivity to stress is an important psychopathological process underlying the chronic and recurrent nature of depression, these findings suggest that mindfulness skills are important in adaptive emotion regulation when coping with stress.
Mindfulness involves nonjudgmental attention to present-moment experience. In its therapeutic forms, mindfulness interventions promote increased tolerance of negative affect and improved well-being. However, the neural mechanisms underlying mindful mood regulation are poorly understood. Mindfulness training appears to enhance focused attention, supported by the anterior cingulate cortex and the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). In emotion regulation, these PFC changes promote the stable recruitment of a nonconceptual sensory pathway, an alternative to conventional attempts to cognitively reappraise negative emotion. In neural terms, the transition to nonconceptual awareness involves reducing evaluative processing, supported by midline structures of the PFC. Instead, attentional resources are directed toward a limbic pathway for present-moment sensory awareness, involving the thalamus, insula, and primary sensory regions. In patients with affective disorders, mindfulness training provides an alternative to cognitive efforts to control negative emotion, instead directing attention toward the transitory nature of momentary experience. Limiting cognitive elaboration in favour of momentary awareness appears to reduce automatic negative self-evaluation, increase tolerance for negative affect and pain, and help to engender self-compassion and empathy in people with chronic dysphoria.
Considerable research has disclosed how cognitive reappraisals and the modulation of emotional responses promote successful emotion regulation. Less research has examined how the early processing of emotion-relevant stimuli may create divergent emotional response consequences. Mindfulness-a receptive, non-evaluative form of attention-is theorized to foster emotion regulation, and the present study examined whether individual differences in mindfulness would modulate neural responses associated with the early processing of affective stimuli. Focus was on the late positive potential (LPP) of the event-related brain potential to visual stimuli varying in emotional valence and arousal. This study first found, replicating past research, that high arousal images, particularly of an unpleasant type, elicited larger LPP responses. Second, the study found that more mindful individuals showed lower LPP responses to high arousal unpleasant images, even after controlling for trait attentional control. Conversely, two traits contrasting with mindfulness-neuroticism and negative affectivity-were associated with higher LPP responses to high arousal unpleasant images. Finally, mindfulness was also associated with lower LPP responses to motivationally salient pleasant images (erotica). These findings suggest that mindfulness modulates neural responses in an early phase of affective processing, and contribute to understanding how this quality of attention may promote healthy emotional functioning.
Research on the effectiveness and mechanisms of mindfulness training applied in psychotherapy is still in its infancy (Erisman & Roemer, 2010). For instance, little is known about the extent and processes through which mindfulness practice improves emotion regulation. This experience sampling study assessed the relationship between mindfulness, emotion differentiation, emotion lability, and emotional difficulties. Young adult participants reported their current emotional experiences 6 times per day during 1 week on a PalmPilot device. Based on these reports of emotions, indices of emotional differentiation and emotion lability were composed for negative and positive emotions. Mindfulness was associated with greater emotion differentiation and less emotional difficulties (i.e., emotion lability and self-reported emotion dysregulation). Mediational models indicated that the relationship between mindfulness and emotion lability was mediated by emotion differentiation. Furthermore, emotion regulation mediated the relationship between mindfulness and both negative emotion lability and positive emotion differentiation. This experience sampling study indicates that self-reported levels of mindfulness are related to higher levels of differentiation of one's discrete emotional experiences in a manner reflective of effective emotion regulation.
The present investigation examined the incremental predictive validity of mindfulness skills, as measured by the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS), in relation to multiple facets of emotional dysregulation, as indexed by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), above and beyond variance explained by negative affectivity, anxiety sensitivity, and distress tolerance. Participants were a nonclinical community sample of 193 young adults (106 women, 87 men; M(age) = 23.91 years). The KIMS Accepting without Judgment subscale was incrementally negatively predictive of all facets of emotional dysregulation, as measured by the DERS. Furthermore, KIMS Acting with Awareness was incrementally negatively related to difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior. Additionally, both observing and describing mindfulness skills were incrementally negatively related to lack of emotional awareness, and describing skills also were incrementally negatively related to lack of emotional clarity. Findings are discussed in relation to advancing scientific understanding of emotional dysregulation from a mindfulness skills-based framework.
The regulation of negative emotion through reappraisal has been shown to induce increased prefrontal activity and decreased amygdala activity. Individual differences in dispositional mindfulness reflect differences in typical recognition, detachment and regulation of current experience, thought to also operate as top-down control mechanism. We sought to investigate whether such individual differences would be associated with brain activity elicited during reappraisal of negative emotion. Eighteen healthy participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging task that involved attending to or reappraising negative stimuli, and provided emotion experience ratings after each trial. Dispositional mindfulness was assessed with a self-report questionnaire. Reappraisal induced activity in a brain network involving predominantly dorsal portions of the prefrontal cortex, replicating previous studies. A voxelwise regression analysis showed that individual differences in the tendency to be mindful predicted activity in neural regions underlying reappraisal, with dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activation increasing with more mindfulness traits. Notably, this prefrontal activation was inversely correlated with the amygdala response to negative scenes, further supporting its role in down-regulating emotion-generation regions. These findings suggest that individual differences in dispositional mindfulness, which reflect the tendency to recognize and regulate current states, may modulate activity in neural systems involved in the effective cognitive control of negative emotion.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an established program shown to reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. MBSR is believed to alter emotional responding by modifying cognitive-affective processes. Given that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by emotional and attentional biases as well as distorted negative self-beliefs, we examined MBSR-related changes in the brain-behavior indices of emotional reactivity and regulation of negative self-beliefs in patients with SAD. Sixteen patients underwent functional MRI while reacting to negative self-beliefs and while regulating negative emotions using 2 types of attention deployment emotion regulation-breath-focused attention and distraction-focused attention. Post-MBSR, 14 patients completed neuroimaging assessments. Compared with baseline, MBSR completers showed improvement in anxiety and depression symptoms and self-esteem. During the breath-focused attention task (but not the distraction-focused attention task), they also showed (a) decreased negative emotion experience, (b) reduced amygdala activity, and (c) increased activity in brain regions implicated in attentional deployment. MBSR training in patients with SAD may reduce emotional reactivity while enhancing emotion regulation. These changes might facilitate reduction in SAD-related avoidance behaviors, clinical symptoms, and automatic emotional reactivity to negative self-beliefs in adults with SAD.
Despite encouraging preliminary findings regarding the efficacy of mindfulness and acceptance-based treatments for a range of psychological presentations, we have yet to elucidate mechanisms of action within these treatments. One mechanism through which mindfulness may reduce psychological symptoms and promote functioning is enhancing emotional responding and regulation. In this study, we used multimodal assessment to examine the effects of a brief mindfulness intervention in a laboratory setting on emotional experiences and regulation in response to distressing, positive, and affectively mixed film clips. Although there were no condition (mindfulness vs. control) effects on reports of emotional response or difficulties in regulation after the distressing film clip, participants in the mindfulness condition reported significantly greater positive affect in response to the positive film. Additionally, participants in the mindfulness condition reported more adaptive regulation (approaching significance, medium to large effect size) in response to the affectively mixed clip and significantly less negative affect immediately after this clip, although not after a recovery period. No significant differences emerged between conditions on physiological measures (skin conductance and heart rate) throughout the study.
Recovery from emotional challenge and increased tolerance of negative affect are both hallmarks of mental health. Mindfulness training (MT) has been shown to facilitate these outcomes, yet little is known about its mechanisms of action. The present study employed functional MRI (fMRI) to compare neural reactivity to sadness provocation in participants completing 8 weeks of MT and waitlisted controls. Sadness resulted in widespread recruitment of regions associated with self-referential processes along the cortical midline. Despite equivalent self-reported sadness, MT participants demonstrated a distinct neural response, with greater right-lateralized recruitment, including visceral and somatosensory areas associated with body sensation. The greater somatic recruitment observed in the MT group during evoked sadness was associated with decreased depression scores. Restoring balance between affective and sensory neural networks-supporting conceptual and body based representations of emotion-could be one path through which mindfulness reduces vulnerability to dysphoric reactivity.
Given recent attention to emotion regulation as a potentially unifying function of diverse symptom presentations, there is a need for comprehensive measures that adequately assess difficulties in emotion regulation among adults. This paper (a) proposes an integrative conceptualization of emotion regulation as involving not just the modulation of emotional arousal, but also the awareness, understanding, and acceptance of emotions, and the ability to act in desired ways regardless of emotional state; and (b) begins to explore the factor structure and psychometric properties of a new measure, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Two samples of undergraduate students completed questionnaire packets. Preliminary findings suggest that the DERS has high internal consistency, good test–retest reliability, and adequate construct and predictive validity.
Mindfulness is associated with reduced negative affective states, increased positive affective states, and reduced clinical affective symptomatology (e.g., depression, anxiety) in previous studies. This chapter examines an emerging body of fMRI and EEG research exploring how mindfulness alters neurobiological emotion processing systems. We examine how dispositional (trait) mindfulness and how adopting a mindful attentional stance (after varying levels of mindfulness training) relate to changes in neural responses to affective stimuli. Evidence suggests mindfulness-related changes in a ventral affective processing network associated with core affect, a dorsal processing network associated with making attributions and appraisals of one’s affective experience, and regulatory networks involved in modulating affective processes. These neural effects may underlie the previously observed relationships between mindfulness and changes in reported emotion processing and reactivity. Findings are discussed in light of existing neurobiological models of emotion and we describe important questions for the field in the coming years.
One of the fastest growing areas within psychology is the field of emotion regulation. However, enthusiasm for this topic continues to outstrip conceptual clarity, and there remains considerable uncertainty as to what is even meant by “emotion regulation.” The goal of this review is to examine the current status and future prospects of this rapidly growing field. In the first section, I define emotion and emotion regulation and distinguish both from related constructs. In the second section, I use the process model of emotion regulation to selectively review evidence that different regulation strategies have different consequences. In the third section, I introduce the extended process model of emotion regulation; this model considers emotion regulation to be one type of valuation, and distinguishes three emotion regulation stages (identification, selection, implementation). In the final section, I consider five key growth points for the field of emotion regulation.
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Generalized anxiety disorder and major depression (often termed “distress disorders”; see Watson, 2005) are commonly comorbid and appear to be characterized by temperamental features that reflect heightened sensitivity to underlying motivational systems related to threat/safety and reward/loss. Further, individuals with these disorders tend to perseverate (i.e., worry, ruminate) as a way to manage this motivationally relevant distress and often utilize these self-conscious processes to the detriment of engaging new contextual learning. Emotion Regulation Therapy integrates principles from traditional and contemporary cognitive behavioral treatments (e.g., skills training & exposure) with basic and translational findings from affect science to offer a blueprint for improving intervention by focusing on the motivational responses and corresponding regulatory characteristics of individuals with distress
disorders. This emphasis on affect science permits identification of candidate mechanisms of treatment in terms of core disruptions of normative cognitive, emotional, and motivational systems, which in turn, helps generate more targeted solutions for clients to utilize adaptive ways to cope or compensate for these core deficits. In essence, contrasting a client’s difficulties with what we understand as normative functioning allows us to generate theory-driven hypotheses that form that basis of our case conceptualization and treatment planning. Outcome and mechanism data provide preliminary support for the use of ERT to treat distress disorders.
Rumination, worry, and other forms of negative self-referential processing are familiar to everyone, as reflecting on the self is perhaps our most human characteristic. However, for a substantial subgroup of patients, negative self-referential processing (NSRP) arises in response to intense emotionality, worsening the clinical presentation and diminishing the treatment response. The combination of emotionality and NSRP likely reflects the endophenotype of complicated and treatment refractory patients who fail to achieve a satisfactory treatment response in our trials and our clinics. An important next step is to personalize treatments by deliberately targeting NSRPs within established treatment protocols or in as yet novel treatments. Enriching treatments with mindfulness meditation is one possible avenue for personalized care of patients with this hypothesized endophenotype.
Both dispositional mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions have been found to be associated with less psychological distress. The current study investigated three mechanisms by which mindfulness might exert its beneficial effects: emotion regulation, nonattachment, and reduced rumination. Correlational self-report data were collected from two independent, nonclinical samples of undergraduates. Structural equation modeling was then used to test the role of these three mechanisms in mediating the relationship between mindfulness and a psychological distress factor, consisting of measures for depressive and anxious symptomatology. The model was respecified based on the first sample and retested in the second sample. Results confirmed an inverse relationship between mindfulness and psychological distress. Furthermore, emotion regulation, nonattachment, and rumination significantly mediated this relationship.
