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Emotion regulation and mindfulness in adolescents: Conceptual and empirical connection and associations with social anxiety symptoms
Abstract
Dysregulation of emotions is a risk for social anxiety symptoms, whereas dispositional mindfulness has been proposed as assisting with emotion regulation. The aim of the current study was to examine the unique associations of dysregulation and mindfulness with adolescents' social anxiety, while focusing on the conceptual overlap and the empirical connection between dysregulation and mindfulness. Participants were 336 Australian adolescents (53% girls; 12–15 years) who completed questionnaires. Dysregulation and mindfulness were moderately correlated. Factor analysis revealed two factors accounting for 59% of the variance. The first factor, active dysregulation, had high positive loadings for five dysregulation and high negative loadings for two mindfulness subscales. The second factor, passive regulation, had a high negative loading for one dysregulation and high positive loadings for three mindfulness subscales. Both active and passive composite scores had unique associations with heightened anxiety symptoms. Regression analyses of the original subscales indicated that the dysregulation subscale limited strategies, and the mindfulness subscales observing and describing were uniquely associated with anxiety; strategies and observing were associated with more symptoms, whereas describing was associated with fewer. Interventions that address dysregulation and low capacity for mindfulness may be beneficial for adolescents with heightened social anxiety symptoms.
... Higher levels of dispositional mindfulness have been consistently found to be correlated with being less anxious 25 . Mindfulness-based Intervention (MBI) has been found to be effective in improving patients' level of trait mindfulness, including mindfulness assessed with self-report measures [26][27][28] , which may further help people with various anxiety-related disorders [29][30][31] Various research has also demonstrated that mindfulness is beneficial to specific types of anxiety, such as social anxiety 32 and math anxiety 33. It is worthwhile to further investigate the potential benefits that mindfulness has to the medical field. ...
... Acting with Awareness showed the largest negative association with both state dental anxiety and trait dental anxiety, while Observing and Describing showed weak negative associations with state dental anxiety. This is consistent not only with Tellez et al. 's 41 research on dental anxiety, but also with other types of anxiety 32,70,71 , demonstrating the significant role Acting with Awareness may play in mindfulness' potential alleviation effect on anxiety. Non-reacting ranked the second largest in terms of the negative association with state dental anxiety and trait dental anxiety in correlation analysis and the regression analysis showed that it was still a significant predictor of state dental anxiety after controlling the other four facets. ...
... Non-reacting ranked the second largest in terms of the negative association with state dental anxiety and trait dental anxiety in correlation analysis and the regression analysis showed that it was still a significant predictor of state dental anxiety after controlling the other four facets. This is not consistent with previous research on dental anxiety 68 and other types of anxiety 32,70,71 showing that Non-reacting often has the weakest negative association with anxiety among the five factors of mindfulness. Non-judging was not significantly correlated with either state dental anxiety or trait dental anxiety in our studies. ...
Dental anxiety causes people to postpone or refuse to go to the dentist, which further negatively impacts their quality of life and public health. Previous research has shown that mindfulness is inversely related to anxiety. However, little is known about the relationship between mindfulness and dental anxiety. The current research aimed to explore the relationship between mindfulness and dental anxiety and investigate the mediating role of rational thinking. Two studies were conducted. In study one, 206 Chinese participants completed questionnaires measuring trait mindfulness and dental anxiety (state, responding to a dental treatment scenario). In study two, 394 participants completed questionnaires measuring trait mindfulness, dental anxiety (trait), and rational thinking. The results for both studies showed that mindfulness is negatively correlated with dental anxiety. In study 1, each facet of mindfulness except Non-judging was negatively correlated with dental anxiety with Acting with Awareness having the strongest correlation, while in study 2, only Acting with Awareness was significantly negatively correlated with dental anxiety. Furthermore, rational thinking mediated the effect of mindfulness on dental anxiety. In conclusion, mindfulness is negatively related to both state and trait dental anxiety, and rational thinking mediates the relationship between mindfulness and dental anxiety. Implications of these findings are discussed.
... Items drawn from the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ; Baer et al., 2006) measured dispositional mindfulness describing (8 items, "I am good at finding the words to describe my feelings"), acting with awareness (8 items, "I do jobs or tasks automatically, without being aware of what I'm doing"), non-judging (8 items, "I tell myself I shouldn't be thinking the way I'm thinking"), and non-reactivity (7 items, "I perceive my feelings and emotions without having to react to them"). Items from the observing subscale were not administered given previous evidence that this subscale is relevant for participants who practice meditation, but this subscale may perform differently for nonmeditators (Baer et al., 2006;Goodall et al., 2012) and has also been found to perform differently in adolescents (Abujaradeh et al., 2019;Hambour et al., 2018). For example, research has shown that the observing subscale has only small (and sometimes negative) associations with other dispositional mindfulness subscales and observing has been found to have positive associations with symptoms of emotional problems (e.g., Hambour et al., 2018). ...
... Items from the observing subscale were not administered given previous evidence that this subscale is relevant for participants who practice meditation, but this subscale may perform differently for nonmeditators (Baer et al., 2006;Goodall et al., 2012) and has also been found to perform differently in adolescents (Abujaradeh et al., 2019;Hambour et al., 2018). For example, research has shown that the observing subscale has only small (and sometimes negative) associations with other dispositional mindfulness subscales and observing has been found to have positive associations with symptoms of emotional problems (e.g., Hambour et al., 2018). Item responses ranged from 1 (not true) to 5 (very true). ...
... These findings build on the rising awareness that mindfulness can play a significant role in emotion regulation and stress coping responses (Dvořáková et al., 2019;Hambour et al., 2018;Hanley & Garland, 2014;Hicks, 2020), which supports its continued application as an effective approach for professionals to implement when working with adolescents and young adults across a variety of settings including in schools, the community, and individualised clinical work. Although the current study was correlational, when considered alongside other research (e.g., Baer, 2003;Ciarrochi et al., 2011;Dunning et al., 2019;Pratscher et al., 2018;Schonert-Reichl & Lawlor, 2010;Singh et al., 2007;Tan & Martin, 2016), the findings suggest that improving mindfulness can improve peer stress coping responses, which in turn could mitigate against socioemotional problems of loneliness, social anxiety and depressive symptoms among high school students. ...
Introduction
Adolescents higher in the trait of dispositional mindfulness report fewer socioemotional problems. Focusing on the domain of peer stressors, we tested a model of adolescents’ mindfulness as a resource that undergirds more constructive stress coping responses, in turn resulting in fewer socioemotional problems.
Method
The participants were 361 Australian secondary school students (40% boys; ages 11 to 18; M = 14.9 years; SD = 1.4). Each completed a questionnaire to report four facets of dispositional mindfulness; engagement and disengagement coping and involuntary stress responses to recent peer interpersonal stressful events; and socioemotional problems of loneliness, social anxiety, and depression.
Results
Adolescents who reported more dispositional mindfulness, including facets of awareness, describing, non‐judgement and non‐reactivity, were lower in involuntary peer stress responses, disengagement coping, loneliness, social anxiety, and depression; associations of mindfulness facets with engagement coping were mixed. Mediational path models showed that almost all the significant negative associations of dispositional mindfulness with loneliness, social anxiety and depression were fully indirect via peer stress coping responses. Further, an alternative model, which tested whether loneliness, social anxiety and depression were the instigators of stress coping responses via mindfulness, had an adequate but poorer fit.
Conclusion
As hypothesized, the benefit of adolescents' dispositional mindfulness for reducing loneliness, social anxiety and depression seems to be indirect, with positive peer stress coping responses key mediators in these indirect pathways. It is less likely that the alternative occurs, whereby adolescents’ socioemotional problems are the foundation for mindfulness and peer stress coping responses.
... In the present study, the aim was to test whether dispositional mindfulness minimized appraisal of relatedness threat, and was beneficial for recovery of positive mood following social rejection. Trait level (i.e., dispositional) mindfulness was expected to be adaptive for response and recovery given growing support for its beneficial properties for emotion regulation, stress responding, and well-being (Aldao et al., 2014;Clear et al., 2020;Hambour et al., 2018;Lucas-Thompson et al., 2019;Roeser & Pinela, 2014). ...
... A mindfulness composite score can be constructed by averaging the five facets. However, one facet, observing, was not administered in this study based on previous research findings that it is not highly correlated with other subscales (Abujaradeh et al., 2020;Hambour et al., 2018) and may be more valid when used with participants who practice meditation (Baer et al., 2006;Williams et al., 2014). In addition, the observing subscale has been found to have a positive association with emotional symptoms in some studies, whereas other subscales are associated with fewer symptoms (e.g., Clear et al., 2020;Hambour et al., 2018). ...
... However, one facet, observing, was not administered in this study based on previous research findings that it is not highly correlated with other subscales (Abujaradeh et al., 2020;Hambour et al., 2018) and may be more valid when used with participants who practice meditation (Baer et al., 2006;Williams et al., 2014). In addition, the observing subscale has been found to have a positive association with emotional symptoms in some studies, whereas other subscales are associated with fewer symptoms (e.g., Clear et al., 2020;Hambour et al., 2018). ...
Experiencing stressful events that threaten feelings of social belonging can have far-reaching negative impacts on well-being, but there are individual differences in sensitivity to threat that might be explained by dispositional traits. In particular, naturally occurring dispositional mindfulness may be one trait that can explain such differences. To test this possibility, a pool of 495 young adults completed a measure of dispositional mindfulness and a subset of 90 (M = 19 years, SD = 1.3), selected to represent the full range of mindfulness scores, participated in an induced social rejection task (Cyberball). Threat appraisal was collected by asking about perceived exclusion and rejection post-Cyberball, and participants reported their mood and friendliness before, after, and at 3-mins of recovery, and their self-esteem and life meaning after Cyberball and at recovery. Participants higher in mindfulness reported better mood and less unfriendliness prior to Cyberball. Directly after playing Cyberball, a more heightened appraisal of threat, but not mindfulness, was associated with worse mood, less friendliness, lower self-esteem, and less life meaning. Mindfulness directly mitigated the negative effects of rejection on feelings of friendliness post rejection. When mindfulness and threat appraisal were considered in interaction, the association of perceived threat with pre- to post- changes in positive mood and friendliness was strongly negative when mindfulness was high relative to low. Further, mindfulness was associated with better recovery of mood and life meaning by 3-min after Cyberball, and these effects were additive rather than interactive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... Thus, social anxiety is a symptom whereas anxiety disorder is clinical. Previous studies have indicated that people with social anxiety are characterized by decreased ability to control and manage their emotions [5,6]. Emotion dysregulation in the context of social anxiety is the inability of an individual to influence or control their own emotional experiences [7]. ...
... In a study to assess the constructs of social anxiety and to determine the unique associations of social anxiety with emotion dysregulation and mindfulness among the sample of Australian adolescents, it was found that the emotion dysregulation subscale including limited strategies, and the mindfulness subscales including observing and describing were having unique association with social anxiety [5]. Moreover, while strategies and observing was found to have associated with higher symptoms of social anxiety, describing was associated with lower symptoms [5]. ...
... In a study to assess the constructs of social anxiety and to determine the unique associations of social anxiety with emotion dysregulation and mindfulness among the sample of Australian adolescents, it was found that the emotion dysregulation subscale including limited strategies, and the mindfulness subscales including observing and describing were having unique association with social anxiety [5]. Moreover, while strategies and observing was found to have associated with higher symptoms of social anxiety, describing was associated with lower symptoms [5]. ...
There has been a growing burden of anxiety among Nepalese adolescents. Social anxiety in particular is one of the commonly reported symptoms indicating mental health problem among adolescents. The purpose of this study was to assess social anxiety, and identify how social support, emotion regulation and mindfulness uniquely contribute to social anxiety among adolescents in Birgunj, Nepal. The study was conducted by using a self-administered questionnaire among 384 adolescents (65.4% boys; M = 16.05 years, SD = 1.39) studying at secondary schools of Birgunj. Results show that there was a positive correlation between social anxiety symptoms and age, and girls reported more symptoms. Traits such as non-acceptance of emotions, lack of clarity and lack of awareness of emotions were related to increased social anxiety; while acting with awareness, non-reactivity, and better ability to describe emotions was related to decreased social anxiety. Finally, more social support from close friends was related to lower social anxiety. These results suggest that improving emotion regulation, dispositional mindfulness, and social support may be helpful for adolescents who are at risk of, or are suffering from, social anxiety.
... Mindfulness-based interventions have been effective in treating disorders characterized by rejection sensitivity, including social anxiety (Goldin & Gross, 2010). Moreover, in one study of adolescents, dispositional mindfulness was associated with fewer social anxiety symptoms (Hambour, Zimmer-Gembeck, Clear, Rowe, & Avdagic, 2018). In another study of undergraduate students, dispositional mindfulness was associated with less anxiety about rejection and negative affect (Peters, Eisenlohr-Moul, & Smart, 2015). ...
... The 31 items came from four subscales, including describing (8 items, "I am good at finding the words to describe my feelings"), acting with awareness (8 items, "I am easily distracted"), nonjudging (8 items, "I disapprove of myself when I have irrational ideas"), and nonreactivity (7 items, "I watch my feelings without getting lost in them"). The observing subscale items were not administered given previous evidence that this subscale is relevant for participants who practice meditation, but this subscale may perform differently for nonmeditators (Baer et al., 2006(Baer et al., , 2008Goodall, Trejnowska, & Darling, 2012) and has also been found to perform differently in adolescents (Abujaradeh, Colaianne, Roeser, Tsukayama, & Galla, 2019;Hambour et al., 2018). For example, research has shown the observing subscale has only small (and sometimes negative) associations with other dispositional mindfulness subscales and has been found to have positive associations with symptoms of emotional maladjustment (e.g., Hambour et al., 2018). ...
... The observing subscale items were not administered given previous evidence that this subscale is relevant for participants who practice meditation, but this subscale may perform differently for nonmeditators (Baer et al., 2006(Baer et al., , 2008Goodall, Trejnowska, & Darling, 2012) and has also been found to perform differently in adolescents (Abujaradeh, Colaianne, Roeser, Tsukayama, & Galla, 2019;Hambour et al., 2018). For example, research has shown the observing subscale has only small (and sometimes negative) associations with other dispositional mindfulness subscales and has been found to have positive associations with symptoms of emotional maladjustment (e.g., Hambour et al., 2018). Items were rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (never or very rarely true) to 5 (almost always or always true) and were averaged so that higher scores indicated greater dispositional mindfulness, Cronbach's a was .86. ...
Drawing from dispositional mindfulness research and stress and coping theories, we tested whether adolescents’ dispositional mindfulness was associated with perceptions of peer victimization and exclusion and internalizing symptoms. We further explored the role of dispositional mindfulness as a protective factor buffering the impact of peer victimization and exclusion (PVE) on internalizing symptoms. Participants were 361 (40% boys) adolescents aged between 11 and 18 years ( M = 14.9, SD = 1.4) who completed a questionnaire to assess dispositional mindfulness, perceptions of PVE, social anxiety and depressive symptoms, and loneliness. As expected, more frequent experience of PVE was associated with reporting more symptoms of social anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Further, adolescents who reported higher dispositional mindfulness also reported fewer symptoms of social anxiety, depression, and loneliness, even after controlling for gender and experiences of PVE. Dispositional mindfulness was not protective against (i.e., did not buffer) the effects of PVE on internalizing symptoms. Instead, we found that PVE had a stronger association with symptoms of social anxiety, depression, and loneliness when mindfulness was high relative to when it was medium or low. Yet, victimization was associated with greater social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and loneliness at all levels of mindfulness.
... For example, when mindfulness is conceptualized as a dispositional trait or tendency, it has been defined to include observing sensations, thoughts, and feelings; describing sensations, thoughts, and feelings; acting with present-moment awareness; nonjudgment of inner experience; and nonreactivity to inner experience (Baer et al. 2006). Such dispositional mindfulness has been related to better psychological functioning and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety (Hambour et al. 2018;Keng et al. 2011) and has been associated with greater life satisfaction and self-esteem (Pepping et al. 2013). ...
... Second, mindfulness has been associated with a greater capacity for emotion regulation (Hambour et al. 2018;Roemer, Williston, & Rollins et al. 2015), with compelling information from neuropsychological investigation supporting this by demonstrating enhanced prefrontal cortical activity suggesting better regulation and reduced stress reactivity among those higher in dispositional mindfulness (Taren et al. 2013). Moreover, emotion regulation has been associated with warmer, more supportive, and less hostile parenting practices (Zimmer-Gembeck et al. 2019b). ...
... Reasoning from these results, parents' dispositional mindfulness, including observation and nonreactivity to inner experience and acting with awareness of the present moment, seems to be an attribute or learned skill that promotes more positive food-related interactions with children. This might be explained by links found between mindfulness and better emotional regulation in past research (Bögels and Restifo 2014;Hambour et al. 2018;Roemer et al. 2015). It may be that it is the accompanying enhanced emotion regulation capacity that co-occurs with dispositional mindfulness that assists parents to be more supportive, less frustrated, and less emotionally reactive during interactions with children that involve feeding and eating. ...
Objectives
There were two objectives of this study. The first was to determine whether parents’ dispositional mindfulness was associated with food-related parenting, including more support and structure and less coercion and chaos. The second was to consider children’s temperament and food-related parenting, with a focus on reactivity and regulation. Parents’ beliefs and concerns about body and child weight and demographic factors were also considered.
Methods
Caregivers of children aged 4–8 years (N = 167, 94% female) completed measures of food-related parenting, dispositional mindfulness, children’s temperament (surgency, negative affectivity, and effortful control), parents’ concern about child’s weight, and parents’ body dissatisfaction. Parents also reported their children’s age, gender, family income, and education.
Results
As hypothesized, parents higher in mindfulness reported more food-related supportiveness and structure and less food-related coerciveness and chaos; most associations were significant even after accounting for children’s temperament and all other measures. For temperament, children’s effortful control was associated with higher levels of parent supportiveness and structure, whereas negative affectivity was positively associated with coerciveness and chaos. Although parents’ body dissatisfaction and concerns about their children’s weight were usually correlated with food-related parenting, few associations remained significant in the multivariate models. Children’s surgency and demographic factors were not associated with food-related parenting.
Conclusions
Parents’ mindfulness and children’s negative affectivity and effortful control, which we argued reflect reactivity and regulation, were uniquely associated with parents’ food-related supportiveness, structure, coerciveness, or chaos. Future research should examine bidirectional pathways to better isolate the direction of effects and pinpoint potential intervention targets.
... Furthermore, in another study of anxiety during early adolescence (N = 90; aged 11-14 years), Mathews et al. (2014) found that, when controlling for generalized anxiety, social anxiety symptoms were higher when adolescents reported more deficits in emotional clarity, greater nonacceptance of emotional responses, more negative self-evaluations of their ability to manage their emotions, and a greater negative reactivity to emotions. Whereas, in a more recent study of adolescents (N = 336; aged 12-15 years; Hambour, Zimmer-Gembeck, Clear, Rowe, & Avdagic, 2018), lack of emotional clarity, nonacceptance of emotional responses, impulse control difficulties, limited access to regulation strategies, and difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when aroused were positively associated with social anxiety symptoms, but lack of emotional awareness had no significant association with social anxiety symptoms. Thus, the common and unique associations between individual difficulties in emotion regulation and symptoms of social anxiety and depression were also investigated in the current study. ...
... Hypothesis 1: There will be significant transactional associations between a latent construct of emotion dysregulation (indicated by multiple subscales) and symptoms of social anxiety and depression over time. Hypothesis 2: Given evidence that some subscales of emotion dysregulation may be a stronger correlate of symptoms than others (e.g., Hambour et al., 2018), when each subscale of emotion dysregulation is tested, significant transactional associations will be found for each of the more active aspects of emotion dysregulation (lack of emotional clarity, nonacceptance of emotional responses, impulse control difficulties, limited access to regulation strategies, and difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when aroused), and less support will be found for the influence of any passive aspect of emotion dysregulation (lack of emotional awareness) on symptoms. Hypothesis 3: Girls will report more emotion dysregulation and symptoms than boys. ...
... This deserves further research attention. Indeed, there have been previous factor analytic studies that have highlighted the lack of relationships of other Dysregulation subscales with the Lack of Emotional Awareness subscale (Fowler et al., 2014;Hambour et al., 2018). ...
Emotion dysregulation has been associated with increased risks for psychopathology. During adolescence when the onset of mental illnesses peak, emotion dysregulation may be particularly problematic. In this study, we examined transactional associations between young adolescents’ self-report of their emotion dysregulation and symptoms of social anxiety and depression at three assessments over 3 years. Participants were 391 Australian students (56% female; 79% White/Caucasian) in Grades 6 to 8 followed until Grades 9 to 11. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), emotion dysregulation was a latent variable indicated by lack of emotional clarity, nonacceptance of emotional responses, impulse control difficulties, limited access to emotion regulation strategies, and difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior. A sixth aspect of emotion dysregulation, lack of emotional awareness, which was not correlated with the other five subscales, was examined separately in the SEM. Transactional associations over time were identified between emotion dysregulation and symptoms of social anxiety and depression, with adolescents higher in emotion dysregulation at Time 1 (T1) reporting higher social anxiety and depressive symptoms between T1 and Time 2 (T2), and T2 emotion dysregulation predicting increases in adolescents’ depression, but not social anxiety, symptoms from T2 to Time 3 (T3), after controlling for baseline symptoms. In addition, earlier social anxiety, but not depressive, symptom level at T2 was significantly associated with later emotion dysregulation between T2 and T3, after baseline emotion dysregulation was controlled. Furthermore, girls were higher in emotion dysregulation, social anxiety, and depression than boys, but sex did not moderate temporal links between emotion dysregulation and symptoms.
... Increasing the life orientation and life happiness of teachers (Abbasi, 2022), increasing the experience of positive emotions in teaching and reducing the experience of negative emotions of elementary teachers (Wilson et al., 2022;Hashemi, 2022), reducing stress (Evans-Amula et al., 2021;Taylor et al., 2021;Mohammadi, et al, 2019;Beuchel et al., 2022;Birchinall et al., 2019), cultivating a calm mind and body (Evans-Amula et al., 2021), strengthening psychological and health-oriented characteristics of teachers and increasing their teaching selfefficacy (Ardani, 2021), regulation of teaching emotions and perceived stress and negative feeling (Wilson et al., 2022;Ardani, 2021), more job satisfaction, better classroom management in the long term (Beuchello et al., 2022), More successful stress management (Jalali & Pourhosein, 2020), increasing teachers' life satisfaction (Karimzade and Abdollahpour, 2022), reducing teacher job burnout (Taylor et al., 2021), increasing education progress and learning of students (Mohammadi, Naseri Jahromi, Mokhtari, Hessampour, & Naseri Jahromi, 2019), reducing automatic racial response among probationary teachers (Hirshberg et al., 2020), improving and dynamism of the body's biological system (Rodrigues e Oliveira et al., 2021), increasing teacher satisfaction, increasing efficiency or classroom management (Colleen et al., 2022), reducing depression (Taylor et al., 2021), improving teenagers' emotions and reducing mental disorder and anxiety in them (Hambour et al., 2018), way to coping teachers with challenging situations, adapting to classroom conditions and responding to students' needs (Molloy-Elreda et al., 2019). It significantly affects burnout scores and educational optimism (Kazemi et al., 2020). ...
... Using mindfulness, teachers distinguish its tremendous effect on improving the negative emotions of their teaching. The obtained results of this part of the research are in line with the findings of Beuchel et al. (2022), Hut et al. (2021), andHambour et al. (2018). As the results showed, using mindfulness in the teaching process helps teachers regulate and reduce negative emotions. ...
... Many researchers have also summarized that mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) appears to be a promising modality for youth (see reviews; Kallapiran et al., 2015;Zoogman et al. 2015). Besides, previous studies have indicated that the level of mindfulness among children and adolescents is negatively linked with their psychological problems (e.g., Hambour et al., 2018;Lawlor et al., 2014;Mohsenabadi et al., 2020). In particular, many studies found the stable relation between mindfulness and mental health among, for instance, youth's depression (Mohsenabadi et al., 2020), and stress (de Bruin et al., 2014). ...
... Second, our study focused on mindful awareness, which has been hypothesized to be a key component of mindfulness. However, mindfulness is a multidimensional construct, each dimension has been shown to be related to children and adolescents' mental health (Hambour et al., 2018;Tummunia et al., 2020), future research is needed to explore the development trajectories and characteristics of other dimensions. Moreover, due to entries to higher level school, some students only completed two-wave surveys. ...
Background
This study investigated the natural development pattern of mindful awareness and its relation with mental health in a sample of Chinese youth.
Methods
1,483 students (57.11% boys) from fourth to ninth grade (Mage = 11.18 ± 1.78, Wave 1) participated in the study. Students participated in up to 3 waves of assessment, each spaced approximately 6 months. The data were collected by the Chinese version of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale-Children (MAAS-C), the Chinese Version 10-item CES-D Depression Scale (CESD-10), and the Academic Pressure subscale of Inventory of Influencing Factors of Trait Anxiety for Secondary School Students (IIFTAS).
Results
Cross-sectionally, higher graders scored lower mindful awareness than lower graders. Results of latent growth curve analysis showed a slight decrease, but not at a significant level, of mindful awareness in the longitudinal measurement. Results from the parallel-process model indicated that decreases in mindful awareness significantly predicted children and adolescents’ depressive emotions and academic pressure.
Limitations
As a longitudinal study, the time points were insufficient and all variables were assessed by self-report measures.
Conclusion
Mindful awareness might be a significant protector for youth when co-developing with mental health problems.
... In contrast to these findings, the observing facet of the FFMQ, which corresponds to AAMS attention and awareness, is often positively associated with psychopathological symptoms, particularly in non-meditating adult (Baer et al., 2006(Baer et al., , 2008 and adolescent samples (Cortazar & Calvete, 2019;Hambour, Zimmer-Gembeck, Clear, Rowe, & Avdagic, 2018). Calvete, Fernández-González, Echezarraga, and Orue (2019) found that adolescents with the FFMQ profile high observing and low acting with awareness and nonjudgment had higher levels of depressive symptoms, maladaptive schemas, stress perception, and stress-associated hormones. ...
... Specifically, we hypothesized that nonreactivity, nonjudgement, and self-acceptance would drive these associations. We had no a priori hypotheses regarding the association for attention and awareness with the other variables, as previous associations with similar factor FFMQ observing have been inconsistent (Baer et al., 2006(Baer et al., , 2008Cortazar & Calvete, 2019;Hambour et al., 2018). Rather, it was hypothesized that higher levels of attention and awareness would correlate with lower psychopathology symptoms when nonreactivity was also high. ...
We sought to determine the relationship between dispositional mindfulness, Big Five personality traits, and psychopathology in a sample of adolescents at high risk for mood and anxiety disorders. The incremental utility of dispositional mindfulness in predicting psychopathology over and above the Big Five was investigated using a facet-level approach. One hundred and thirty-one adolescents (M = 13.76, SD = 1.65) who had a parent with a history of mood or anxiety disorders completed measures of dispositional mindfulness and facets of mindfulness (i.e., attention and awareness, nonreactivity, nonjudgement, and self-acceptance), the Big Five model of personality, psychopathology (i.e., internalizing, externalizing, and total problems scales), and mindfulness experience. Hierarchical multiple regressions were performed. Controlling for sex, mindfulness experience, and theory driven Big Five factors, higher dispositional mindfulness related to fewer internalizing, externalizing, and total problems. Mindfulness facet self-acceptance was key to this association. Nonreactivity moderated effects of attention and awareness, such that higher attention and awareness correlated to fewer internalizing and total problems only when nonreactivity was also high. Therefore, self-acceptance and nonreactive observing may be unique components of mindfulness that have implications for adolescent psychopathological symptoms, even controlling for well-established personality vulnerability factors. Future adolescent mindfulness intervention research and practice should emphasize techniques that involve observation while concurrently enhancing nonreactivity and self-acceptance.
... i., joyful) (Tomlinson et al., 2017). Similar findings have been reported in samples of adolescents, in which DM was positively related to subjective well-being (Brown et al., 2009), but mostly DM showed negative relationships with some criteria that indicated a certain level of protection, such as lower levels of dysphoric mood and better tolerance to the effects of stress (Ciesla et al., 2012), lower social anxiety (Hambour et al., 2018), and even in gifted adolescents lower levels of depression, anxiety, and negative emotions have been found (Turanzas et al., 2018). ...
... Ciesla et al. (2012) also described a mediating role of ER between DM and psychological health. However, others consider DM has an assisting role with ER (Hambour et al., 2018). ...
Mindfulness is both a non-judgmental and present-centered awareness, which has been applied to reduce negative emotions. On the other hand, Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI) is the way of how good people perceive their emotional intelligence abilities (perceiving, expressing, understanding, and regulating emotions), which are involved in people’s social functioning. This empirical study was designed to analyze whether dispositional mindfulness (DM) and TEI have a potential combined role for children and adolescent’s emotional states. In a sample of primary school students (N = 318), age ranged from 8 to 16 years old (M = 11.25, SD = 2.20), participants filled a TEI measure (ESCQ, Emotional skills and competence questionnaire) and two measures of DM (CAMM, Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure and AFQ-Y, Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth). Measures selected included: PANAS (Positive affect and negative affect schedule), White Bear Suppression Inventory (a thought suppression inventory), and STAIC (State-Trait Anxiety for Children). Findings pointed out that TEI measures (labeling and expression, understanding, and managing emotions) were positively and significantly related to positive emotional states (especially, positive affect and balance) and negatively with a lower association with state anxiety. However, DM measures were both negatively and strongly associated with negative emotional states (thought suppression, negative affect, and anxiety). Conclusions indicate that a combined effect of both TEI skills and DM based interventions would be more complete than each one separately for better social functioning of children and teenagers.
... In order to carry out his duties properly, EH tried to control his anxiety, so it was necessary to regulate emotions in order to be able to carry out his duties properly. This was corroborated by the research conducted by Hambour, Zimmer-Gembeck, Clear, Rowe, & Avdagic (2018) which found that the lack of strategies perceived by adolescents to regulate emotions is associated with increased anxiety symptoms. Yunis and Rahardjo (2011) revealed a very significant correlation between emotion regulation and attitudes towards work effectiveness; the higher the emotional regulation ability of a police officer, the higher the level of attitude towards the effectiveness of the police officer's work. ...
The aim of this study is to figure out on the first experience of Brimob troops as an executor of firing squad in Nusakambangan. The approach used in this study is qualitative with phenomenological method and the data analysis technique using Individual Phenomonenology Description (DFI). The subjects involved in this study are three Brimob troops who had been selected as an executor of firing squad using a purposive method. The method of collecting data is semi-structured interviews. The result of this study is that two subjects experienced a conflict when they were ordered to become the executor. The subjects were ready to carry out that order, but they thought of the sin of killing a people who have no resistance. Therefore, there were doubts to carry out that order. A spiritual guidance from kyai who came from Brimob was able to overcome the doubts and become the reinforcement to be sure to carry out their duty that night. Three subjects experienced anxiety before firing on the form of worrying about making mistake, so the subjects regulated their emotions. Entering the firing range, the subjects focused on the implementation so that they dared to shoot the convicted person. The impact of the execution made two subjects experience flashbacks by carrying out the execution and then they overcome them by letting the memories flow. Therefore, they could forget themselves as time went on and the activities at Brimob. Keyword: Brimob Troops, Death Penalty, Executor of Firing Squad, Phenomenological Qualitative Study
... Mindfulness is the state of remaining attentive and aware of immediate events in the surrounding milieus, requiring a person to be in successive consciousness of what is happening right now (Brown, 2004). Mindfulness is a quality that adolescents can foster to enhance their emotional regulation and coping strategies (Hambour et al., 2018), thereby potentially buffering the negative effects of family stress. In this study, using adolescents' mindfulness as a moderating variable allows us to explore whether and how mindfulness mitigates the risk of parental WFC and inter-parental conflict on adolescent deviant peer affiliations. ...
Parental work-family conflict undermines family functioning, which in turn may impair children’s peer functioning. Using a longitudinal design spanning across 2 years, the present study examined whether paternal/maternal work-family conflict could predict interparental conflict and, in turn, whether such conflict contributed to adolescent affiliation with deviant peers. Additionally, this study also explored the moderating role of adolescent mindfulness on these relationships. As part of a large longitudinal project, 1427 adolescents (773 boys and 654 girls; aged from 12 to 15 years, M = 12.66 years, SD = 0.63) completed questionnaires regarding perceived interparental conflict, deviant peer affiliation, and mindfulness, and both parents reported on questionnaires regarding their own work-family conflict at three-time points with 1-year intervals. Results indicated that paternal but not maternal work-family conflict positively predicted interparental conflict, which was further positively predictive of deviant peer affiliation for adolescents with low but not high mindfulness. Our study revealed the role of paternal work-family conflict as a seemingly distal but relatively proximal risk factor for adolescents’ affiliation with deviant peers, as well as the buffering role of mindfulness on the longitudinal relations.
... Social anxiety manifests as the discomfort, apprehension, and nervousness individuals endure in social contexts, stemming from the apprehension of failing to impress others positively (Mattick & Clarke, 1998). The Stress Buffering Hypothesis suggests that those with heightened mindfulness can manage their anxiety in social circumstances, thereby diminishing their social anxiety (Ryan, 2014;Hambour et al., 2018). Research indicates that persistent negative thought patterns in social exchanges significantly contribute to social anxiety. ...
Recent epidemics have exacerbated the phenomenon of academic burnout among high school students, a significant issue given the established relationship between adult mindfulness and burnout in academic or professional settings. This study investigates the association between mindfulness and academic burnout in high school students, examining the mediating roles of social anxiety and smartphone addiction. We surveyed a sample of 828 high school students between the ages of 16 to 18 years old (M?=?16.79, SD?=?0.78) using a structured questionnaire. Our findings indicate that: (1) The level of mindfulness of high school students is negatively associated with academic burnout. (2) Social anxiety mediated the relationship between mindfulness and academic burnout. (3) Smartphone addiction tendency mediated the relationship between mindfulness and academic burnout. (4) Social anxiety and smartphone addiction tendency of high school students have serial mediating effect on the relationship between mindfulness and academic burnout. This study underscores mindfulness?s protective role against academic burnout in high school students, offering theoretical support for implementing mindfulness-based interventions.
... In addition, the score of non-judgement was the lowest among the five mindfulness facets in the present study. However, previous research conducted in Australia found the nonjudgement facet had the highest score among adolescents (Hambour et al., 2018). A different understanding of the FFMQ items among adolescents might be explained by the diverse cultural backgrounds as well. ...
Previous research demonstrated the relationship between mindfulness and academic performance among adolescents. However, there is a lack of research distinguishing between the five facets of mindfulness (observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judgment and non-reactivity) and their associated underlying mechanisms through motivation. The present study investigated whether autonomous and controlled motivation would mediate the relationship between the five facets of mindfulness and two indicators of academic performance - academic engagement and procrastination among adolescents. A sample of 713 Chinese students were recruited to complete a series of self-reported measures quantifying mindfulness, academic engagement, academic procrastination, and autonomous and controlled motivation. Results indicated that four out of five mindfulness facets– observing (r = 0.198), describing (r = 0.329), acting with awareness (r = 0.365), and non-reactivity (r = 0.187)– were positively correlated with academic engagement (ps < 0.001), whereas non-judgment showed a negative correlation (r=-0.115, p = 0.002). In terms of relationship with academic procrastination, three mindfulness facets– observing (r=-0.115, p = 0.002), describing (r=-0.289, p < 0.001) and acting with awareness (r=-0.365, p < 0.001) exhibited a negative association. Furthermore, autonomous and controlled motivation together mediated the relationships between four facets of mindfulness and academic engagement as well as academic procrastination. However, there was a non-significant mediating effect of controlled motivation in relation between describing and academic performance. Overall, the mediating effect of autonomous motivation was stronger than controlled motivation. Results also indicated that acting with awareness was a relatively more robust protective factor for academic engagement and academic procrastination. Hence, mindfulness intervention programs developed to improve academic performance among adolescents may benefit from targeting on autonomous motivation and the mindfulness facet of acting with awareness.
... Cognitive emotion regulation includes cognitive strategies for managing emotionally arousing information (Ochsner & Gross, 2008). The role of adaptive emotional regulation has been proposed as one of the pathways for the psychological effects of mindfulness (Hambour et al., 2018;Garofalo et al., 2020). According to researchers, changes in emotional regulation are one of the main underlying mechanisms of the beneficial effects of mindfulness (Guendelman et al., 2017). ...
Given the importance of mental health in self-care of patients with type 2 diabetes and the relationship between cognitive flexibility and emotion regulation with mindfulness, the present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of cognitive flexibility in the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness in patients with type 2 diabetes. The present study was conducted using correlation method and structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the study consisted of all men and women with type 2 diabetes referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran. 253 participants were selected using convenience sampling. Participants completed the Garnefski & Kraaij (2006) Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (Baer, Smith & Allen, 2004), and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (Dennis & Vander Wal, 2010). The results showed a positive overall path coefficient between adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness (P = 0.005, β = 0.243) and a negative overall path coefficient between maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness (P = 0.001, β = -0.453). The path coefficient between cognitive flexibility and mindfulness was positive and significant (P = 0.009, β = 0.273). The indirect path coefficient between adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness was positive (P = 0.007, β = 0.094) and the indirect path coefficient between maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness was negative and significant (P = 0.009, β = -0.117). With an increase in emotion regulation skills, cognitive flexibility and mindfulness also increase in patients with type 2 diabetes.
... Research conducted by Hambour et al., in 2018 [31] proposed that adolescents experience high anxiety levels when they are unable to regulate emotions strategically. Their study also investigated that sub-scales of mindfulness were highly associated with symptoms of social anxiety in adolescents. ...
Background: Adolescence is a phase blended with various
challenges and changes. How someone takes these challenges and
accepts the changes (physically, emotionally, or psychologically) are
the major concerns of social scientists.
Objective: Keeping that objective in mind, current research has been
done to assess if emotional regulation leads to impulsivity and
anxiety through the moderating effect of mindfulness.
Method: For the purpose, correlational research design has been
followed and randomly 150 young adolescent females were
selected from various public as well as private schools following
similar kinds of academic board (CBSE). Standardized tools
pertaining to emotion regulation, impulsivity, anxiety, and
mindfulness were administered. To accomplish the objectives of the
study, apart from descriptive statistics correlation of coefficients was
run followed by structural equation modeling (SEM) to highlight the
mediating role of mindfulness between emotion regulation,
impulsivity, and anxiety.
Conclusion: Major findings of the study revealed the direct effect of
emotional suppression on anxiety and impulsivity through the
moderating role of mindfulness whereas no such results were
obtained for cognitive reappraisal. Hence, the proposed model has
been partially found to be significant with the goodness of fitness
index value of 0.935.
... This study found the prevalence of social anxiety among school-going adolescents in Butwal Sub Metropolitan City was 49.7 % with a mean social anxiety score to be 2.51, which was similar to a study conducted in Birgunj Metropolitan where the mean score was 2.31. 1 The study conducted in Australia showed a slightly lower mean score of social anxiety 2.22. 8 The prevalence of social anxiety was found to be 58.5% in a study conducted in Lithuania, which is slightly higher than this study. A study conducted among seven countries of the world revealed the average prevalence of social anxiety among adolescents to be 36%. ...
... Cognitive emotion regulation includes the cognitive methods of managing received information that provokes emotion (Ochsner and Gross, 2008). The facilitating role of adaptive emotion regulation has been one of the proposed paths for the psychological effects of mindfulness (Hambour et al., 2018;Garofalo et al., 2020). According to researchers, changes in emotion regulation are one of the main mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of mindfulness (Guendelman et al., 2017). ...
Introduction:
This study aimed to examine the mediating role of cognitive flexibility in the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Methods:
The research was conducted by correlation method) using Structural Equation Modeling). The statistical population consisted of all women and men with type 2 diabetes. Two hundred fifty-three samples were selected by convenience sampling method. The participants responded to the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Kentucky inventory of mindfulness skills, and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory.
Results:
The results showed that the total path coefficient between the adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness (β = 0.243, P = 0.005) was positive and significant, and the total path coefficient between the maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness (β = -0.453, P = 0.001) was negative and significant. The path coefficient between cognitive flexibility and mindfulness (β = 0.273, P = 0.009) was positive and significant. The indirect path coefficient between the adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness (β = 0.094, P = 0.007) was positive and significant, and the indirect path coefficient between the maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness (β = -0.117, P = 0.009) was negative and significant.
Conclusion:
Improving emotion regulation skills increases cognitive flexibility and mindfulness in patients with type 2 diabetes.
... This is reflective of a larger trend within education as teachers look to social media for lessons of varying quality [72], and indicates that there may be ways to improve the dissemination of education research for uptake in K-12 classrooms. Therefore, while we recognize that teachers should be trusted to respond to the needs of their students through flexibility in their planning, we do not know if the activities they were implementing had been assessed by someone with an SEL or trauma-informed background, or if the teachers were prepared to address any adverse outcomes (e.g., increased social anxiety [73] or traumatic re-experiencing [involuntarily reliving a traumatic event] [74] during or after mindfulness exercises). This is not to say that check-ins or mindfulness should not be used as part of SEL, but instead showcases risks that may be heightened when teachers are not trained, use unvetted materials, or do not have ongoing partnerships with counselors. ...
Schools play an important role in fostering student intrapersonal and interpersonal skills and development, also known as social and emotional learning (SEL). This study examined how K–12 teachers used student SEL strategies in remote and hybrid classroom environments during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time of heightened distress and trauma. Survey data were collected from 26 teachers in Southern California and follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 teachers. Responses were analyzed from an integrated SEL- and trauma-informed perspective. Themes that emerged included focusing on relationships; building routines and predictability; creating space to identify and share feelings; incorporating movement, mindfulness, and play; implementing culturally affirming practices; providing student choice and leadership; and engaging and collaborating with families. Various challenges associated with implementing SEL during COVID-19 are discussed, including teacher burnout, being unsure who was listening in on class conversations, and feeling disconnected in an online environment. Recommendations for practice and further research are provided.
... The FFMQ has demonstrated validity and adequate-to-good reliability in samples of adult and emerging adult meditators and nonmeditators (Baer et al., 2008). Past research suggests the FFMQ demonstrates good-to-excellent reliability in adolescent samples (see Hambour et al., 2018;Johnstone et al., 2020;Ramler et al., 2016). In our sample, reliability for the subscales were good to excellent: observing (α = .81), ...
Objective:
Rumination heightens risk for depression and anxiety, which increase substantially during adolescence. Smartphone apps offer a convenient and cost-effective means for adolescents to access mindfulness training, which may reduce rumination. Despite their increasing popularity, it is unclear which adolescents benefit from mindfulness apps.
Method:
Adolescents (n = 152) with elevated trait rumination were randomly assigned to 3 weeks of app-based mindfulness training or a mood-monitoring control. Multilevel models tested group differences in state rumination change, assessed via ecological momentary assessment. Baseline adolescent characteristics were submitted to elastic net regularization models to develop a "Personalized Advantage Index" indicating an individual's expected outcome from the mindfulness app relative to the mood-monitoring control. Finally, we translated a predictive model (developed in an external sample) for personalized recommendations of expected benefit from the mindfulness app.
Results:
Adolescents in the mindfulness app condition reported significantly greater reductions in rumination than adolescents in the control condition. Individuals predicted to have better outcomes from the mindfulness app relative to mood monitoring had significantly greater reductions in rumination if randomly assigned to the mindfulness condition. In contrast, between-condition differences in outcome were not significant for adolescents predicted to have better outcomes in the mood-monitoring condition.
Conclusions:
Findings support the efficacy of a mindfulness app to reduce state rumination in adolescents, particularly among adolescents high in trait rumination. A predictive model is put forth, which could be used to objectively communicate expected mindfulness app outcomes to adolescents prior to engagement in app-based mindfulness training. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... دخون خ و دل ي ز و , (Ziv et al.,2013) دبج هيم و , -دخون خ و دج الن (Helbig-lang et al.,2015) خخون و ايخػ وجد , (Jazaieri et al.,2015) دخون خ و وهامبيخ , (Hambour et al.,2018 ...
... One study found that people with severe social anxiety had less ability to describe their emotions than non-clinical cases (Butler et al., 2018;Turk et al., 2005). Individuals with more social anxiety symptoms also indicate greater emotion dysregulation (Hambour et al., 2018). Emotion regulation is associated with various skills, including the ability to perceive and recognize an emotional state as an issue that requires proper management, selecting appropriate strategies, and implementing strategies correctly (Gross, 2015;Palmer & Alfano, 2017). ...
Due to the high rate of comorbidity of social anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder, this study aimed to examine the mediation effect of depressive symptoms on the association between emotion regulation, negative self-evaluation, and social anxiety symptoms. The population of this study consisted of all students of the Faculty of Architecture, Islamic Azad University. The sample included 284 of the students based on convenience sampling method. Depressive symptoms were measured by Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck et al., 1996), emotion regulation was measured by Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski et al., Personality and Individual Differences, 30(8), 1311–1327, 2001), social anxiety was measured by Social Phobia Inventory (Connor et al., Depression and Anxiety, 14(2), 137–140, 2001) and, negative self-evaluation was measured by Consequences of Negative Social Events Questionnaire (Wilson and Rapee, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 19(3), 245–274, 2005). We used Path analysis to test the significance of mediation. The result of the study indicated that the direct and indirect effects of all maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, negative self-evaluation and evaluation from the others’, and depression components on social anxiety symptoms components was positive and significant.From these results, we conclude that high levels of depressive symptoms accompanied by high levels of maladaptive emotion regulation and high levels of negative self-evaluation can lead to increased social anxiety symptoms. The theoretical and practical issues have been discussed.
... The reliability values for the subscales in the present study were as follows: observing (α = 0.82), describing (α = 0.79), awareness (α = 0.82), nonjudgment (α = 0.87), and nonreactivity (α = 0.77). The FFMQ has been used in adolescent samples, demonstrating high reliability (see Hambour et al., 2018;Johnstone et al., 2020;Ramler et al., 2016). In addition, parents were also asked (yes/no) whether their child had previous exposure to mindfulness or mindfulness-based concepts. ...
Objectives
Rumination is a transdiagnostic risk factor for depression and anxiety, which surge during the adolescent years. Mindfulness training—with its emphasis on metacognitive awareness and present-moment attention—may be effective at reducing rumination. Mindfulness apps offer a convenient, engaging, and cost-effective means for accessing mindfulness training for teens. Despite their increasing popularity among adolescents, no study to date has investigated which teens are well-suited to app-based mindfulness training.Methods
Eighty adolescents (M age = 14.01 years, 45% girls) with elevated rumination were enrolled in a 3-week trial of app-based mindfulness training. Repeated daily ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys assessed problem-focused and emotion-focused rumination immediately prior to and following each mindfulness exercise. Elastic net regularization (ENR) models tested baseline predictors of “immediate” (post-mindfulness exercise) and “cumulative” (post-3-week intervention) benefit from app-based mindfulness training.ResultsNinety percent (72/80) of adolescents completed the 3-week trial, and the mean number of mindfulness exercises completed was 28.7. Baseline adolescent characteristics accounted for 14–25% of the variance in outcomes (i.e., reduction in problem-focused or emotion-focused rumination). Higher baseline rumination, and lower emotional suppression, predicted better immediate and cumulative outcomes. In contrast, female gender and older age predicted better immediate, but not cumulative, outcomes. Differences in results across outcome timeframes (immediate vs. cumulative) are discussed.Conclusions
Findings from this study highlight the potential of data-driven approaches to inform which adolescent characteristics may predict benefit from engaging with an app-based mindfulness training program. Additional research is needed to test these predictive models against a comparison (non-mindfulness) condition.
... Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was more effective than emotion-regulation training in reducing social anxiety and the fear component among teenagers prone to addiction, and this effect lasted during the follow-up phase. While there have been no studies to compare these two therapeutic methods in terms of social anxiety reduction, studies focusing on either one of these two methods indicate the effectiveness of both, especially mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, on reducing social anxiety [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. The explanation for this finding is that, based on the theory of Linehan, social anxiety is always caused by the judgments and attitudes of individuals, lack of awareness about the consequences of actions and reactions among people, past events, and not predicting the future, while mindfulness-based cognitive therapy emphasizes avoiding judgment, purposeful awareness, and focusing on the present moment. ...
... En un estudio llevado a cabo con 336 adolescentes australianos, cuyo objetivo era examinar las relaciones de la desregulación y la ansiedad social con mindfulness se mostraron correlaciones negativas moderadas entre dichas variables. El trabajo concluyó que la práctica de técnicas de regulación emocional y de mindfulness influían de manera positiva en adolescentes con alta ansiedad social (Hambour et al., 2018). En la misma línea, en otro estudio realizado por Hill y Updegraff (2012) se observó que mindfulness se asociaba con una mayor diferenciación emocional y menos dificultades emocionales (e.g., labilidad emocional y desregulación emocional), cumpliendo la regulación emocional una función de mediadora. ...
Este estudio tiene un doble objetivo, por un lado, conocer las relaciones
existentes entre REMIND (relajación, meditación y mindfulness)
competencia emocional (CE) y rendimiento académico (RA) en
adolescentes; por el otro, analizar si la CE hace el rol de mediador
entre REMIND y RA. La muestra se compone de 1 120 estudiantes
de educación secundaria y bachillerato (51.96% mujeres) con una
media de edad de 14.27 (DE =1.64). El análisis estadístico consistió
fundamentalmente en comprobar la adecuación de las variables en cada
uno de los modelos de ecuación estructural propuestos. En primer lugar,
se calcularon los modelos de medida para después calcular los modelos
SEM. Los resultados mostraron unas buenas relaciones entre variables
y unos indicadores de ajuste aceptables para los modelos de medida.
Así mismo, en el modelo global la CE aparece también como mediador
entre REMIND y RA. Se concluye que las influencias en el RA ejercidas
por REMIND en los modelos analizados son indirectas, a través de las
competencias emocionales. Como conclusión, se destaca la conveniencia
de que los docentes ejerciten en el aula programas o, al menos, ejercicios
de REMIND para potenciar las competencias emocionales del alumnado
... i., happiness) [5]. With adolescents' samples, DM was positively related to subjective well-being [6], but mostly DM showed negative relationships with lower levels of dysphoric mood and better tolerance to the effects of stress [7], lower social anxiety [8], even in gifted adolescents, higher levels of DM corresponds to lower levels of depression, anxiety, and negative emotions [9]. ...
Dispositional Mindfulness (DM) is the awareness of the thoughts and feelings in the present moment. DM in children and adolescents has been related to mechanisms of change in mindfulness-based interventions, which have shown significant mediation relationships with mental health outcomes (for instance, lower social anxiety, depression symptoms, or perceived stress). However, the assessment of DM among children and adolescents is being unsatisfactory due cultural biases and/or reliability issues. In this study, we examined the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM) in a sample of 687 children and adolescents between 8 and 16 years old. Although the CAMM has been validated in English, Portuguese, Italian, and Catalonian versions, until now no data has been reported in a Spanish context. Results showed that the best CAMM factor structure was constituted by five items from the original version (1, 4, 7, 8, and 9). These items defined dispositional mindfulness. The rest of the items (2, 3, 5, 6, and 10) were eliminated from the Spanish final version. The analyses revealed good reliability and internal consistency for the Spanish version of the CAMM. As we expected, the confirmatory factor analysis showed the unidimensional structure of the CAMM.
... and personality pathology. These results, with regards to the mediating role of emotion dysregulation and increase in the effect of pathological personality dimensions (predictive variable) on emotional disorders (criterion variable), are in line with the findings of Hambour, Zimmer-Gembeck, Clear, Rowe, & Avdagic, 2018;Vachon & Krueger, 2015;Stanton et al., 2016;Aldao, 2012;Watson & Naragon-Gainey, 2014;Fairholme et al., 2013 which indicate emotional dysregulation, as a transdiagnostic factor, benefits from increasing predictive potency. The relationship between non-acceptance of emotional responses and negative emotions (Gratz & Roemer, 2004) increases individual's vulnerability to anxiety and depression; thus, non-acceptance of emotional responses makes individuals who have a high level of negative affectivity become tense, anxious, and fearful in the face of negative emotions (Thomas et al., 2013), and takes away their ability to evaluate the proper situation and employ effective strategies to change the situation or adapt their emotional responses (Pollock et al., 2016). ...
The present study aims to investigate the mediating role of emotional dysregulation as a transdiagnostic factor in the relationship between pathological personality dimensions and emotional disorder symptoms severity. A total of 440 university students were selected randomly from two universities, and were assessed through Personality Inventory for DSM 5 Brief Form (PID-5-BF)-Adult, Depression, Anxiety and stress Scales (DASS-21), and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERs). The results obtained from the correlation revealed that there is a direct and significant relationship between pathological personality dimensions and emotional disorders (anxiety and depression). In addition, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) depicted that emotional dysregulation, as a transdiagnostic factor, can mediate the relationship between pathological personality and emotional disorders (anxiety, depression, and stress). The current findings illustrate how emotional dysregulation can increase the influenceability of pathological personality dimensions on emotional disorders.
Helicopter parenting during emerging adulthood, a developmental period highlighting autonomy and self-reliance, can undermine college students’ well-being. The current study examined the mediating role of emotion dysregulation in the association between helicopter parenting and mental health outcomes among college-aged adults. A sample of 790 college students completed questionnaires on perceived helicopter parenting, emotion dysregulation, depression, social anxiety, and alcohol use. Results generally supported the hypothesized mediation model, but associations depended on the specific helicopter parenting behavior, emotion dysregulation dimension, and mental health outcome. Autonomy limiting was particularly detrimental to all emotion dysregulation dimensions and mental health, whereas information-seeking behaviors may be beneficial to emerging adults’ outcomes. Impulse control difficulties and lack of emotional clarity emerged as robust mediators. The findings highlight the importance of disentangling specific helicopter parenting behaviors as well as emotion dysregulation as a mechanism of risk, providing useful clinical implications for the improvement of college students’ well-being.
Emotion regulation has been put forward as an important transdiagnostic process. However, previous analyses of the relationships between emotion regulation strategies and symptoms of psychopathology in children and adolescents have produced mixed results. The present meta-analysis examines the relationships between youth’s habitual use of three adaptive (acceptance, problem-solving, and cognitive reappraisal) and three maladaptive (rumination, avoidance, and suppression) strategies with symptoms of depression, anxiety, aggression, and addiction. A total of 181 articles with 386 effect sizes were analyzed. Rumination, avoidance, and acceptance showed the largest effect sizes across all symptoms. Maladaptive strategies showed, in general, larger effect sizes than adaptive strategies. Effect sizes were generally larger for internalizing compared to externalizing symptoms. The findings underscore the importance of emotion regulation for mental health in youth.
Experiencing mindful parenting has been positively associated with youth’s dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion, which in turn, relates to better emotional adjustment. However, mindful parenting could also relate to interpersonal mindfulness, which is another form of mindfulness that has had a unique relation with social adjustment. In this study, 458 emerging adults (age of 17–21 years) completed a survey to report their current experience of mindful parenting, dispositional mindfulness, self-compassion, interpersonal mindfulness, emotional (general well-being, social anxiety) and social adjustment (friendship quality, prosocial behavior, conflict negotiation). Regression models testing direct and indirect associations showed that mindful parenting was directly but also indirectly associated with emerging adults’ emotional adjustment via dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion (not interpersonal mindfulness), and indirectly associated with social adjustment via interpersonal mindfulness (not dispositional mindfulness or self-compassion). Findings have implications for theory and practice within the areas of mindfulness, parenting, and emerging adults’ emotion regulation and personal adjustment.
Introduction
Adolescents and young adults who overemphasize the social values placed on an attractive appearance may develop body dysmorphic symptoms (BDS), defined as over‐preoccupation with perceived appearance flaws and repetitive behaviors to conceal the flaws. Further, research has found that a heightened expectation of judgement and rejection by others because of appearance (i.e., appearance‐based rejection sensitivity [appearance‐RS]) is both a maintaining and an aggravating factor in BDS. This study focused on emotion regulation (ER), appearance‐related support from others and self‐acceptance, expecting they would buffer the negative impact of appearance‐RS on BDS.
Methods
Participants included 782 Australian high school and young university students, aged 14–28 years (M = 17.94 years, 40% male) who completed a survey to report their BDS, appearance‐RS, ER, appearance‐related support from others and self‐acceptance.
Results
Multiple regression analyses revealed that youth reported more BDS when they were higher in appearance‐RS but reported less self‐acceptance, ER, and support from others. Further, the association between appearance‐RS and BDS was weaker when young people reported higher (relative to lower) ER and support from others. However, when three‐way interactions with gender were tested, these buffering effects were only significant for young men.
Conclusion
Findings suggest that ER and appearance‐related support from important others are promising targets for intervention, given they could mitigate the risk of appearance‐RS in young men. However, further research is needed to consider additional factors that buffer against the negative effects of appearance‐RS on BDS for young women.
Interest in applications of mindfulness-based approaches with adults has grown rapidly in recent times, and there is an expanding
research base that suggests these are efficacious approaches to promoting psychological health and well-being. Interest has
spread to applications of mindfulness-based approaches with children and adolescents, yet the research is still in its infancy.
I aim to provide a preliminary review of the current research base of mindfulness-based approaches with children and adolescents,
focusing on MBSR/MBCT models, which place the regular practice of mindfulness meditation at the core of the intervention.
Overall, the current research base provides support for the feasibility of mindfulness-based interventions with children and
adolescents, however there is no generalized empirical evidence of the efficacy of these interventions. For the field to advance,
I suggest that research needs to shift away from feasibility studies towards large, well-designed studies with robust methodologies,
and adopt standardized formats for interventions, allowing for replication and comparison studies, to develop a firm research
evidence base.
KeywordsMindfulness meditation-Children-Adolescents-Families-Schools
Both basic science and clinical research on mindfulness, meditation, and related constructs have dramatically increased in recent years. However, interpretation of these research results has been challenging. The present article addresses unique conceptual and methodological problems posed by research in this area. Included among the key topics is the role of first-person experience and how it can be best studied, the challenges posed by intervention research designs in which true double-blinding is not possible, the nature of control and comparison conditions for research that includes mindfulness or other meditation-based interventions, issues in the adequate description of mindfulness and related trainings and interventions, the question of how mindfulness can be measured, questions regarding what can and cannot be inferred from self-report measures, and considerations regarding the structure of study design and data analyses. Most of these topics are germane to both basic and clinical research studies and have important bearing on the future scientific understanding of mindfulness and meditation. (PsycINFO Database Record
Emotion regulation deficits are implicated in many forms of psychosocial distress. The aim of the present research was to investigate whether emotion regulation was the process underlying the well-established association between low dispositional mindfulness and greater psychosocial distress. Two studies are presented that examined whether non-acceptance of emotion and limited access to emotion regulation strategies were the processes underlying the association between low mindfulness and depression, anxiety, stress, general psychological symptoms, interpersonal distress, and social role difficulties in a student sample (Study 1) and a clinical sample (Study 2). In Study 1, there were indirect effects of mindfulness and symptom distress, depression, anxiety, stress, and social role difficulties through non-acceptance of emotions. There were indirect associations between mindfulness and symptom distress, interpersonal distress, social role difficulties, depression, anxiety, and stress through lack of access to emotion regulation strategies. In Study 2, there were indirect associations between mindfulness and psychological symptom distress, interpersonal distress, depression, anxiety, and stress through lack of access to emotion regulation strategies. In brief, emotion regulation difficulties are, at least in part, the process underlying the association of low dispositional mindfulness and psychosocial distress.
There has been a increasing interest in understanding emotion regulation deficits in social anxiety disorder (SAD; e.g., Hofmann, Sawyer, Fang, & Asnaani, 2012). However, much remains to be understood about the patterns of associations among regulation strategies in the repertoire. Doing so is important in light of the growing recognition that people's ability to flexibly implement strategies is associated with better mental health (e.g., Kashdan et al., 2014). Based on previous work (Aldao & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2012), we examined whether putatively adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies interacted with each other in the prediction of social anxiety symptoms in a sample of 71 participants undergoing CBT for SAD. We found that strategies interacted with each other and that this interaction was qualified by a three-way interaction with a contextual factor, namely treatment study phase. Consequently, these findings underscore the importance of modeling contextual factors when seeking to understand emotion regulation deficits in SAD.
Despite the growing research on emotion regulation, the empirical evidence for normative age-related emotion regulation patterns is
rather divergent. From a life-span perspective, normative age changes in emotion regulation may be more salient applying the same methodological
approach on a broad age range examining both growth and decline during development. In addition, emotion-specific developmental
patterns might show differential developmental trends. The present study examined age differences in seven emotion regulation
strategies from early adolescence (age 11) to middle adulthood (age 50) for the three emotions of sadness, fear, and anger. The results
showed specific developmental changes in the use of emotion regulation strategies for each of the three emotions. In addition, results
suggest age-specific increases and decreases in many emotion regulation strategies, with a general trend to increasing adaptive emotion
regulation. Specifically, middle adolescence shows the smallest emotion regulation strategy repertoire. Gender differences appeared for
most emotion regulation strategies. The findings suggest that the development of emotion regulation should be studied in an emotionspecific
manner, as a perspective solely on general emotion regulation either under- or overestimates existing emotion-specific developmental
changes.
Mindfulness may be conceptualised as a dispositional trait which differs across individuals. Previous
research has independently identified both attachment security and emotion regulation abilities as correlates
of dispositional attachment. We investigated the relationship between the three concepts in a
sample of 192 participants who had previously had no mindfulness training. Participants completed
the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Revised
(ECR-R) and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) online. Exploratory factor analysis
revealed a 2-factor solution accounting for 52% of the variance across scores on these measures. The first
factor accounted for 36% of the variance and loaded highly on emotion regulation and mindfulness subscales.
The second factor accounted for 16% of the variance and loaded highly on emotion regulation,
attachment and mindfulness subscales. We called the first factor ‘conscious awareness of emotional
states’ and the second factor ‘metacognition of emotional states’. The results confirmed that both emotional
regulation abilities and attachment security were related to dispositional mindfulness.
Recent research has demonstrated that higher levels of mindfulness are associated with greater psychological and physical health. However, the majority of this research has been conducted with adults; research is only beginning to examine the effects of mindfulness among adolescents. Further, research into adolescent mindfulness has typically conceptualized mindfulness as a unidimensional phenomenon and has not yet examined multidimensional models of mindfulness that have emerged in the adult literature. Further, the mechanisms through which mindfulness influences these outcomes are presently unclear. The present study examined the effects of three facets of mindfulness among adolescents. Seventy-eight adolescents (61% female, 94% Caucasian, M age = 16) completed a measure of dispositional mindfulness at baseline. Participants then completed measures of daily stress, dysphoric affect, and state rumination over a 7-day period. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that facets of mindfulness (i.e., nonreactivity and nonjudgment) were associated with lower levels of dysphoric mood. Mindfulness interacted with daily stress to predict later dysphoria; less mindful individuals were particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of stress. Finally, analyses demonstrated that the effect of the Mindfulness × Stress Moderation was significantly mediated by increases in daily rumination. These findings support the importance of mindfulness among adolescents and help to elucidate the mechanisms through which mindfulness influences psychological health.
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.
This study examined the moderating effects of dispositional rumination and mindfulness on the relationship between recent life hassles and adolescent mental health (operationalized as symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress).
Data collected from a sample of 317 Australian high school students comprised an inventory of recent life hassles, measures of dispositional rumination and dispositional mindfulness and an assessment of current symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.
An increased incidence of recent life hassles was reliably associated with increased depressive symptoms, anxiety and stress. However, moderation analyses revealed that dispositional rumination exacerbated the relationship between life hassles and symptoms of depression and anxiety, whereas dispositional mindfulness attenuated the relationship between life hassles and symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.
Interventions to increase dispositional mindfulness in childhood are proposed as a method of protecting the psychological well-being of adolescents confronted by inevitable everyday life stress.
This study examined the utility of modifying the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised (SASC-R) for use with adolescents, and examined associations between adolescents' social anxiety (SA) and their peer relations, friendships, and social functioning. Boys (n = 101) and girls (n = 149) in the 10th through 12th grades completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) and measures of social support, perceived competence, and number and quality of their best friendships. Factor analysis of the SAS-A confirmed a three-factor structure: Fear of Negative Evaluation, Social Avoidance and Distress in General, and Social Avoidance Specific to New Situations or Unfamiliar Peers. Girls reported more SA than boys, and SA was more strongly linked to girls' social functioning than boys'. Specifically, adolescents with higher levels of SA reported poorer social functioning (less support from classmates, less social acceptance), and girls with higher levels of SA reported fewer friendships, and less intimacy, companionship, and support in their close friendships. These findings extend work on the SASC-R to adolescents, and suggest the importance of SA for understanding the social functioning and close friendships of adolescents, especially girls.
Examined the emotion understanding of children and adolescents referred for treatment of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) anxiety disorders (separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or social phobia). Referred youths (n = 17) and nonreferred youths (n = 21) and their parents participated by completing self-report and parent-report questionnaires and structured diagnostic interviews. We interviewed all youths by using an emotion understanding interview. Referred youths demonstrated poorer understanding of hiding emotions and changing emotions compared with nonreferred youth. The 2 groups were not significantly different regarding their understanding of emotion cues and multiple emotions, however. No statistically significant relation emerged between general intelligence and emotion understanding. Future research directions are discussed.
Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. This research provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the role of mindfulness in psychological well-being. The development and psychometric properties of the dispositional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) are described. Correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies then show that the MAAS measures a unique quality of consciousness that is related to a variety of well-being constructs, that differentiates mindfulness practitioners from others, and that is associated with enhanced self-awareness. An experience-sampling study shows that both dispositional and state mindfulness predict self-regulated behavior and positive emotional states. Finally, a clinical intervention study with cancer patients demonstrates that increases in mindfulness over time relate to declines in mood disturbance and stress.
A self-report inventory for the assessment of mindfulness skills was developed, and its psychometric characteristics and relationships with other constructs were examined. Participants included three samples of undergraduate students and a sample of outpatients with borderline personality disorder. Based on discussions of mindfulness in the current literature, four mindfulness skills were specified: observing, describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgment. Scales designed to measure each skill were developed and evaluated. Results showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability and a clear factor structure. Most expected relationships with other constructs were significant. Findings suggest that mindfulness skills are differentially related to aspects of personality and mental health, including neuroticism, psychological symptoms, emotional intelligence, alexithymia, experiential avoidance, dissociation, and absorption.
This study examined emotion management skills in addition to the role of emotional intensity and self-efficacy in emotion regulation in 26 children with anxiety disorders (ADs) ages 8 to 12 years and their counterparts without any form of psychopathology. Children completed the Children's Emotion Management Scales (CEMS) and Emotion Regulation Interview (ERI), and mothers reported on their children's emotion regulation using the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC). Results indicated that children who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (4th ed., American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria for an anxiety disorder had difficulty managing worried, sad, and anger experiences, potentially due to their report of experiencing emotions with high intensity and having little confidence in their ability to regulate this arousal. These findings indicate that emotion regulation needs to be considered centrally in research with anxious populations.
The authors examine the facet structure of mindfulness using five recently developed mindfulness questionnaires. Two large samples of undergraduate students completed mindfulness questionnaires and measures of other constructs. Psychometric properties of the mindfulness questionnaires were examined, including internal consistency and convergent and discriminant relationships with other variables. Factor analyses of the combined pool of items from the mindfulness questionnaires suggested that collectively they contain five clear, interpretable facets of mindfulness. Hierarchical confirmatory factor analyses suggested that at least four of the identified factors are components of an overall mindfulness construct and that the factor structure of mindfulness may vary with meditation experience. Mindfulness facets were shown to be differentially correlated in expected ways with several other constructs and to have incremental validity in the prediction of psychological symptoms. Findings suggest that conceptualizing mindfulness as a multifaceted construct is helpful in understanding its components and its relationships with other variables.
Previous research on assessment of mindfulness by self-report suggests that it may include five component skills: observing, describing, acting with awareness, nonjudging of inner experience, and nonreactivity to inner experience. These elements of mindfulness can be measured with the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). The authors investigated several aspects of the construct validity of the FFMQ in experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups. Consistent with predictions, most mindfulness facets were significantly related to meditation experience and to psychological symptoms and well-being. As expected, relationships between the observing facet and psychological adjustment varied with meditation experience. Regression and mediation analyses showed that several of the facets contributed independently to the prediction of well-being and significantly mediated the relationship between meditation experience and well-being. Findings support the construct validity of the FFMQ in a combination of samples not previously investigated.
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.
The goal of this chapter is to review conceptual and empirical progress in the study of the development of coping and to identify important ways in which this work may be useful to researchers studying the development of psychopathology and resilience. We first summarize perspectives that identify coping as a transactional process, reviewing theory and research on how individual differences in stress appraisals, coping, and emotional responses are linked to psychopathology and adaptive functioning. Then, in the normative developmental perspectives section, we describe coping as a fundamental human adaptive process that involves the regulation of multiple subsystems (like emotion and attention) that are activated by stress. We consider age-graded developments in multiple ways of coping in order to bring structure to research on the negative and positive outcomes of coping for human adaptation, psychopathology, and resilience. In the developmental systems section, we consider coping as an integral part of developmental cascades that contribute to psychopathology and resilience. We review research on how coping is associated with temperament, attachment, and parenting to identify examples of underlying risk and protective factors. These factors likely play a role in developmental cascades that mark and contribute to psychopathology and resilience. We end with suggestions for future research and highlight some translational implications of research.
The use of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) is well documented in the mental health, medical, and education literature. There is minimal research on the use of mindfulness with social workers. As demonstrated in other professional and helping fields, mindfulness may enhance clinical skills, reduce burnout, and increase job satisfaction among social workers. In the health care field mindfulness appears integral to patient and family relationships and personal resilience. The evolving and expanding role of hospital social workers may lead to increased work stress and greater demands from both the medical system and patients and families. Research with medical providers, such as physicians and nurses, suggests mindfulness may help in reducing stress, enhancing relationships, and fostering the self-reflection required to provide patient-centered care. We systematically reviewed the existing literature to begin understanding both mindfulness qualities and practices and the effectiveness of MBIs among social workers as well as the relationship of mindfulness to patient-centered care.
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
ContextThe cultivation of mindfulness and acceptance has been theoretically and empirically associated with psychological ancillary well-being and has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of various disorders. Hence, mindfulness and acceptance-based treatments (MABTs) have recently been explored for the treatment of social anxiety disorder (SAD). This review aims to evaluate the benefits of MABTs for SAD.Methods
Systematic review of studies investigating an MABT for individuals with SAD, using PsycInfo, Medline, PubMed, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials.ResultsNine studies were identified. Significant improvements in symptomatology were demonstrated following the MABT, but benefits were equivalent or less than yielded by cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).LimitationsThe few treatment studies available were compromised by significant methodological weaknesses and high risk of bias across domains. Studies were largely uncontrolled with small sample sizes. The hybrid nature of these interventions creates ambiguity regarding the specific utility of treatment components or combinations.ConclusionsMABTs demonstrate significant benefits for reducing SAD symptomatology; however, outcomes should be interpreted with caution until appropriate further research is conducted. Furthermore, the benefit of MABTs above and beyond CBT must be considered tentative at best; thus, CBT remains best practice for first-line treatment of SAD.
Adolescence is a time of many psychosocial and physiological changes. One such change is how an individual responds to stressors. Specifically, adolescence is marked by significant shifts in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity, resulting in heightened stress-induced hormonal responses. It is presently unclear what mediates these changes in stress reactivity and what impacts they may have on an adolescent individual. However, stress-sensitive limbic and cortical brain areas that continue to mature during adolescence may be particularly vulnerable to these shifts in responsiveness. Consequently, perturbations of the maturing adolescent brain may contribute to the increase in stress-related psychological dysfunctions, such as anxiety, depression, and drug abuse, often observed during this stage of development. The purpose of this review is to describe the changes that occur in HPA function during adolescence, as well as to briefly discuss the possible ramifications of these changes on the developing brain and psychological health.
We report the results of a short programme of mindfulness training administered to adolescent boys in a classroom setting. Intervention and control groups (N = 155) were compared on measures of mindfulness, resilience and psychological well-being. Although the overall differences between the two groups failed to reach significance, we found that within the mindfulness group, there was a significant positive association between the amount of individual practice outside the classroom and improvement in psychological well-being and mindfulness. We also found that the improvement in well-being was related to personality variables (agreeableness and emotional stability). Most students reported enjoying and benefiting from the mindfulness training, and 74% said they would like to continue with it in the future. The results of this preliminary study are encouraging. Further work is needed to refine the training programme and undertake a definitive randomised controlled trial, using both subjective and objective outcome measures, with long-term follow-up.
Interest in mindfulness and its enhancement has burgeoned in recent years. In this article, we discuss in detail the nature of mindfulness and its relation to other, established theories of attention and awareness in day-to-day life. We then examine theory and evidence for the role of mindfulness in curtailing negative functioning and enhancing positive outcomes in several important life domains, including mental health, physical health, behavioral regulation, and interpersonal relationships. The processes through which mindfulness is theorized to have its beneficial effects are then discussed, along with proposed directions for theoretical development and empirical research.
The emerging field of emotion regulation studies how individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them. This review takes an evolutionary perspective and characterizes emotion in terms of response tendencies. Emotion regulation is defined and distinguished from coping, mood regulation, defense, and affect regulation. In the increasingly specialized discipline of psychology, the field of emotion regulation cuts across traditional boundaries and provides common ground. According to a process model of emotion regulation, emotion may be regulated at five points in the emotion generative process: (a) selection of the situation, (b) modification of the situation, (c) deployment of attention, (d) change of cognitions, and (e) modulation of responses. The field of emotion regulation promises new insights into age-old questions about how people manage their emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
The nature and potential benefit of awareness and experiential acceptance in adolescence remains neglected and understudied. To address this gap in the literature, 776 students (50% female) in Grade 10 completed measures of mindfulness, emotional awareness, and experiential acceptance, as well as measures of major personality traits. To study prospective changes, assessments of emotional well-being were completed across a 1-year interval. Analyses revealed that "Acting with Awareness" (engaging fully in one's current activity with undivided attention), emotional awareness, and experiential acceptance where all linked to prosocial tendencies and uniquely predicted increases in well-being across the year. Observing experience (noticing, observing, and attending to a variety of stimuli) was correlated with positive and negative aspects of personality and did not predict changes in well-being. We discuss the implications for understanding awareness and acceptance in youth.
Four domains of evidence regarding the relationship between attention and social phobia are reviewed: (1) possible maintaining factor, (2) causal relationship, (3) specific relationship and (4) mediator of change during treatment. Two areas of research are covered and integrated: vigilance-avoidance of social threat stimuli and self-focused attention. There is empirical support for these processes as possible maintaining factors that are specific to patients and non-clinical samples with high levels of social anxiety. There is reasonable evidence to promote the use of attentional strategies in the treatment of social phobia, although better controlled studies are required. We propose six overlapping mechanisms that could be responsible for change: reduced vigilance; reduced avoidance; reduced self-focused attention; mindfulness; increased attentional control; increased self-esteem.
Adolescence is a transition period from childhood to adulthood that is often characterized by emotional instability. This period is also a time of increased incidence of anxiety and depression, underscoring the importance of understanding biological substrates of behavioral and emotion regulation during adolescence. Developmental changes in the brain in concert with individual predispositions for anxiety might underlie the increased risk for poor outcomes reported during adolescence. We tested the hypothesis that difficulties in regulating behavior in emotional contexts in adolescents might be due to competition between heightened activity in subcortical emotional processing systems and immature top-down prefrontal systems. Individual differences in emotional reactivity might put some teens at greater risk during this sensitive transition in development.
We examined the association between emotion regulation and frontoamygdala circuitry in 60 children, adolescents, and adults with an emotional go-nogo paradigm. We went beyond examining the magnitude of neural activity and focused on neural adaptation within this circuitry across time with functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Adolescents showed exaggerated amygdala activity relative to children and adults. This age-related difference decreased with repeated exposures to the stimuli, and individual differences in self-ratings of anxiety predicted the extent of adaptation or habituation in amygdala. Individuals with higher trait anxiety showed less habituation over repeated exposures. This failure to habituate was associated with less functional connectivity between ventral prefrontal cortex and amygdala.
These findings suggest that exaggerated emotional reactivity during adolescence might increase the need for top-down control and put individuals with less control at greater risk for poor outcomes.
- K Hambour
K. Hambour et al.
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Integrating mindfulness training into K-12 education: Fostering the resilience of teachers and students
- J Meiklejohn
- C Phillips
- M L Freedman
- M L Griffin
- G Biegel
- A Roach
- . . Isberg
Meiklejohn, J., Phillips, C., Freedman, M. L., Griffin, M. L., Biegel, G., Roach, A.,... Isberg,
R. (2012). Integrating mindfulness training into K-12 education: Fostering the resilience of teachers and students. Mindfulness, 3, 291-307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/
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The development of coping from birth to emerging adulthood: Neurophysiological and social underpinnings, qualitative shifts, and differential pathways towards psychopathology and resilience
- E A Skinner
- M J Zimmer-Gembeck
Skinner, E. A., & Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J. (2016). The development of coping from birth to
emerging adulthood: Neurophysiological and social underpinnings, qualitative shifts, and
differential pathways towards psychopathology and resilience. New York: Springer.
Using multivariate statistics
- B G Tabachnick
- L S Fidell
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Boston:
Pearson.