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An Experimental Test of the Mindfulness-to-Meaning Theory: Casual Pathways Between Decentering, Reappraisal, and Well-being

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Abstract

Emotion regulation ideally promotes subjective well-being in addition to relieving distress. Mindfulness-to-Meaning theory (MMT) proposes that well-being interventions follow a common pathway to promote wellness using two intermediate stages: decentering from initial stress appraisals followed by positive reappraisal of life events—linking a broadened state of awareness with narrative meaning-making. A preregistered (https://osf.io/c2xzd) evaluation of the MMT compared online, 3-week adaptations of established well-being interventions in a postsecondary student sample. The study (N = 131) employed a four-arm randomized trial design, featuring (a) control, (b) mindfulness, (c) stress mindset, and (d) blended mindfulness and stress mindset training conditions. The MMT pathway accounted for change in well-being across all models, mindfulness training consistently promoted positive reappraisal despite an absence of reappraisal instructions, and an exploratory cross-lagged analysis found decentering facilitative of subsequent reappraisal. However, the stress mindset intervention failed to improve well-being relative to control, limiting capacity for causal inference; post hoc analyses, therefore, focused on the more efficacious mindfulness training conditions. The MMT accounted for change in well-being across all levels of analysis, although well-being changes were also supported by direct effects of mindfulness training and decentering, with only partial mediation through the complete MMT pathway. These findings support MMT as a process model for well-being but suggest that decentering and reappraisal only partially account for the salutary effects of well-being interventions.
An Experimental Test of the Mindfulness-to-Meaning Theory: Casual Pathways
Between Decentering, Reappraisal, and Well-being
Yiyi Wang
1
, Eric L. Garland
2
, and Norman A. S. Farb
1, 3
1
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga
2
Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development, College of Social Work, University of Utah
3
Department of Psychological Clinical Science, University of Toronto Scarborough
Emotion regulation ideally promotes subjective well-being in addition to relieving distress. Mindfulness-to-
Meaning theory (MMT) proposes that well-being interventions follow a common pathway to promote well-
ness using two intermediate stages: decentering from initial stress appraisals followed by positive reap-
praisal of life eventslinking a broadened state of awareness with narrative meaning-making. A
preregistered (https://osf.io/c2xzd) evaluation of the MMT compared online, 3-week adaptations of estab-
lished well-being interventions in a postsecondary student sample. The study (N=131) employed a four-
arm randomized trial design, featuring (a) control, (b) mindfulness, (c) stress mindset, and (d) blended mind-
fulness and stress mindset training conditions. The MMT pathway accounted forchange in well-being across
all models, mindfulness training consistently promoted positive reappraisal despite an absence of reappraisal
instructions, and an exploratory cross-lagged analysis found decentering facilitative of subsequent reap-
praisal. However, the stress mindset intervention failed to improve well-being relative to control, limiting
capacity for causal inference; post hoc analyses, therefore, focused on the more efcacious mindfulness
training conditions. The MMT accounted for change in well-being across all levels of analysis, although
well-being changes were also supported by direct effects of mindfulness training and decentering, with
only partial mediation through the complete MMT pathway. These ndings support MMT as a process
model for well-being but suggest that decentering and reappraisal only partially account for the salutary
effects of well-being interventions.
Keywords: mindfulness, decentering, reappraisal, well-being, mindfulness-to-meaning theory
Supplemental materials: https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001252.supp
Well-being has been characterized as a state of high positive affect
(PA), low negative affect, and high life satisfaction (Larsen, 2022). In
contrast to clinical accounts that enumerate dimensions of distress,
well-being is situated within a continuum anchored by languishing
and ourishing, indicating a persons level of positive and meaningful
engagement with life (Keyes, 2007). Well-being interventions aim to
promote ourishing,yet in comparison toextensive scholarship on the
mechanisms for symptom reduction in clinical psychology (e.g.,
Abramowitz & Deacon, 2010;Gruber et al., 2021), the central mech-
anisms supporting ourishing are underspecied in the research
literature. For example, Self-Determination Theory suggests that
ourishing is characterized by levels of competence, autonomy, and
relatedness to others (Ryan et al., 2019), yet how one fosters these
adaptive qualities is less clear (Gillison et al., 2019).
Well-being promotion is supported by a new generation of candi-
date interventions, such as connecting with nature (Capaldi et al.,
2015), mindset training (Jamieson et al., 2018), positive psychology
interventions (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009;White et al., 2019), and
contemplative approaches such as mindfulness (Gu et al., 2015)
and yoga (Breedvelt et al., 2019). Yet despite the proliferation of
This article was published Online First May 11, 2023.
Yiyi Wang https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2198-581X
Eric L. Garland is the Director of the Center on Mindfulness and Integrative
Health Intervention Development. The center provides Mindfulness-Oriented
Recovery Enhancement (MORE), mindfulness-based therapy, and cognitive
behavioral therapy in the context of research trials for no cost to research par-
ticipants; however, Eric L. Garland has received honoraria and payment for
delivering seminars, lectures, and teaching engagements (related to training cli-
nicians in MORE), including those sponsored by institutions of higher educa-
tion, government agencies, academic teaching hospitals, and medical centers.
Eric L. Garland also receives royalties from the sale of books related to MORE.
Eric L. Garland has also been a consultant and licensor to BehaVR, LLC.
Eric L. Garland received funding from NIH and Norman A.S. Farb
received funding from Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Council
(NSERC) Discovery.
The data were preregistered at: https://osf.io/c2xzd
Yiyi Wang served as lead for data curation, formal analysis, investiga-
tion, methodology, and project administration. Eric L. Garland served in a
supporting role for funding acquisition, writingoriginal draft, and writ-
ingreview and editing. Norman A. S. Farb served as lead for funding
acquisition, supervision, and contributed equally to formal analysis and
methodology. Yiyi Wang, Eric L. Garland, and Norman A. S. Farb con-
tributed to conceptualization equally. Yiyi Wang, Eric L. Garland, and
Norman A. S. Farb contributed to writingoriginal draft, writingreview
and editing, and visualization equally.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Yiyi Wang,
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359
Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6, Canada. Email: yiyiw
.wang@mail.utoronto.ca
Emotion
© 2023 American Psychological Association 2023, Vol. 23, No. 8, 22432258
ISSN: 1528-3542 https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001252
2243
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
... Additionally, the issue of measurement extends to mechanistic constructs related to Wellbeing change. For example, Mindfulnessto-Meaning Theory (MMT; Garland et al., 2015a) has garnered empirical support as a mechanism of action explaining the benefits of mindfulness training interventions (Garland et al., 2017;Garland et al., 2015b;Wang et al., 2023). MMT identifies at least two mechanistic mediators of Wellbeing enhancement: Decentering-the capacity for detachment from viewing thoughts and feelings as enduring truths-and Reappraisal-the ability to change one's perspective or interpretation of events to promote a deeper sense of meaning and acceptance. ...
... Higher scores on each subdomain indicate higher levels of that domain, and the total scores were calculated by summing the three domains. The MpoD-T has been validated in post-secondary student populations (De Oliveira et al., 2024;Wang et al., 2023). ...
... Finally, it should be noted that slope variances were significant for Decentering but not Reappraisal factors. This aligns with prior research in which online, student-focused interventions most reliably impacted Decentering to improve Wellbeing, whereas change in Reappraisal was more difficult to achieve within a limited intervention timeframe (Wang et al., 2023). ...
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... The Mindfulness to Meaning (MMT) theory (Garland et al., 2015a;Wang et al., 2023) provides a rationale for why this may occur. MMT proposes that mindfulness represents positive emotion regulation that elucidates downstream, cognitiveaffective mechanisms which promotes well-being (Garland & Fredrickson, 2019). ...
... In support of this, mindfulness has been associated with positive affect (Pogrebtsova et al., 2018) and trait mindfulness has been positively related to event-level positivity (Nezlek et al., 2016). For example, using MMT, Wang et al. (2023) demonstrated that mindfulness promotes positive affect via the two intermediate stages of decentering from stress and positive reappraisal. As individuals practice mindfulness over time, this practice becomes well learned and automatic (i.e., trait mindfulness) and should be associated with positive affect on a daily basis. ...
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... The Monitor and Acceptance Theory proposes that attention monitoring heightens awareness of present-moment experiences whereas acceptance supports an adaptive modification to one's relationship to the present moment (Lindsay and Creswell, 2017). While studies seeking to deliberately test both the Monitor and Acceptance Theory and Mindfulness-to-Meaning Theory are ongoing, presently, there exists a promising amount of literature supporting their utility in explaining the essential processes underlying MBIs (Sgherza et al., 2022;Simione and Saldarini, 2023;Wang et al., 2023). Yet, both theories tend to be examined in isolation from one another, without attempts to integrate the two explicitly. ...
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... This shift may proposedly have a positive influence on well-being (Shapiro et al., 2006). Moreover, decentering has been found to aid in maintaining well-being during adversity (Bernstein et al., 2015;Wang et al., 2023). Thus, decentering may act as an intermediate outcome that could potentially influence more distal mental health outcomes. ...
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... This can also lead to a more compassionate and accepting selfrelationship, which is a cornerstone of psychological well-being (Good et al., 2016). Furthermore, mindfulness has been shown to enhance emotional regulation through reappraisal techniques (Wenzel et al., 2023); individuals learn to observe their emotions without becoming overwhelmed by them, allowing for greater emotional stability and resilience in the face of stressors (Wang et al., 2023). All in all, these factors contribute to an increased frequency of positive affect (i.e. ...
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