Cognitive Fusion Mediates the Relationship between Dispositional Mindfulness and Negative Affects: A Study in a Sample of Spanish Children and Adolescent School Students

Abstract

Nowadays, mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) have experienced a remarkable development of studies among childhood and adolescent interventions. For this reason, dispositional mindfulness (DM) measures for children and adolescents have been developed to determine the effectiveness of MBI at this age stage. However, little is known about how key elements of DM (for example, cognitive de/fusion or experiential avoidance that both confirm psychological inflexibility) are involved in the mechanisms of the children and adolescents’ mental health outcomes. This research examined the mediating effect of cognitive fusion between DM and anxiety and other negative emotional states in a sample of 318 Spanish primary-school students (aged between 8 and 16 years, M = 11.24, SD = 2.19, 50.8% males). Participants completed the AFQ-Y (Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for youth), which is a measure of psychological inflexibility that encompasses cognitive defusion and experiential avoidance; CAMM (DM for children and adolescents), PANAS-N (positive and negative affect measure for children, Spanish version of PANASC), and STAIC (an anxiety measure for children). The study accomplished ethical standards. As MBI relevant literature has suggested, cognitive defusion was a significant mediator between DM and symptoms of both negative emotions and anxiety in children and adolescents. However, experiential avoidance did not show any significant mediating relationship. Probably, an improvement of the assessment of experiential avoidance is needed. MBI programs for children and adolescents may include more activities for reducing effects of the cognitive defusion on their emotional distress.

Cognitive fusion on counselor performance : A comparative study of the experienced and novice counselor

“…The achievement of cognitive defusion in the process gives rise to activities to consider the counseling relationship and focus attention on his thoughts as mental events (García-Gómez et al, 2019). This defusion increases the separation or discrimination of the mind, seeing it with the proper perspective and its reflection more adaptively.…”

“…A number of similar concepts have been described in the psychology literature (e.g., decentering, metacognition, mentalization, and mindfulness. Cognitive fusion shows a failure to distinguish between thought processes, experiences, and emotional reflections that occur in him (García-Gómez et al, 2019). Cognitive fusion in a counselor can cause the counselor to be trapped in his internal experiences and cannot objectively assess the condition of the counseling process.…”

How to Transversely Develop Ability Emotional Intelligence Ability through School Subjects? A Theoretical Proposal

“…This top-down process encompasses mental capacities involved in directing both observation and external stimuli towards prior ideas acquired from an already acquired exploration (Goldstein, 2008). Therefore, most of the emotional perceptions might not be accurate and will require emotional perception training (García-Gómez, Guerra, López-Ramos, & Mestre, 2019). Accurately perceiving emotions will require mental effort, paying attention to the stimulus carefully -labelling accurately the emotional expressions of others (Elfenbein et al, 2008).…”

Cognitive fusion and personality traits in the context of mindfulness: A cross-sectional study

“…Similarly, the negative association between mindfulness and negative affect, conceptualized as a person’s experience of unpleasant arousal and distress [ 27 , 28 ], has consistently been reported [ 1 , 13 , 29 , 30 ]. Tying the evidence together [ 31 ], reported results of cognitive fusion as a mediator in the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and negative affect in children.…”