Five Facets of Mindfulness and Psychological Health: Evaluating a Psychological Model of the Mechanisms of Mindfulness

Abstract

There has been an increasing focus on determining the psychological mechanisms underlying the broad effects of mindfulness on psychological health. Mindfulness has been posited to be related to the construct of reperceiving or decentering, defined as a shift in perspective associated with decreased attachment to one’s thoughts and emotions. Decentering is proposed to be a meta-mechanism that mobilizes four psychological mechanisms (cognitive flexibility, values clarification, self-regulation, and exposure), which in turn are associated with positive health outcomes. Despite preliminary support for this model, extant studies testing this model have not examined distinct facets of mindfulness. The present study used a multidimensional measure of mindfulness to examine whether this model could account for the associations between ive facets of mindfulness and psychological symptoms (depressive symptoms, stress, anxiety symptoms, alcohol-related problems) in a sample of college students (N = 944). Our findings partially support this model. We found significant double-mediated associations in the expected directions for all outcomes (stress, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms) except alcohol-related problems, and for each of the facets of mindfulness except observing. However, decentering and the specific mechanisms did not fully mediate the associations among mindfulness facets and psychological health outcomes. Experimental and ecological momentary assessment designs are needed to understand the psychological processes that account for the beneficial effects of mindfulness.

Experiential Avoidance and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies as the Mediators in the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Social Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

“…This finding is in line with previous studies in literature (e.g. Desrosiers et al, 2013;Desrosiers et al, 2014;Brown et al, 2015). Theorists have argued that individuals with SAD engage in a post-event process that attends to rumination and focus on negative information about themselves and others' opinions of them during the social situation and compare this to an idealistically standard (Brozovich et al, 2015;Brozovich & Heimberg, 2011).…”

“…In the current study, we synthesize our predictions in the moderated mechanisms of mindfulness for clinical sample of social anxiety according to the previous studies in literature (e.g. Desrosiers et al, 2013;Desrosiers, Vine, Curtiss, Klemanski, 2014;Brown, Bravo, Roos & Pearson, 2015;Shapiro et al, 2006;Eustis et al, 2016) and the model suggested by Garland et al (2011)), depicted conceptually in Figure 1. In the current study, this conceptual model is designed to examine whether experimental avoidance and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (rumination and catastrophizing) and adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal) mediate associations between mindfulness and social anxiety symptoms.…”

Mechanisms of mindfulness training: Monitor and Acceptance Theory (MAT)

“…In a clinical sample, acceptance ( Nonreactivity ) moderated the effect of monitoring ( Observe ) on symptoms; among participants low in acceptance, high monitoring predicted higher rumination, worry, and depressive symptoms, and lower reappraisal (Desrosiers, Vine, Curtiss, & Klemanski, 2014). Other studies have similarly found associations between monitoring and psychological distress: the tendency to monitor experience ( Observe ) has been correlated with higher depressive symptoms (Barnes & Lynn, 2010), stress symptoms (Brown, Bravo, Roos, & Pearson, 2015; Hamill et al, 2015), and anxious arousal (Desrosiers, Klemanski, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2013; Hamill et al, 2015). …”

Evaluating Nonattachment and Decentering as Possible Mediators of the Link Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress in a Nonclinical College Sample

“…Brown et al 24 12 However, only 4 of the 5 FFMQ facets showed this relationship, and the fifth facet did not. Single mediated pathways (mindfulness !…”