Mechanisms of Mindfulness in the General Population

Abstract

Previous research among experienced meditators suggests that the associations of trait mindfulness with mental health are mediated by emotion regulation, body awareness, and a less static perspective of the self. The present study sought to elucidate whether this mediational model is also applicable to the general population and whether further potential mechanisms of action need to be included. Meditators and nonmeditators differ in overall mindfulness levels, but also in the structural properties of mindfulness facets. Meditation experience might bring about a change of variables that explain the associations of mindfulness with mental health. We examined the confirmatory fit of the mediational model in a large, German-speaking general population sample (N = 1133) with structural equation modeling, and investigated in an exploratory fashion whether further mediating variables needed to be included in the model. As a side goal, the structural properties of a short form of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) were re-examined. Results suggest that variables and mechanisms which mediate the associations between trait mindfulness and mental health are the same for meditators and the general population. Differences pertain to the strength and direction of some of these associations. The short-form FFMQ is recommended for further research. It was replicably shown to have a two-factor higher-order structure. Findings are discussed with regard to mindfulness training and intervention. Potential mechanisms of action may not be intervention-specific, but may also explain the links between trait mindfulness and mental health.

Common Factors Underlying the Five Facets of Mindfulness and Proposed Mechanisms: a Psychometric Study Among Meditators and Non-meditators

“…Thus, the instrument bears a strong connection to one theoretical model of mindfulness. Also, psychometric studies have replicably shown that the higher-order structure of the FFMQ agrees well with the two-component model of mindfulness that was proposed by Bishop et al (2004), both in meditating (Tran et al 2014) and nonmeditating samples (Burzler et al 2019;Tran et al 2013). Being both comprehensive and compatible with theoretical models of mindfulness, the FFMQ appears thus to be a viable starting point for deeper analyses of self-reported mindfulness.…”

“…It appears that nonattachment is neither fully distinct from the FFMQ facets (as it loaded on the same factors), nor a unitary mechanism/faculty of mindfulness on its own (as it loaded on multiple factors). However, the current study was based on the full NAS, rather than the abridged NAS-7 (see Sahdra et al 2016), to retain comparability with some previous studies, which also have used the full NAS (e.g., Burzler et al 2019;Tran et al 2014). Clearly, nonattachment deserves further investigation in the future.…”

“…This study utilized previously published data (Burzler et al 2019;Freudenthaler et al 2017) and novel data. The pooled sample comprised in total N = 3265 participants (53% women) from the general population, with ages ranging from 18 to 87 years (M = 34.38, SD = 15.27).…”

“…Emotion regulation accounts for most of the associations of dispositional mindfulness with mental health among the general population (Burzler et al 2019;Freudenthaler et al 2017). However, emotion regulation also exhibits close links with neuroticism (for a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies, see Servaas et al 2013), which is an important predictor of mental health on its own.…”

“…Currently, mindfulness research tries to explain how mindfulness exerts its positive effects on mental health, testing whether specific constructs, like the ones described above, mediate the effects of mindfulness on mental health (for a review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies, see Gu et al 2015; for recent cross-sectional studies, see Burzler et al 2019;Freudenthaler et al 2017;Sahdra et al 2016;Tran et al 2014). However, longitudinal studies (see Gu et al 2015) also suggest that self-reported mindfulness is a mechanism of change for mindfulness treatments (and probably for other, non-mindfulness-based, treatments as well, see Goldberg et al 2019).…”