Mediating effect of mindfulness cognition on the development of empathy in a university context

Abstract

Numerous interventions propose mindfulness training as a means of improving empathy. Our aim is to analyse the relationship between mindfulness practice and empathy through the mediating process of trait mindfulness. This sample comprised 264 undergraduate students ( , SD = 11,39). The instruments used were Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. The indirect effect was calculated using 10.000 bootstrap samples for the bootstrap confidence intervals corrected for bias. Empathy improvement is mediated by changes in the cognitions derived from mindfulness (B = .346, p<.01). The direct effect of mindfulness practice on empathy disappears in presence of this mediator (B = .133, p>.05). Mindfulness interventions that aim to improve empathy should focus on three of its components; observing , describing and nonreactivity to inner experience . Given the significance of the results, the research must be extended to larger samples.

Mindfulness and Empathy: Mediating Factors and Gender Differences in a Spanish Sample

“…In the same line, we find results in the works of Jones et al (2019) and De la Fuente-Anuncibay et al (2019) in English-speaking samples. In both studies they use FFMQ as a measure of mindfulness, with practice being the predictor variable.…”

“…Mindfulness is a metacognitive factor that precedes other cognitive-affective processes, so we consider that it can function as a mediator and that the five facets of mindfulness could be influencing the increase of empathy skills. Thus, we expect to obtain similar results to the study by De la Fuente-Anuncibay et al (2019) in English-speaking samples, in which observing , describing , and not-reactivity were predictors of empathy (Hypothesis 5).…”

“…On the other hand, most of the research has been carried out in Anglo-Saxon areas. In this respect, De la Fuente-Anuncibay et al (2019) in their study with English students, pointed out modifications in the mindfulness trait and their influence in the development of empathy, pointing out the necessity to extend it to samples of other countries, although we do not have evidences of this type in other contexts like the Spanish-speaking one.…”

“…On the other hand, they pointed out that adopting a non-evaluative posture toward emotions ( Non-judging ) negatively predicted empathy. On the other hand, the scale used by De la Fuente-Anuncibay et al (2019) in a sample of English university students who made informal practices of mindfulness, was the TEQ ( Spreng et al, 2009 ). Their results informed that, in addition to the dimensions of observing and describing , it influenced the dimension of not allowing to be caught by the own emotions ( Non-reactivity ) in the increase of empathy.…”

“…Hölzel et al (2011) found that the daily practice of 30 min of meditation increased the density of gray matter in the brain regions associated with empathy. Numerous studies have found this benefit (Greason and Cashwell, 2009;Birnie et al, 2010;De la Fuente-Anuncibay et al, 2019;Ngô, 2013;Shapiro et al, 1998). Nevertheless, several studies question this positive effect in the improvement of empathy when practicing mindfulness (Beddoe and Murphy, 2004;Dekeyser et al, 2008;Ridderinkhof et al, 2017).…”