“…Mindfulness has also been proven to represent a good predictor of depression, anxiety, stress, and well-being in association with self-compassion, self-efficacy, and gender ( Soysa and Wilcomb, 2015 ; Conversano et al, 2020a ). Dispositional mindfulness has the potential to be used as treatment for stress-related and other mental health disorders ( Baer, 2003 ; Chang et al, 2004 ) and is effective in the enhancement of immune function ( Davidson et al, 2003 ) and self-regulation, through the training of attention control, emotion regulation, and self-awareness ( Tang et al, 2015 ; Geng et al, 2019 ). Interestingly, similar findings were shown in recent studies concerning the key role of defense mechanisms and related psychological functions in chronic illness ( Di Giuseppe et al, 2018 , 2019b , 2020b ; Catalano et al, 2019 ; Conversano, 2019 ; Merlo, 2019 ; Marchi et al, 2019 ; Lenzo et al, 2020 ; Martino et al, 2019a , b , 2020a ).…”