Mindfulness May Buffer Psychological Distress in Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Differential Role of Mindfulness Facets

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic strongly impacts adolescents' mental health, a population particularly vulnerable to mental disorders, highlighting the need to identify protective factors against COVID-19 related psychological distress to inform policies and intervention strategies. Previous research suggests that mindfulness may be a promising factor that can lower the risk of detrimental psychological consequences related to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is currently unknown which aspects of mindfulness contribute most to its protective effects. Moreover, previous studies mainly focused on adult samples. The present study aimed to address this gap by investigating the impact of specific mindfulness facets on adolescents' COVID-19 related psychological functioning. 246 Dutch-speaking adolescents were recruited via social media to complete a cross-sectional online survey between June 29 and October 11, 2020. Participants were 16-18 years of age, most of them women (71%), and the majority followed the highest level of Belgian secondary education. Logistic regression analyses were performed to test the differential effects of each mindfulness facet on psychological functioning. Our results identified decentering as the facet of mindfulness that was uniquely associated with decreased worry and stress, improved mental health and quality of life, as well as with an increase in social connectedness with others following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unexpectedly, decentering was negatively associated with adolescents' helping behaviour during compared to before the pandemic. Implications for research on and application of mindfulness are discussed. Taken together, these findings suggest that the facet of decentering, among all facets of mindfulness, may represent the main protective factor against psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Family economic hardship and adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Overall, about 11.1% of the participants of our study reported feeling anxiety, 25.2% having depressive symptoms, and 10.9% experiencing suicidal ideation. Our findings align with prior research demonstrating poor mental health during disease outbreaks, as well as with studies that reported high levels of psychological distress in other samples during the COVID-19 pandemic (30,31) From the total, 70.4% reported experiencing economic hardship. Moreover, over 30% of our sample reported going through moderate and severe economic hardship.…”

When Mindfulness is Insufficient: The Moderated Moderating Effects of Self-Harm and Negotiable Fate Beliefs on the Association Between Mindfulness and Adolescent Psychological Distress in Disasters

“…Although the protective role of mindfulness on adolescent psychological distress has been found in previous studies (Klingbeil et al, 2017;Kock et al, 2021;Reangsing et al, 2021;Tan & Martin, 2015;Zhang et al, 2022), the current research is inconclusive as to whether mindfulness is always effective in reducing psychological distress (Johnson et al, 2017;Montero-Marin et al, 2022;Sibinga et al, 2016). Only one study has examined the effects of mindfulness in the context of COVID-19 and highlighted its significant buffering role against the risk posed by COVID-19 on psychological distress (Kock et al, 2021;Yeun & Kim, 2022). Moreover, previous research has three notable limitations.…”

“…Empirical studies on the consequences of COVID-19 on individuals' mental health have been booming recently (Chawla et al, 2021;Lantos et al, 2022; Simonovic et al, 2021), studies exploring adolescents' psychological consequences in double disasters are scarce (Simonovic et al, 2021). Moreover, the protective factor of mindfulness to reduce risks of psychological distress is promising in numerous studies (Kock et al, 2021;Reangsing et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2022). While it is still unclear under what conditions or for whom mindfulness may not work, the development of prevention programs targeting COVID-19 and other disasters is critical.…”

“…Consequently, adolescents' stress, anxiety, and depression levels may decrease. Many studies have confirmed that mindfulness is related to less psychological distress (Kock et al, 2021;Mestre et al, 2019;Thomas et al, 2021). While previous research has suggested that mindfulness can benefit adolescent mental health, more recent studies have found mixed results.…”

When fate hands you lemons: A moderated moderation model of bullying victimization and psychological distress among Chinese adolescents during floods and the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Fifth, this study did not directly measure baseline levels of psychological distress in pre-disaster adolescents, which made it difficult to fully demonstrate that the model in our study reflects a specific pattern for a double disaster. Future studies should compare baseline levels of psychological distress before and after a disaster to answer this question (Kock et al, 2021).…”