The Role of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Perceived Stress: Preliminary Evidence for the Moderating Role of Attachment Style

Abstract

The current research investigated whether adult attachment style moderated the effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) participation on levels of perceived stress. Study completing participants (secure group n = 65; insecure group n = 66) completed pre-and postintervention self-report assessments of perceived stress. The insecure group reported significantly higher stress levels prior to MBSR participation, but both groups showed significant pre-post intervention declines in perceived stress. Compared to the secure group, the insecure group also reported marginally lower perceived stress following MBSR participation. Study findings support the efficacy of MBSR for stress reduction across attachment style. Findings also suggest that MBSR participation may provide slightly greater stress reduction benefits for insecurely attached individuals.

Clinical and psychological moderators of the effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on persistent pain in women treated for primary breast cancer – explorative analyses from a randomized controlled trial

“…In a previous study based on a (non-cancer) convenience sample and with stress as the primary outcome, the same pattern was observed, with higher levels of insecure attachment predicting greater stress reduction compared with secure attachment [26]. However, in this study, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were collapsed into insecure attachment [26], and thus the possible differential roles of the two dimensions were not explored [15].…”

“…In a previous study based on a (non-cancer) convenience sample and with stress as the primary outcome, the same pattern was observed, with higher levels of insecure attachment predicting greater stress reduction compared with secure attachment [26]. However, in this study, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were collapsed into insecure attachment [26], and thus the possible differential roles of the two dimensions were not explored [15]. We did not find statistically significant interaction effects for the remaining proposed psychological moderators, namely baseline psychological distress and alexithymia, suggesting that initial psychological distress levels and alexithymia do not influence the effect of MBCT on pain intensity.…”

Decreased Symptoms of Depression After Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: Potential Moderating Effects of Religiosity, Spirituality, Trait Mindfulness, Sex, and Age

“…This study extends a very small number of moderation studies to date, in which a common theme has emerged to suggest that certain psychological traits, including attachment style, 34 dispositional mindfulness, 18 and current depressive symptoms, 8 may help determine who is most likely to gain the greatest mental health benefits from participating in MBSR. Another recent trial on a clinical sample of patients diagnosed with an anxiety disorder found that individual differences in baseline depression symptoms, anxiety sensitivity, and diagnostic severity differentially moderated outcomes of group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) versus an adapted MBSR program, such that CBT outperformed MBSR among those with no to mild depressive symptoms and very high anxiety sensitivity, whereas at follow-up adapted MBSR outperformed CBT among patients with moderate to severe depressive symptoms and among those with average anxiety sensitivity.…”

The Playful Advantage: How Playfulness Enhances Coping with Stress

“…Perceived stress has also been found to relate to an assortment of psychosocial and physiological constructs, such as personality (Besser & Shackelford, 2007;Burgess, Irvine, & Wallymahmed, 2010;Candrian et al, 2008;Ebstrup, Eplov, Pisinger, & Jørgensen, 2011), affect (Besser & Shackelford, 2007;Cohen et al, 1993;Davidsdottir, 2007), self-efficacy (Ebstrup et al, 2011;Moeini et al, 2008;Trouillet, Gana, Lourel, & Fort, 2009), attachment (Cordon, Brown, & Gibson, 2009;Koopman et al, 2000;McCarthy, Moller, & Fouladi, 2001;Reiner, Anderson, Hall, & Hall, 2010), adjustment (Baker, 2004;Curtis, Groarke, Coughlan, & Gsel, 2004;Extremera, Durán, & Rey, 2007;Kulik & Heine-Cohen, 2011), depression (Candrian et al, 2008;Ghorbani, Krauss, Watson, & LeBreton, 2008;Holt-Lunstad, Birmingham, & Light, 2011), happiness (Brief, Burke, George, Robinson, & Webster, 1988;Chatters, 1988;Feist, Bodner, Jacobs, Miles, & Tan, 1995;Schiffrin & Nelson, 2010), health related behavior (Naquin & Gilbert, 1996;Rod, Grønbaek, Schnohr, Prescott, & Kristensen, 2009;Wichianson, Bughi, Unger, Spruijt-Metz, & Nguyen-Rodriguez, 2009), and health problems (Cohen et al, 1993;Lovell, Moss, Wetherell, 2011;Nielsen et al, 2008).…”