Mindfulness Boosts Specific Cognition via Self‐Control and Cognitive Emotion Regulation in Chinese Left‐Behind Children
Family Relations July 19, 2026 Xianhua Liu, J K Chen, Meiyan Zhu et al.
A 10-week mindfulness program improved learning attentional stability and reduced overgeneral autobiographical memory in Chinese left-behind children, with self-control and cognitive emotion regulation acting as mediating mechanisms. In two sub-studies, self-control partly explained the link between trait mindfulness and attentional stability, while cognitive emotion regulation partly explained the link between trait mindfulness and memory specificity. After the intervention, experimental groups showed greater improvements in trait mindfulness, attentional stability, self-control, and positive emotion regulation, and greater reductions in negative emotion regulation and overgeneral memory, with effect sizes ranging from 0.95 to 1.55. Larger, preregistered trials are needed due to small samples and lack of active control.