A 5-week EmotionCore mindfulness training program improved adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, emotional intelligence, and trait mindfulness in undergraduates, with gains maintained at one-month follow-up. Improvements in emotion regulation and emotional intelligence fully and sequentially mediated the increase in trait mindfulness. Participants with high baseline anxiety or depression showed greater reductions in anxiety and depression after training compared to those with low baseline symptoms, indicating the program is especially beneficial for high-risk populations.
A five-week emotion-targeted mindfulness training program improved working memory for facial expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, and neutrality, but not fear, in a study of 120 participants. The improvements lasted at least one month. Drift-diffusion modeling revealed that the training increased the efficiency of information processing (drift rate) across all emotional categories, and these increases correlated with accuracy gains. The findings suggest mindfulness training enhances both the accuracy and speed of visual working memory processing, independent of the specific emotion displayed.
Two studies examined how mindfulness relates to willingness to help others, focusing on moral identity and moral disengagement as mediators, and comparing young adolescents (12–15 years) with young adults (18–24 years). A cross-sectional survey of 271 college students and 229 middle school students found that in adolescents, moral identity mediated the link between dispositional mindfulness and prosocial willingness, whereas in adults, moral disengagement was the primary mediator. An experiment with 105 young adults and 142 young adolescents tested short mindfulness inductions (with or without ethical elements). In adolescents, these inductions significantly affected moral identity, moral disengagement, and prosocial willingness, with mediation effects; in adults, no significant effects appeared. The findings suggest age-specific psychological mechanisms, indicating that mindfulness programs for adolescents should account for developmental differences in moral psychology.
A review of empirical studies indicates that mindfulness and meditation can improve attitudes toward the self and others, thereby helping to modulate mental and physical health problems. The authors introduce a new concept, the “mindful self,” defined as a mindfulness-enlightened self-view and attitude formed by internalizing Buddhist psychology into one’s self-system. They propose that the mindful self acts as an intermediary between mindfulness interventions and mental health outcomes, and as a moderator in promoting well-being. The concept may also describe and predict higher levels of self-development in individuals raised in Buddhist cultures or who meditate regularly over long periods.