Objectives: Relative to the tendency to empathize with and help sociocultural in-group members, there are often social and psychological barriers to responding prosocially toward out-group members. This experiment examined the roles of mindfulness instruction and compassion instruction in fostering prosocial behavior toward an ethnic out-group (non-U.S. Arabs) relative to an ethnic in-group...
Abstract Objectives This study aimed to investigate the linguistic markers of an interest in mindfulness. Specifically, it examined whether individuals who follow mindfulness experts on Twitter use different language in their tweets compared to a random sample of Twitter users. This is a first step which may complement commonly used self-report measures of mindfulness with quantifiable...
Objectives: This study examined specificity in the effects of three perinatal mindfulness-based prevention programs that differed in their timing (prenatal, postpartum) and target (maternal well-being, parenting). Effects on maternal mental health (depression, anxiety, resilience), mindfulness, and observed parenting, as well as observed, physiological, and mother-report indicators of infant...
Abstract Objectives Indigenous university students experience high rates of anxiety and depression due primarily to the pernicious and persistent effects of colonialism, racism, and discrimination. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) hold promise, but likely require adaptation to make them culturally relevant for Indigenous peoples. We sought to gather Indigenous students’ perspectives on...
MindfulnessFebruary 10, 2023Gold N. Okafor, B. Ford, Stephen Antonoplis et al.
Objectives Black Americans disproportionately experience higher levels of chronic stress. Mindfulness is a promising, cost-effective option for reducing stress and related mental health outcomes, such as depression and anxiety. The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) is one of the most widely used tools to measure mindfulness; however, Black American samples have been underrepresented...
Objectives The primary goal of this study was to investigate the influence of the Mindfulness Education Workbook, a 6-week mindfulness-based tool, on emotion regulation, inhibition, physical self-concept, resources, and connectedness to nature. Furthermore, we explored whether a difference in number of hours of mindfulness practice would affect the outcomes. Method Ninety-one children from a...
Preventing migraine headaches and improving the quality of life for patients with migraine remains a challenge. We hypothesized intensive meditation training would reduce the disease burden of migraine. An unblinded trial was analyzed as a single cohort exposed to a silent 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat that included 100 hr of sitting meditation. Participants with chronic or episodic...
Abstract: This is a commentary on a paper by Roeser et al. entitled “Beyond all splits: Envisioning the next generation of science on mindfulness and compassion in schools for students”. The commentary endorses the main thrust of paper, the need to re-envisage mindfulness and move from the dominant model, a clinically based “mindfulness in education” approach, in which mindfulness is seen as a...
Abstract Objectives Mindful parenting and its association with children’s socio-emotional development has garnered increasing research interest in recent years, but child perspectives are little understood. Here, we introduce the development and initial validation of parallel parent- and child-reported inventories—the Mindful Parenting Inventories for Parents (MPIP) and Children (MPIC)—that aim...
MindfulnessJanuary 30, 2023Larissa Lusnig, Markus J. Hofmann, Ralph Radach5 citations
Abstract Objectives Research on the effects of meditation practice on reading performance is a new and promising field of research. However, the evidence on whether meditation improves reading comprehension and/or speed in continuous reading is inconclusive. The present work addresses this question. Method For the present longitudinal study, undergraduate students (n = 52) participated in a...
Objectives Contemplative practice can occasion powerful psychological experiences. Yet few empirical studies have investigated whether their occurrence is associated with intensive meditation-based interventions. Here, we assess the prevalence of profound, meaningful, and mystical experiences in experienced meditators during a month-long insight meditation retreat compared to a control group of...
Objectives Psychosocial stress is an inherent part of modern lifestyle, and many suffer from chronic stress exposure and the subsequent development of stress-related diseases. In searching for efficient low-cost interventions to reduce stress, we investigated the effects of regular contemplative mental practice on diurnal cortisol activity as an indicator of the basal, everyday stress load....
Abstract Objectives Previous meta-analyses suggested that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) may have beneficial effects on telomere length (TL) and telomerase activity (TA), two biological markers of cellular aging and cell stress. The present review aimed to provide the most comprehensive synthesis of the available evidence to date and tested a number of important effect moderators....
Abstract Objectives Mindfulness practices are increasingly being recognised as beneficial in supporting health, wellbeing, and psychological functioning. There is currently limited evidence of how mindfulness is used within a population of individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). In order to effectively inform the development of future psychological mindfulness-based interventions for this...
Abstract Objectives A single session of brief focused attention meditation (FAM) has a state effect, which temporarily enhances response inhibition processes. However, previous research has two unanswered questions: (i) How long does the state effect last? (ii) How does effort toward FAM relate to the resulting state effect? Method Thirty-nine healthy participants participated in two sessions:...
Mindfulness is theorized to decrease the affective amplification of chronic pain by facilitating a shift from emotionally-laden, catastrophic pain appraisals of nociceptive input to reappraising chronic pain as an innocuous sensory signal that does not signify harm. Understanding of these hypothetical psychological mechanisms of mindfulness-based analgesia has been limited by a lack of direct...
The primary aim was to explore state- and trait-level effects and candidate mechanisms of four Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) practices. One hundred sixty adults self-selected from the general population were randomized to one of four mindfulness practices: body scan, mindful movement, breath and body, and befriending. Study 1 explored state-level self-compassion, mindfulness,...
Mindfulness2023Sabrina Fagioli, Susanna Pallini, Stefano Mastandrea et al.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a dramatic increase in Web-based education, lacking face-to-face student-teacher and student-student interaction, and consequently impairing students' sense of belonging to a community, interoceptive awareness, and academic self-efficacy. This study examined how a brief mindfulness-based intervention in an online university course can be effective in enhancing...
Abstract Objectives Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (MBCT-D) has been shown to be effective at repairing positive affect deficits in depressed individuals, but the mechanism of action underpinning these changes has not been empirically examined. To address this issue, secondary analyses of two randomised controlled trials in individuals with residual depression were...
Objectives Fatigue is a prevalent and burdensome problem in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), even when the disease is in remission. Evidence-based psychological interventions for managing IBD-related fatigue are still lacking. This study aimed to examine the efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for reducing fatigue in patients with IBD in remission. Method A...
Despite the well-documented psychological benefits of meditation practice, limited research has examined factors associated with meditation practice persistence. Like other health behaviors (e.g., exercise), non-persistence may undermine the effectiveness of meditation. We examined rates and correlates of meditation persistence using a population-based sample (n = 953) in the United States....
Abstract Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a brief body-focused meditation on body ownership, while considering interoceptive abilities, dissociative experiences, mood, trait mindfulness, and meditation experience. Method The sample consisted of 111 healthy students who participated in a randomized controlled trial and either listened to a 20-min...
Preliminary research on self-compassion as a target for reducing forms of bias is promising, yet healthcare provider self-compassion has not yet been explored in relationship to weight bias. Healthcare providers commonly endorse weight stigma and bias, contributing to health disparities for patients with "obesity." The current study explores the feasibility of the self-compassion loving...