Parent stress has been associated with negative outcomes for youth and may be particularly high during adolescence. Mindfulness interventions have the potential to reduce parent stress and to improve parenting behavior and parent-child relationship quality. The present randomized controlled study examined effects of a parenting-focused mindfulness intervention, the Parenting Mindfully (PM)...
Mindfulness has been increasingly incorporated into modern psychotherapies and healthcare services. The importance of psychometrically quantifying the construct of mindfulness has become paramount. One of the most reliable and valid instruments for the assessment of different aspects of dispositional mindfulness is the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). However, the psychometric...
Abstract One of the mindfulness exercises described in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta and its parallels concerns the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, which stand representative of the qualities of solidity, cohesion, temperature, and motion. Within the ancient Indian setting, the early Buddhist analysis of matter into these four elements can be seen to eschew the two extremes of...
Mindfulness-Based Positive Behavior Support (MBPBS) has been shown to be effective in reducing stress and burnout in parents and professional caregivers of children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The aim of this study was to assess the comparative effects of the mindfulness (MB) and positive behavior support (PBS)...
The outbreak of contagious diseases and their associated non-pharmaceutical interventions can lead to negative mental health consequences. This study aimed to investigate online self-compassion exercises' effectiveness in alleviating people's negative affect (anxiety and negative emotions) during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Study 1 examined the associations between self-compassion and...
Previous research indicates that mindfulness meditation reduces anxiety and depression and enhances well-being. We examined the impact of app-delivered mindfulness meditation on resting state functional MRI (fMRI) connectivity among physician assistant (PA) students and surgery residents. PA students and residents were randomized to receive a popular meditation app or to wait-list control...
Evidence-based mindfulness programs have well-established benefits, but the potential for harmful effects is understudied. We explored the frequency and severity of unpleasant experiences and harm in two nonclinical samples participating in an adaptation of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for the general population. Study 1 included 84 schoolteachers; study 2 included 74 university...
MindfulnessDecember 1, 2020Aleksandra Eriksen Isham, Adriana Del Palacio-Gonzalez, Barbara Dritschel
Abstract Objectives Depression is associated with both emotion dysregulation upon retrieval of autobiographical memories and low trait mindfulness. The present study raised the question of whether these processes are related to each other and whether they may reflect a cognitive-affective vulnerability in individuals at risk of depression. The study examined emotion regulation in response to...
Meditation is an umbrella term for a vast range of contemplative practices. Former proposals have struggled to do justice to this variety. To our knowledge, there is to date no comprehensive overview of meditation techniques spanning all major traditions. The present studies aimed at providing such a comprehensive list of meditation techniques. In a qualitative study, we compiled a collection...
AbstractThe proposal to understand an external application of mindfulness to refer to being objective rather than subjective is not well supported by the relevant sources and fails to be directly applicable to actual meditation practice. The most commonly accepted understanding in Buddhist sources and contemporary research, which considers external mindfulness to refer to being aware of other...
Abstract Objectives Gaining knowledge of dynamic processes of mechanisms underlying mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for recurrent depression could help to improve treatment efficacy. The current study examined the overall course and week-to-week associations of mindfulness and positive/negative affect during MBCT for recurrent depression. Methods Using data from the MOMENT study, 235...
AbstractRacial oppression is a longstanding and widespread problem with significant repercussions and consequences for the health of those impacted. The roots of racial prejudice reach far back into the history of European culture. A contribution to the much-needed change can be found in the cultivation of mindfulness, in particular in its external dimension. This emerges from considering the...
MindfulnessSeptember 24, 2020S. Kriakous, K. Elliott, Carolien Lamers et al.
Burnout and occupational stress are frequently experienced by healthcare professionals (HCPs). Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been found to improve the psychological health outcomes of HCPs. To date, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have primarily focused upon empirical investigations into the reduction of stress amongst HCPs using MBSR and are limited to empirical studies...
Abstract A case study of the descriptions of the progress of Buddhist insight meditation provided by Daniel Ingram shows how a forceful form of mindfulness combined with high-speed mental noting can result in the construction of meditative experiences to accord with expectations created by maps of the progress of insight, culminating in claims to having reached levels of awakening. The...
Abstract Objective Introspective interest and insight have long been argued to be important factors in psychotherapy. However, empirical studies are scarce and their results equivocal. Therefore, in the present study, the potential moderating and mediating roles of introspective interest and insight were examined in the context of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Methods In a...
AbstractThis article surveys references to mindfulness-related meditations found in Pāli discourses in the first five chapters of the Majjhima-nikāya and their parallels, showing the ubiquity of a concern with contemplative practices in early Buddhist thought. Such concerns were, according to these texts, not confined to monastics, but also included lay practitioners. Overall, the impression...
Objectives: Elucidating the active ingredients of psychological treatments is an important step in the scientific validation of these interventions. Component studies are one way to test which aspects of psychological treatments impact outcomes, or in other words, are the active ingredients of treatment. As research and popular interest in mindfulness-based programs grows, it is important to...
Psychological science has taken up investigations of the effectiveness of mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) and mechanisms through which people benefit from mindfulness. Reliable and valid psychometric tools are essential components of psychological science, and efforts have been made to produce tools for the accurate measurement of mindfulness as a construct. However, trait measurement...
AbstractDescriptions of the formal cultivation of mindfulness in theSatipaṭṭhāna-suttaand its parallels highlight that such practice has “internal” and “external” dimensions. Later traditions reflect a variety of viewpoints on the implications of these dimensions of establishing mindfulness. Perhaps due to the resultant uncertainty, contemporary research on the potential applicability and...
Abstract Objectives Identification of biological markers that can guide treatment selection is considered to be a viable solution for personalized treatment for patients with psychiatric disorders. This study investigated whether macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) levels at baseline were associated with mindfulness-based group therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy response in...
AbstractThe body is a central object of the cultivation of mindfulness, in the way this has been described in relevant Pāli discourses and their parallels. At the background of such cultivation stands the absence of positing a mind-body duality and a lack of concern with a particular physical location of the mind in early Buddhist thought. Moreover, the various exercises that involve directing...
Abstract Objectives Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is an evidence-based treatment to prevent relapse in individuals with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). It is not clear if MBCT is an effective therapy for current depression, and it is not clear what mechanisms are responsible for the effectiveness of MBCT. Theoretically, MBCT is believed to modify the processing of...
Abstract Objectives Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) has been shown to improve wellbeing and positive emotions in clinical and non-clinical populations. The main goal of the present study was to examine whether LKM might be an effective intervention to promote positive mental health using the Positive Mental Health Scale (PMH) and to decrease depression, anxiety, and stress in university...
Mindfulness training is believed to encourage self-transcendent states, but little research has examined this hypothesis. This study examined the effects of mindfulness training on two phenomenological features of self-transcendence: 1) perceived body boundary dissolution, and 2) more allocentric spatial frames of reference. A sample of healthy, young adults (n=45) were randomized to five...