Differential effects of mindfulness meditation conditions on repetitive negative thinking and subjective time perspective: a randomized active-controlled study

Abstract Objective Preliminary findings suggest that different kinds of meditation could work on diverse cognitive and psychological processes. The present study aimed at disentangling the effects of three mindfulness techniques on mental rumination and subjective time perspective.

Design: 75 young healthy participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: mindful breathing, body scan, observing-thoughts meditation and an active control condition. The meditation groups practiced mindfulness daily and attended weekly group meetings for 8 weeks, while the control group was involved in reading and discussing a book about mindfulness. Main outcome measures: Self-report measures of mindfulness skills, ruminative thinking, attitude towards time, anxiety, depression and personality traits.

Results: In all meditation conditions, analysis of covariance showed a significant improvement in mindfulness skills compared to the control group. We found a specific effect of mindful breathing in reducing participants’ tendency to brooding and in increasing their positive vision of the future, compared to all other conditions.

Conclusions: As expected, we found some differential effects: breathing meditation helped practitioners to train more effectively their ability to disengage from maladaptive ruminative thoughts, which could be reflected in a more optimistic attitude toward the future. These results provide useful information to structure better mindfulness-based interventions.