Dispositional Mindfulness and Past-Negative Time Perspective: The Differential Mediation Effects of Resilience and Inner Peace in Meditators and Non-Meditators.

People with a past-negative time perspective—a tendency to dwell on negative past experiences—are more prone to unhealthy behaviors, rumination, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Dispositional mindfulness appears to reduce this negative focus, but the underlying mechanisms were unclear. In a cross-sectional study comparing 185 meditators and 181 non-meditators, mindfulness was positively linked to resilience and inner peace, while past-negative time perspective was negatively linked to all three. Resilience and inner peace partially explained the link between mindfulness and past-negative time perspective; among meditators the effect was fully mediated, whereas among non-meditators it was only partial. The authors suggest that consistent meditation practice strengthens mindfulness, resilience, and inner peace, thereby reducing past-negative time perspective, and that combining mindfulness with time-perspective interventions could help treat related mental health conditions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Past-negative time perspective (PNTP) can affect our everyday lives and is associated with negative emotions, unhealthy behaviors, rumination, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Dispositional mindfulness may be able to reduce the negative effects of PNTP; however, few studies have investigated their relationship. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the effect dispositional mindfulness has on PNTP, as well as the mediating role of resilience and inner peace in this regard. This study investigated the cross-sectional relationship between self-reported mindfulness, resilience, inner peace, and PNTP. In order to further explore the relationship between mindfulness and PNTP, this study specially selected and analyzed the samples of 185 meditators and 181 non-meditators. Correlation analysis revealed that mindfulness is significantly positively correlated with resilience and inner peace. Conversely, PNTP is significantly negatively correlated with mindfulness, resilience, and inner peace. Structural equation model analysis revealed that resilience and inner peace partially mediated the relationship between mindfulness and PNTP. Furthermore, a multi-group analysis showed that the mediating effects are different between meditators and non-meditators. For meditators, the effect of mindfulness on PNTP was fully mediated by resilience and inner peace. For non-meditators, the effect of mindfulness on PNTP was only partially mediated by resilience and inner peace. Based on the significant differences between the mediational models of meditators and non-meditators, we believe that dispositional mindfulness can negatively predict PNTP, and practicing meditation consistently improves dispositional mindfulness, resilience and inner peace and effectively reduces PNTP. Our findings indicate that a combination of mindfulness and PNTP could be used to design new psychological interventions to reduce the symptoms of mental health concerns such as negative bias, rumination, depression, anxiety, and PTSD.