A Narrative Review of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Women’s Mental Health
Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media November 5, 2025 DOI: 10.54254/2753-7048/2026.ht28873 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Narrative review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Psychological intervention Mental health Narrative review Population Work physics Psychotherapist |
| Key findings | Argues that mindfulness-based interventions for women work through mechanisms such as sustained attention, acceptance, and decentering, which are shaped by social context and life stage, and that effective care should be mechanism-led and context-based. |
Abstract
Social context, occupational demands, and life-stage transitions all shape women’s mental health. This mechanism-driven narrative review primarily examines how mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) work for women by focusing on the underlying mechanisms they activate rather than the program “brands,” in other words, the type of the program. Specifically, this paper analyses evidence showing that training sustained attention and acceptance can enhance conflict monitoring and non-reactivity of stress-elicited thoughts and emotions, enabling the decentering/reperceiving of those thoughts and emotions—together with their associated bodily sensations and self-referential appraisals (e.g., self-criticism), and thus supporting better emotion regulation. This paper reveals how these connected processes are conditioned by context—including work/academic pressures and changing roles across the life stages—and identifies mechanisms that recur across settings and stages. This paper argues that care should be mechanism-led and context-based: practice needs to be paired with low-barrier supports that fit the individual’s life stage, which allow these mechanisms to align with women’s social identities and living conditions.