Associations between chronic stress, attention, working memory, and mindful acceptance in the context of Monitor and Acceptance Theory: a direct replication and exploratory cross-sectional study

Objectives: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can reduce chronic stress, but their therapeutic mechanisms remain unclear. MBIs may train attention monitoring and acceptance skills that have been impaired by chronic stress exposure, and the interaction between these skills might lead to chronic stress reduction. In the present study, we aimed at directly replicating one of the few existing studies that tested these hypotheses. Moreover, we explored the hypothesis that working memory capacity is negatively associated with chronic stress and that the association between working memory capacity and chronic stress is moderated by acceptance. To increase the generalisability of the results of this line of research, we obtained our sample from the Japanese population.

Methods: Eighty-five adults participated in the study and completed self-reported chronic stress and mindful acceptance questionnaires, and attention and working memory behavioural tasks.Results: The results revealed that chronic stress was significantly associated with reduced acceptance (all ps < 0.001), but not with monitoring or working memory capacity. The in-teraction between monitoring or working memory measures was not significantly associated with chronic stress levels.

Conclusions: Our results almost exactly replicated the findings of the original study and provide limited support to the hypotheses. Future direct replication studies of this line of research or randomised-controlled trials testing other theory-driven research hypotheses are encouraged.