Mechanisms of action in the inverse relationship between mindfulness and psychological distress

“Rather, it relies on the universal human capacity to pay attention (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Kabat-Zinn, 2003).”

“Of these five factors, the MAAS is most closely related to the Acting with Awareness factor (Baer et al., 2006).”

“Past research has found that mindfulness is associated with positive psychological adjustment (Brown & Ryan, 2003) and that interventions designed to increase mindfulness improve psychological adjustment (see, e.g., Davidson et al., 2003; Kabat-Zinn et al., 1992; Teasdale et al., 2000).”

“A second possibility is that mindfully attending to negative emotions results in exposure and desensitization to them, which may decrease their intensity (Kabat-Zinn et al., 1992; Linehan, 1993; Lynch & Bronner, 2006).”

“…has witnessed a number of theoretical advances on (e.g., Bishop et al., 2004; Glomb et al., 2011; Shapiro et al., 2006) and a few empirical tests of (e.g., Allen & Kiburz, 2012; Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Weinstein et al., 2009) potential mechanisms underlying the salutary effects of mindfulness.”

“Mindfulness meditation has been shown to improve well-being (Carmody & Baer, 2008) and reduce psychological distress (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Ostafin et al., 2006).”

“Rumination is a risk factor for depression and psychological distress, and two studies have found that rumination does mediate the link between DM and depressive symptoms (Alleva et al. 2014) and psychological distress (Coffey and Hartman 2008).”

“Currently, researchers increasingly concentrate on the mechanisms through which mindfulness exerts positive influences on mental and physical well-being (Coffey and Hartman 2008; Crane et al. 2010; Shapiro et al. 2006; Williams et al. 2011).”

“(and confirmed in Step 1 of Study 2) with the model Coffey and Hartman (2008) proposed and tested for mindfulness’ mechanisms of action.”

“In one study, Coffey and Hartman found that emotion regulation mediated the inverse correlation between mindfulness and distress in a sample of undergraduate students (Coffey & Hartman, 2008).”

“…it frees up cognitive-affective resources to appreciate, reflect on and make meaning of difficult circumstances, and develop value-based goals (Coffey & Hartman, 2008). mindfulness can supplant a fear-driven, pessimistic perspective on the future by focusing bare-awareness on the present…”

“Two studies have found that mindfulness correlates with the ability to regulate negative affect [Brown and Ryan, 2003; Coffey and Hartman, 2008].”

“On a related front, there is evidence that mindfulness enhances one’s capacity to tolerate uncomfortable emotions by maintaining a healthy distance from distressing feelings (Coffey and Hartman 2008; Follette et al. 2006).”

“Mindfulness may allow greater cognitive flexibility and improve emotion regulation in the midst of a range of stressful experiences (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Follette et al., 2006; Shapiro et al., 2006) and reduce the tendency to dissociate during traumatic events (Ozer et al., 2008).”

“…Sawyer, Witt, & Oh, 2010; Keng, Smoski, & Robins, 2011; Smith, Richardson, Hoffman, & Pilkington, 2005) and dispositional mindfulness (e.g., Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Creswell, Way, Eisenberger, & Lieberman, 2007; Howell, Digdon, Buro, & Sheptycki, 2008; Lakey, Campbell, Brown, & Goodie,…”

“…to the development of emotional intelligence, thereby encouraging individuals to accurately perceive emotions and effectively regulate emotions that promote their life satisfaction (e.g., Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Coffey, Hartman, & Fredrickson, 2010; Schutte & Malouff, 2011; Wang & Kong, 2013).”

“Mindfulness practices have proved to be empirically driven and effective interventions in social work (Coffey & Hartman, 2008).”

“Coffey and Hartman 31 found an inverse relationship between mindfulness and distress as a result of increased emotional regulation (ie, having the ability to manage negative emotion), increased nonattachment (ie, viewing happiness as independent from specific external circumstances), and decreased rumination (ie, enga…”

“…now begun to explore the mechanisms through which dispositional mindfulness reduces stress reactivity and thus influences physical and psychological health (e.g., Chambers, Lo, & Allen, 2008; Coelho, Canter, & Ernst, 2007; Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Frewen, Evans, Maraj, Dozioz, & Partridge, 2008).”

“There has been an increasing focus in current research on the ways in which mindfulness affects mental and physical health (Baer 2010; Coffey and Hartman 2008; Dimidjian and Linehan 2003; Shapiro et al. 2006).”

“Mindfulness in the present day is generally referred to as an enhanced attention to, and awareness of, present experience – moment-by-moment – in an open and accepting way (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Davis & Hayes, 2011).”

“…both in a sample of individuals with experience of meditation practices (meditators) and in a sample of non- meditators, relying first on models with observable variables, then on latent variable models, to estimate unbiased paths, as suggested in the literature (e.g. Cole and Preacher 2014).”

“The mindfulness needed to distinguish between empathy and sympathy has already been shown to be a useful strategy for cultivating the cognitive skills required to be fully empathic ( Coffey & Hartman, 2008 ; Decety & Lamm, 2006 ).”

“Specifically, Coffey and Hartman (2008) have established three mechanisms by which mindfulness produces beneficial effects directly related to psychological distress: emotional self-control, detachment, and reduced cognitive rumination.”

“Several studies (e.g., Jain et al., 2007; Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Labelle, Campbell, & Carlson, 2010; Heeren & Philippot, 2011; van Aalderen et al., 2012) have found rumination to be a mediator of the relation between mindfulness and depression.”

“…mindful persons are better able to extricate themselves from cognitive perseveration (Evans & Segerstrom, 2010), to regulate negative affective states (Coffey & Hartman, 2008), and to disengage attention from addictive cues (Garland, Boettiger, Gaylord, West Channon, & Howard, 2011).”

“There are some other mechanisms underlying this relationship, such as self-regulation and autonomy (Parto and Besharat, 2011), reduced rumination (Coffey and Hartman, 2008), and attachment style (McDonald et al., 2016).”

“By promoting an attitude of acceptance, mindfulness is also thought to reduce rumination, which seems to result from an inability to disengage from desired but unobtainable goals (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Feldman et al., 2007; Shapiro, Oman, Thoresen, Plante, & Flinders, 2008).”

“As one becomes more engaged in the process of mindfulness, such as noticing when one has become entangled with overwhelming emotions or judgment of those emotions, the ability to bring compassionate awareness to those previously mindless moments may contribute to more effective regulation (Coffey and Hartman 2008; Fel…”

“Coffey and Hartman (2008) found that non-attachment is a mediator in the inverse relationship between dispositional mindfulness and psychological distress.”

“…applications has advanced significantly in recent years, knowledge of the factors and processes that underlie the relations between mindfulness and psychopathology vulnerability remains relatively limited (Carmody et al., 2009; Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Shapiro et al., 2006; Teasdale et al., 2002).”

“While researchers have previously reported dispositional mindfulness to be associated with lower psychological distress (Coffey and Hartman 2008), the present study highlights that defeatism coping might be the mechanism for this association.”

“Higher levels of mindfulness are related to reduced depression (e.g., Coffey and Hartman 2008; Feliu-Soler et al.”

“These results build on the existing literature documenting positive mental health correlates of greater mindfulness skills (Bajaj et al., 2016; Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Mizera et al., 2016; Pepping et al., 2016) by showing specific mindfulness subscales—describing and nonreacting—that indirectly…”

“…are consistent with those showing a negative correlation between dispositional mindfulness and psychological distress involve depression and anxiety (Baer et al., 2006; Coffey & Hartman, 2008, 2010; Giluk, 2009) and by mediating the emotion regulation and non-attachment (Coffey & Hartman, 2008).”

“2010) limit its measurement of mindfulness to a very specific aspect: “acting with awareness” (Coffey and Hartman 2008).”

“As with flow, a large body of evidence links mindfulness to greater well-being, including lower depression and anxiety [21], less psychological distress and invasive negative thoughts [25], and more positive thinking [26].”

“Dispositionally, mindful individuals tend to report lower levels of negative emotions and superior ability to regulate emotional distress (Baer et al., 2006; Brown & Ryan, 2003; Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Feldman, Hayes, Kumar, Greeson, & Laurenceau, 2007).”

“…decreased attachment/aversion to feelings; and facilitation of a decentered stance in which private events (e.g., thoughts and emotions) are treated as such—as opposed to accurate images of reality (Baer, 2010; Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Grabovac, Lau, & Willett, 2011; Teasdale et al., 2002).”

“These skills are believed to reduce the impact of negative emotions and free up cognitive resources to assess, observe, and give meaning to difficult circumstances, which can contribute to the development of personal goals (Coffey and Hartman, 2008; Polizzi et al., 2020).”

“In contrast, MAAS items contain statements regarding actions (Baer et al. 2006; Coffey and Hartman 2008), thus have a more pragmatic content.”

“Thus, the use of more adaptive emotion regulation strategies may explain the relationship between mindfulness and positive health outcomes (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Shapiro et al., 2006).”

“Coffey et al. (2010) found the same pattern of results, but extended prior research by also examining mental flourishing as an outcome measure.”

“Studies suggest that high levels of dispositional mindfulness are associated with enhanced ability to effectively regulate negative affective states (Coffey & Hartman, 2008).”

“These processes further promote well-being, meaning in life, and better mental health (Brown and Ryan, 2003; Coffey and Hartman, 2008).”

“Second, psychological distress may reduce individuals’ ability to cope, further exacerbating their already compromised mental health and overall quality of life (Coffey & Hartman, 2008).”

“Considering the above mediational, electrophysiological, and fMRI evidence leads the current research to follow the proposal that mindfulness and anxiety may be mediated by the emotion regulation system (worry, reappraisal, non-acceptance, and rumination) through which they may interact in an antagonistic manner (Coff…”

“…work identifying emotion regulation deficits and rumination as mechanisms linking mindfulness to psychological health (e.g., Alleva et al. 2014; Coffey and Hartman 2008; McDonald et al. 2016; Prakash et al. 2015) and extend that work by identifying 6 distinct mindful and mindless emotion…”

“…concept is often theorized as a mediator in mindfulness contexts (e.g., Chiesa et al. 2013; Teper et al. 2013), but rarely investigated as such (see Coffey and Hartman 2008; Coffey et al. 2010, for an exception—they found that selfregulation mediates between mindfulness on the one hand and…”

“(Coffey and Hartman, 2008), which are often reported to modulate executive functions.”

“2009), lower levels of psychological distress (Coffey and Hartman 2008; Masuda and Tully 2012), decreases in depressive symptomatology (Kuyken et al.”

“One such measure of trait-like mindfulness, the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown and Ryan 2003), has evidenced inverse relationships with overall depression symptoms (Brown and Ryan 2003; Coffey and Hartman 2008), depressed affect (Brown and Ryan 2003; Zvolensky et al.”

“…distress in stressful interpersonal and emergency situations (Beitel, Ferrer, & Cecero, 2005), to fairly stable traits, such as rumination (Coffey & Hartman, 2008), and from specific symptoms of depression and anxiety (e.g., Brown & Ryan, 2003) to nonspecific psychological symptoms (Baer…”

“Trait mindfulness tends to co-occur with other characteristic adaptations to stress, including superior emotion regulation (Coffey & Hartman, 2008), low neuroticism (Giluk, 2009), low trait negative affect (Giluk, 2009), low esteem contingency (Coffey, Hartman, & Fredrickson, 2010), high emotional…”

“Extensive descriptions of MBIs as well as their underlying mechanisms of change can be found elsewhere [14,28,29].”

“Coffey and Hartman (2008) proposed three potential mechanisms to demonstrate the beneficial effects of mindfulness on mental health: emotion regulation, decreased rumination, and nonattachment.”

“Moreover, trait rumination mediates the effects of both trait and inducedmindfulness on other types of psychological distress, such as depressive and anxiety symptoms (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Heeren & Philippot, 2011).”

“Some other mediating variables may help explain this relationship, such as attachment style [33], rumination [55] and psychological capital [56].”

“…of scales (Deng et al., 2012), methodological and statistical questions (A. F. Hayes, 2013; Hu & Bentler, 1999; Podsakoff et al., 2003), wellbeing (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Weinstein et al., 2009), resilience to trauma (Thompson et al., 2011), social anxiety (Goldin & Gross, 2010), and…”

“This finding is coherent with the results obtained in other correlational studies involving both clinical and non-clinical samples (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Coffey & Hartman, 2008).”

“, 2018), and reduced amounts of negative psychological symptoms such as rumination (Coffey and Hartman, 2008), depression, anxiety, and stress (Sahdra et al, 2010).”

“…and effective expression of their emotions, as well as the possibility of lessening the duration and intensity of negative emotions, in part a result of decreased emotional avoidance and greater desensitization to negative emotional experiences (Brown et al., 2007; Coffey & Hartman 2008).”

“Mindfulness meditation may enhance the awareness and acceptance of emotional experiences, and may help in managing intense emotional experiences (Coffey & Hartman, 2008 ; Feldman, Hayes, Kumar, Greeson, & Laurenceau, 2007 ).”

“These findings provide support for current theoretical models that seek to explain how mindfulness training may impart therapeutic benefit (Bowen et al., 2007; Coffey & Hartman, 2008).”

“Researchers hypothesize that being present centered and cultivating an attitude of acceptance and openness may lead a person to be happy despite whatever happens, thus leading to a reduction in distress.(34) Coffey and Hartman(34) hypothesized that emotional regulation, nonattachment, and rumination together would med…”

“…that both dispositional mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions are associated with less maladaptive rumination (Burg & Michalak, 2011; Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Raes & Williams, 2010; Ramel et al., 2004), nevertheless it remains unclear which kind of mindfulness meditation technique is…”