The DOI matches its Crossref record; 47 of the 47 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Mechanisms of Change in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: Self-Compassion and Mindfulness as Mediators of Intervention Outcomes
Abstract
Research has demonstrated support for the efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in alleviating psychological distress and symptoms. Less is known, however, about the mechanisms through which MBSR achieves its outcomes. This study examined mindfulness and self-compassion as potential mediators of MBSR’s effects on several processes and behaviors related to emotion regulation, using data from a randomized trial of MBSR versus waitlist (WL), in which MBSR participants demonstrated significantly greater improvements in worry, fear of emotion, difficulties in emotion regulation, suppression of anger, and aggressive anger expression. Mediation analysis using bootstrap resampling indicated that increases in self-compassion mediated MBSR’s effects on worry, controlling for change in mindfulness. Increases in mindfulness mediated the intervention’s effects on difficulties in emotion regulation, controlling for change in self-compassion. Both variables mediated MBSR’s effects on fear of emotion. These findings highlight the importance of mindfulness and self-compassion as key processes of change that underlie MBSR’s outcomes.
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“For example, given the emphasis on mindfulness (and associated skills such as letting go of judgments of oneself) as a core skillset in DBT, participation in a DBT skills group may be associated with improvements in well-being and self-compassion, outcomes that have been reported across multiple studies examining the effects of mindfulness-based interventions [25–27].”
Citations
Cites
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/brm.40.3.879 · Cited by 34,117
A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S. G., & Sheets, V. (2002) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/1082-989x.7.1.83 · Cited by 9,406
Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004) · Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment · doi:10.1023/b:joba.0000007455.08539.94 · Cited by 8,942 · cited 1×
“The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale was used as a measure of difficulties with emotion regulation ( .93 and test–retest r .88; Gratz & Roemer, 2004).”
Confidence Limits for the Indirect Effect: Distribution of the Product and Resampling Methods
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., & Williams, J. (2004) · Multivariate Behavioral Research · doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr3901_4 · Cited by 7,806
Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness
Baer, R. A., Smith, G. T., Hopkins, J., Krietemeyer, J., & Toney, L. (2006) · Assessment · doi:10.1177/1073191105283504 · Cited by 7,511 · cited 6×
“Controlling for changes in other facets of mindfulness, none of the individual facets of mindfulness assessed via the FFMQ uniquely mediated MBSR’s effects on difficulties in emotion regulation and fear of emotion.”
InfluentialThe Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Self-Compassion
NEFF, K. D. (2003) · Self and Identity · doi:10.1080/15298860309027 · Cited by 6,436 · cited 6×
“The scale’s internal consistency and test–retest reliability were .92 and .93, respectively (Neff, 2003).”
InfluentialDevelopment and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire
Meyer, T. J., Miller, M. L., Metzger, R. L., & Borkovec, T. D. (1990) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(90)90135-6 · Cited by 5,099 · cited 2×
“Neff, K. D. (2003). The development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion.”
Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits
Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., & Walach, H. (2004) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/s0022-3999(03)00573-7 · Cited by 3,958
(2005) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 3,197
Effects of mindfulness on psychological health: A review of empirical studies
Keng, S.-L., Smoski, M. J., & Robins, C. J. (2011) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2011.04.006 · Cited by 2,687 · cited 1×
“For a review of the effects of MBSR on psychological health, see Keng, Smoski, and Robins (2011).”
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Gu, J., Strauss, C., Bond, R., & Cavanagh, K. (2015) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2015.01.006 · Cited by 1,712
“One study assessed self-compassion as a mediator of a MBI's effect on depression in a sample of adults with recurrent depression (Kuyken et al., 2010) and the other two, on trait anxiety (Bergen-Cico & Cheon, 2013) and anger expression (Keng et al., 2012) in non-clinical samples.”
BackgroundMindfulness Interventions with Youth: A Meta-Analysis
Zoogman, S., Goldberg, S. B., Hoyt, W. T., & Miller, L. (2015) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-013-0260-4 · Cited by 760
Raab, K. (2014) · Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy · doi:10.1080/08854726.2014.913876 · Cited by 395
A Reconsideration of the Self-Compassion Scale’s Total Score: Self-Compassion versus Self-Criticism
López, A., Sanderman, R., Smink, A., Zhang, Y., van Sonderen, E., Ranchor, A., & Schroevers, M. J. (2015) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132940 · Cited by 380
Galante, J., Friedrich, C., Dawson, A. F., Modrego-Alarcón, M., Gebbing, P., Delgado-Suárez, I., Gupta, R., Dean, L., Dalgleish, T., White, I. R., et al. (2021) · PLOS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003481 · Cited by 319
Metadata
- Authors
- Keng, S.-L., Smoski, M. J., Robins, C. J., Ekblad, A. G., & Brantley, J. G.
- Affiliations
- Duke University (US)
- Duke Medical Center (US)
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CA)
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy
- Publisher
- Springer Publishing Company
- Published
- 2012
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 270-280
- ISSN
- 0889-8391 (ISSN-L)
- 1938-887X
- OpenAlex
- W2008283886
- Cited by
- 184
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 9.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Johns Hopkins University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- mindfulness-based stress reduction, self-compassion, mindfulness, mechanisms of change, emotion regulation, worry, fear of emotions, anger suppression, psychological distress, mediation
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