Linking dispositional mindfulness and positive psychological processes in cancer survivorship: A multivariate path analysis.

Abstract

237 Background: Research indicates dispositional mindfulness is linked with positive psychological outcomes. This disposition, which is malleable through training, is characterized by the tendency exhibit nonjudgmental and nonreactive awareness of one’s thoughts, emotions, and present moment sensory-perceptual experience. Although this trait has been linked with salutary outcomes in the broader mental health literature, less is known about the trait of mindfulness in cancer survivors and how it may be linked with indices of psychological and physical health relevant to cancer survivorship. Methods: We conducted a multivariate path analysis of cross-sectional data from a heterogenous sample of cancer patients (N = 97) to test a conceptual model linking dispositional mindfulness with cancer-related quality of life via positive psychological processes. Results: We found that patients with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness were more likely to pay attention to positive experiences (β = 0.47), a propensity which was associated with positive reappraisal of stressful life events (β = 0.46). Patients who endorsed more frequent positive reappraisal had a greater sense of sense of meaning in life (β = 0.43) and savored rewarding or life affirming events (β = 0.45). In turn, those who engaged in high levels of savoring had better quality of life (β = 0.33) and suffered from less emotional distress (β = -0.54). Overall model fit was excellent, χ2/df= 1.18; CFI = 0.99; RMSEA = 0.04 (0.00, 0.12). Conclusions: The data support our hypothetical model of the processes by which mindfulness promotes psychological flourishing in the face of cancer. Dispositional mindfulness appears to broaden attention from a myopic focus on illness to encompass previously unattended positive features of the social and natural environment. With this broader set of information from which new, more adaptive situational appraisals may be generated, mindfulness may engender positive reappraisals of stressful life events and promote sense of meaning in life. When sustained over time, these processes may propel an upward spiral of positive cognition-emotion interactions with salutary consequences for cancer survivorship.