Abstract
Mindfulness has been associated with fewer negative mental health symptoms during adolescence, but fewer studies have examined longitudinal associations between mindfulness and symptoms in conjunction with two vulnerability factors for psychopathology with mindfulness: rumination and impulsivity. This study examined longitudinal associations between internalizing symptoms (depression, anxiety, stress), mindfulness, rumination, and impulsivity over a one-year period among 352 Spanish adolescents (57.4% girls; M = 14.47, SD = 1.34). Participants completed self-reported measures of symptoms, mindfulness, rumination, and impulsivity at two time points. Mindfulness negatively predicted stress and depressive symptoms, and a bidirectional negative association was found between mindfulness and impulsivity. Impulsivity positively predicted stress, and anxiety positively predicted depressive symptoms, stress, and rumination. This study highlights the importance of mindfulness as a protective factor and impulsivity and anxiety as risk factors for internalizing symptoms throughout adolescence. These findings build on previous studies that examined longitudinal associations between mindfulness and symptoms by including rumination and impulsivity’s roles.
Highlights
Adolescence is a crucial developmental stage in terms of mental health difficulties (Polanczyk et al, 2015)
When studying longitudinal associations between mindfulness and negative mental health symptoms, few studies have included its associations with rumination and impulsivity, which are viewed as transdiagnostic factors for psychopathology throughout adolescence (Cosi et al, 2011; McLaughlin & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2011)
As suggested in the literature (Brown et al, 2011; Graber, 2013; Rood et al, 2009), the results indicate that girls have higher anxiety and rumination levels, and lower mindfulness levels at both time points, whereas differences in depressive symptoms and stress are only present in Wave 2 (W2)
Summary
Adolescence is a crucial developmental stage in terms of mental health difficulties (Polanczyk et al, 2015). Physiological and psychosocial changes that occur during puberty help increase internalizing symptoms—such as depression, anxiety, and stress (Graber, 2013; Romeo, 2013)—with prevalence rates higher among girls than boys (Merikangas et al, 2010). Considering that mental health problems in youth are associated with mental health problems in adulthood, both predicting and exacerbating them (Copeland et al, 2020; Johnson et al, 2018), preventing these first
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