Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic strongly impacts adolescents’ mental health, a population particularly vulnerable to mental disorders, highlighting the need to identify protective factors against COVID-19 related psychological distress to inform policies and intervention strategies. Previous research suggests that mindfulness may be a promising factor that can lower the risk of detrimental psychological consequences related to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is currently unknown which aspects of mindfulness contribute most to its protective effects. Moreover, previous studies mainly focused on adult samples. The present study aimed to address this gap by investigating the impact of specific mindfulness facets on adolescents’ COVID-19 related psychological functioning. 246 Dutch-speaking adolescents were recruited via social media to complete a cross-sectional online survey between June 29 and October 11, 2020. Participants were 16–18 years of age, most of them women (71%), and the majority followed the highest level of Belgian secondary education. Logistic regression analyses were performed to test the differential effects of each mindfulness facet on psychological functioning. Our results identified decentering as the facet of mindfulness that was uniquely associated with decreased worry and stress, improved mental health and quality of life, as well as with an increase in social connectedness with others following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unexpectedly, decentering was negatively associated with adolescents’ helping behaviour during compared to before the pandemic. Implications for research on and application of mindfulness are discussed. Taken together, these findings suggest that the facet of decentering, among all facets of mindfulness, may represent the main protective factor against psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health crisis and is still strongly influencing our daily lives
Our results identified decentering as the facet of mindfulness that was uniquely associated with decreased worry and stress, improved mental health and quality of life, as well as with an increase in social connectedness with others following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic
More than 53% of participants reported that feeling rested and relaxed were the most positive emotions they experienced due to the pandemic, while other, more high or medium arousal positive emotions, e.g. excited or happy, were less prevalent. These results indicate that a large part of participants experienced notable psychological distress following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health crisis and is still strongly influencing our daily lives. Given the large differences between prevalence of psychological distress in Belgian compared to British adolescents during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 (Pierce et al, 2020; Rens et al, 2021), it is important to investigate the protective effects of dispositional mindfulness against COVID-19 related psychological distress in a Belgian sample to provide guidance for policies and interventions specific to the Belgian population. The facets acting with awareness, acceptance/non-judgment and decentering/nonreactivity reduced the risk of increases in depression, anxiety, and weight concerns over a 12-month period in adolescents (Johnson & Wade, 2019) These findings indicate that not all mindfulness facets have an strong association with mental health but that some facets confer stronger protective effects against mental health issues. The gained insights would improve our understanding of the specific factors influencing psychological reactions to extreme stress situations and inform the development of effective strategies to counteract the rise in mental health problems
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