The Application of Mindfulness for Interpersonal Dependency: Effects of a Brief Intervention

Abstract

This study examined the efficacy of a brief mindfulness intervention for alleviating the affective consequences of interpersonal dependency. Seventy undergraduate students with high trait dependency underwent a mood induction to exacerbate the core cognitive and affective features of interpersonal dependency. Participants were then randomly assigned to listen and participate in a 20-min recording of either a mindfulness treatment or a distraction (control) treatment. Relative to those in the distraction group, mindfulness group participants reported greater increases in state mindfulness and greater reductions in state anxiety and state negative affect. Mediation analyses supported the notion that the decentering facet of state mindfulness fully mediated the improvements in both state anxiety and state negative affect. The findings of this study evince that mindfulness training may be a beneficial adjunct for treating interpersonal dependency and possibly dependent personality disorder.