Contribution Of Mindfulness Research Articles

The relationship between mindfulness and athletes’ mental skills may be explained by emotion regulation and self-regulation

BackgroundAlthough numerous psychological determinants of sports success have been identified in the scientific literature, research on the contribution of mindfulness and interoceptive awareness to sports achievements remains limited. This study investigates the relationship between self-reported mental skills determining sports success (i.e., flow state, attention, technique, sensitivity to error, commitment, and achievement), state mindfulness for physical activity (of the mind and the body), and interoceptive awareness (including scales of noticing, not distracting, not worrying, attention regulation, emotional awareness, self-regulation, body listening, and trusting).MethodsA cross-sectional online survey was conducted on a sample of elite athletes in speed skating (n = 54) and university students of physical education (n = 102) representing various sports disciplines and competitive levels. The Sports Success Scale (SSS), the State Mindfulness Scale for Physical Activity (SMS-PA), and the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA-2) were used to assess psychological determinants of athletic achievements, state mindfulness, and interoceptive sensitivity, respectively.ResultsOur findings indicate some small-to-moderate differences in particular dimensions of psychological traits related to sports success, mindfulness, and interoceptive awareness between athletes of different genders, groups, and competitive levels. A chain mediation model showed that the relationship between body mindfulness and psychological variables determining sports success is fully explained by two dimensions of interoception: self-regulation and attention regulation.ConclusionsCultivating the mindfulness state of the body can improve self-regulation and attention regulation, which in turn may increase the mental skills required for successful sports participation. Therefore, mental training should focus primarily on body mindfulness, attention regulation, and self-regulation to improve the mental skills responsible for athletes’ sports achievements. In addition, individual differences in athletes’ gender, sports discipline, and level of sports competition should be considered during mental training.

Explaining Parenting Stress among Adoptive Parents: The Contribution of Mindfulness, Psychological Flexibility, and Self-Compassion.

Although parenting stress has been identified as one of the most important and highly acceptable targets for postadoption psychological intervention, knowledge regarding the modifiable factors that contribute to explaining this outcome among adoptive parents remains scarce. This study aimed to explore whether and to what extent adoptive parents' mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and self-compassion contribute to explaining parenting stress and to analyze whether this contribution varies according to children's age, time passed since the adoptive placement, and the parents' gender. Cross-sectional data from 302 Portuguese adoptive parents with children between 1 and 17 years old were collected online through self-response questionnaires. Controlling for a wide range of child-, adoption-, and parent-related variables, lower levels of mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and self-compassion were associated with higher levels of parenting stress. These associations were not moderated by children's age, time passed since the adoptive placement, or the parents' gender. The final regression model explained 50% of the variance in parenting stress. These results allow us to reflect on new guidelines for both preventive and remedial interventions with adoptive parents, given the apparent added value of promoting these psychological resources.

Mindfulness in Intercultural Communication: A Qualitative Analysis Experience

The study of intercultural communication has recently become one of the topical issues in the psychology of intergroup relations, intercultural communication and social psychology. Intercultural communication is considered within the framework of communication theory and describes the features and mechanisms underlying effective communication. The integrative communication model, previously described by the authors of this article, made it necessary to test the role of mindfulness in intercultural communication. The aim of this research is to analyze the contribution of mindfulness to the situation of intercultural interaction using qualitative research methods. The research was carried out based on the theoretical model of interpersonal mindfulness described at the following levels: (1) concentration on the present, presence; (2) attentive awareness of both oneself and the other; (3) acceptance of the other without condemnation, and (4) inhibition of automatic responses. Using the method of in-depth interviews and subsequent thematic and phenomenological data analysis, the authors were able to describe the mechanisms of mindfulness in intercultural communication in general and at each of the four analytical levels separately. The data obtained as a result of the analysis made it possible to reveal the content of each of the levels of mindfulness. Conclusions were also made about the content of the goals and values of intercultural communication, the motives for specific practices in the life and communication of informants. Methods for controlling reactivity in a situation of uncertainty in intercultural communication were analyzed and the roles of attitudes towards accepting the other without condemnation were described. The results of this study can serve as a basis for the development of an integrative model that will describe the role of anxiety and uncertainty in intercultural communication and allow the data to be operationalized into measuring scales for quantitative research in the field of assessing the role of mindfulness in intercultural communication.

The Relative Contribution of Mindfulness and Gratitude in Predicting Happiness among University Students

The present study aims at identifying the separate and interactive contribution of gratitude and mindfulness in predicting happiness; examining the relationship between these variables; identifying differences between students with high happiness and students with low happiness in gratitude and mindfulness; and identifying the levels of gratitude, mindfulness, and happiness among the students of Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University. The research sample consisted of 447 female students aged 18-25 years. The research instruments included the Toronto Mindfulness Scale, the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, as well as the Gratitude, Resentment, and Appreciation Test-Short form. The study found out that gratitude and mindfulness had a significant contribution in predicting happiness among university students (31% and 41.5%, respectively). The interaction between the total scores of mindfulness and gratitude contributed 51.5% of the variance in happiness among university students. The interaction between mindfulness, sense of abundance, and simple appreciation contributed 54.4% of the variance in happiness among university students. The study found a positive correlation between mindfulness, gratitude (sense of abundance, simple appreciation, appreciation of others), and happiness. Additionally, it was found that students at Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University had moderate levels of mindfulness and moderate to high levels of gratitude and happiness. The sense of abundance domain was moderate, the simple appreciation domain was high, and the appreciation of others domain was moderate. Mindfulness, gratitude, sense of abundance, simple appreciation, and appreciation of others increased among the students with high happiness. Received: 8 March 2021 / Accepted: 22 June 2021 / Published: 8 July 2021

Mindfulness-based relapse prevention for cannabis regular users: Preliminary outcomes of a randomized clinical trial

Mindfulness-based approaches have shown their effectiveness in caring for patients with substance use disorders (SUD). Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) integrates practices from mindfulness-based interventions and cognitive-behavioral relapse prevention (RP) approaches. This article presents the preliminary results of a study that measures the effectiveness of an MBRP protocol for volunteer cannabis users willing to reduce or stop their consumptions. Twenty cannabis users were randomly assigned to either receive an eight-week outpatient MBRP program or treatment as usual (TAU). Cannabis use was assessed weekly through the timeline follow back (TLFB). Eighty percent of individuals received MBRP treatment and 60% of individuals received TAU completed treatment. Preliminary results did not find significant difference at the end of treatment (week 8) regarding the number of joints smoked. Despite the absence of any significant difference between the two groups, the contribution of mindfulness in the caring of SUD seems encouraging and promising. Many MBRP group participants reported qualitative changes in the way they consumed. This study will be continued in order to evaluate the effectiveness of MBRP on a larger number of subjects.

Mindfulness in Education and Paulo Freire: a reflective approach

This essay makes a theoretical reflection upon possible conceptual proximities between the contemporary application of Mindfulness in education and the educational proposals of Paulo Freire. The study manages to approximate Freire to Mindfulness through a few concepts such as “openness to the new” and ‘critical curiosity’, which are related to a certain kind of development of awareness. We conclude that the contributions of mindfulness to the educational process as understood by Paulo Freire are related to the ability to develop a state of presence that brings more awareness to mental and emotional states, as much as it leads to conscious actions opposed to actions in the autopilot. Awareness (which is close to the concept of action-reflection in Freire) becomes, thus, a keyword for transformation towards lesser mental, emotional, physical and social/interpersonal suffering, both in Freire and in Mindfulness.

The academic benefits of ‘letting go’: the contribution of mindfulness and nonattachment to adaptability, engagement, and grades

Previous research has indicated that nonattachment mediates the relationship between mindfulness and the ability to be adaptable. Additionally, adaptability has been associated with increased academic engagement and subsequently, higher grades. The current study combined these findings into a single model. In an undergraduate sample (N = 725), the results indicated that mindfulness and nonattachment were directly associated with greater adaptability and engagement. Increased adaptability was also directly associated with increased engagement, and engagement was associated with higher grades. Therefore, mindfulness and nonattachment were also found to be indirectly associated, albeit weakly, with higher grades. The current findings, therefore, add to the literature by indicating that mindfulness and nonattachment are both worthy of consideration in future research on student outcomes.

Contribution of mindfulness to customer orientation and adaptive selling

The objective of this research is to examine the relationship between the mindfulness of salespeople and their selling behaviours, as well as their satisfaction with their own sales performance. The sampling frame for this research includes salespersons from a world-leading-direct-sales corporation that has subsidiaries in Thailand. A total of 172 completed surveys were obtained. Results from a partial least squares regression of these surveys showed that both trait mindfulness and state mindfulness during the sales interactions of salespersons positively correlated with these outcome variables. Although trait mindfulness tended to explain adaptive selling indirectly, through the mediating role of customer orientation, only its direct linkage with customer orientation was supported. For state mindfulness during sales activities, the results supported that it is directly and positively associated with both customer orientation and adaptive selling. Lastly, the results showed that both trait mindfulness and state mindfulness during sales activities positively correlated with sales performance satisfaction. Therefore, the study suggests that mindfulness training is a possible intervention that sales organisations and/or sales managers may consider to help their sales personnel improve the quality of mindfulness that may be required for them to work more productively in their sales job.

Contributions of mindfulness during post-merger integration

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of mindfulness as a personal characteristic that might be associated with lower resistance to change during post-merger integration.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consists of full-time employees at a subsidiary of a Japanese multinational bank in Bangkok, Thailand, that acquired a local financial institution (n=141). Data collection was initiated one month after the first date that the two banks officially merged. A self-administered questionnaire was prepared for data collection. Partial least squares regression was used to analyze the data.FindingsThe negative association between mindfulness and resistance to organizational change was indirectly explained by the degree of optimism and general self-efficacy associated with mindfulness.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, the data were obtained through cross-sectional data collection. Second, the data were collected data from a single organization. Third, using the self-reported questionnaire survey to obtain the data can cause subjective bias in the measures. Lastly, the analysis did not incorporate organizational factors or management policies that might affect resistance to organizational change as control variables to capture their influence.Practical implicationsMindfulness training may be considered as an intervention to help prepare employees for the organizational change during post-merger integration.Originality/valueThe results provide theoretical insights into the mechanism by which mindfulness contributes to the changed attitudes of employees during organizational change.

Attitudes and Opinions of Female High School Athletes About Sports-Focused Mindfulness Training and Practices

Female high school athletes playing volleyball and soccer (N = 32) responded to a social validity questionnaire that inquired about their experiences with a sportfocused mindfulness training program. On average, the student-athletes rated most highly the effects of mindfulness training on emotional awareness and attention focusing, the contribution of mindfulness toward team play, the benefit of having coaches learn mindfulness skills, and the application of mindfulness to other sports. There were dissimilar ratings between the volleyball and soccer student-athletes concerning use of mindfulness when preparing for and during games. Most of the formal mindfulness practices taught during the training program were rated as being helpful to very helpful. We discuss factors influencing these findings and implications for mindfulness–sport performance research.

Contribution of Mindfulness to Individuals' Tendency to Believe and Share Social Media Content

The objective of this research was to explore the effect of mindfulness on individuals' tendencies to believe social media content and share it without realizing the potential consequences. The sample used in this study comprised 300 participants in Bangkok, Thailand, of whom 157 were full-time employees and 143 were college students. Results from partial least squares regression analysis supports the hypothesis that individuals who exhibit higher levels of mindfulness tend to be skeptical of the validity of information to which they are exposed. In addition, skepticism is linked to a decreased tendency to believe social media content and to share content on social media. The findings further support a direct link between mindfulness and a decreased tendency to share social media content. Overall, these findings confirm the positive contribution of mindfulness as a quality that may allow individuals to question the validity of social media content before they decide to believe it and share it with others.

Does mindfulness enhance stock trading performance?: the moderating and mediating effects of impulse control difficulties

This research investigates the contribution of mindfulness on performance of stock traders. The authors focus on the role of mindfulness in helping individuals lower impulsive behaviours when they trade stocks. Survey data were collected from 120 independent traders and 73 professional traders in Thailand (total N = 193). The analysis from partial least squares regression found that impulse control difficulties mediated the link between mindfulness and stock trading performance. This suggested that individuals with higher mindfulness measure tended to experience lower impulse control difficulties problem, and subsequently exhibited better stock trading performance. However, the analysis of the moderating effect revealed that the positive contribution of mindfulness on stock trading performance is only present for those with high impulse control difficulties. Surprisingly, mindfulness appeared to lower trading performance of traders who did not have impulse control difficulties.

Mindfulness and integrative self‐knowledge: Relationships with health‐related variables

This study examined how mindfulness and integrative self-knowledge were related to health-related issues. Men in general population (n = 103) and coronary heart disease samples (n = 101) completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Integrative Self-knowledge Scale, the Type 2 subscale of the Interpersonal Reactions Inventory, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Anxiety and Depression Scales. In both samples, there was a moderate positive correlation between mindfulness and integrative self-knowledge and they were negatively correlated with all health-related variables. However, only integrative self-knowledge explained independent variance in health-related variables. Specifically, in both samples, the relationship between mindfulness and health-related variables was mediated by integrative self-knowledge. Mindfulness and integrative self-knowledge are related domains of self-awareness that are associated with a range of health-related variables. These relationships are robust across samples drawn from general population and patients with coronary heart disease. The finding that integrative self-knowledge explained additional variance in the health-related variables after the contribution of mindfulness had been accounted for suggests that reflective self-awareness in integrative self-knowledge may make a unique contribution to the explanation of individual differences in health variables.

On the Relation Between Mindfulness and Depressive Symptoms: Rumination as a Possible Mediator

The extent to which rumination mediates the relation between mindfulness skills and depressive symptoms in nonclinical undergraduates (N = 254) was examined. Measures of mindfulness (Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills), ruminative brooding and reflective pondering (Ruminative Response Scale), and depressive symptomatology (Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology) were administered. The contribution of mindfulness and rumination subscales was investigated in mediation analyses using the bootstrapping methodology. The relations among the mindfulness scales and rumination and depressive symptomatology were investigated. The results suggest that brooding partially mediated the relation from awareness to depressive symptomatology and from depressive symptomatology to awareness (higher levels of awareness result in lower levels of brooding and, as a result, lower levels of depressive symptomatology and vice versa). Brooding fully mediated the relation from accepting without judgment to depressive symptomatology (higher levels of accepting without judgment result in lower levels of brooding, which results in lower levels of depressive symptomatology). Brooding partially mediated the relation from depressive symptomatology to accepting without judgment (higher levels of depressive symptomatology result in higher levels of brooding and thus in lower levels of accepting without judgment). Reflective pondering fully mediated the relation from depressive symptomatology to observing (higher levels of depressive symptomatology result in higher levels of reflective pondering and thus in higher levels of observing). Mindful observing was negatively correlated with awareness and accepting without judgment. Mindful describing was unrelated to rumination. The current study helps clarify the relations between mindfulness and depression, as influenced by rumination. A necessary step will be to investigate these relations in a clinical population.

Mind full or mindful: a report on mindfulness and psychological health in healthy adolescents

Mindfulness is defined as a non-judgemental awareness and accepting of present-moment experience. With intentional attendance to one's ongoing stream of thoughts, sensations and emotions as they arise, it allows the individual to react with less impulsivity and flexibility. However, empirical findings of mindfulness to date have largely been confined to outcome studies using clinical populations. This cross-sectional study examined the relationships between mindfulness, self-esteem, resiliency and mental health symptoms (anxiety, stress, depression and cognitive inflexibility) in a sample of 106 healthy adolescents. Participants completed a set of questionnaires. First, we found moderate effect size for anxiety, depression and self-esteem and large effect size for cognitive inflexibility. These results, when compared with clinical samples, demonstrated similar trends found in a healthy adolescent sample. Second, predictive value of mindfulness was examined and we found significant contribution of mindfulness to mental and psychological health.

Bulimic symptoms in undergraduate men and women: Contributions of mindfulness and thought suppression

Experiential avoidance, the refusal to accept contact with unpleasant private experiences, is believed to play a role in the onset and maintenance of eating disorders. Preliminary evidence suggests that mindfulness- and acceptance-based interventions that reduce avoidance may be effective in treating disordered eating behaviors. The purpose of the current investigation was to examine whether one form of experiential avoidance (thought suppression) and the theoretically opposing construct of dispositional mindfulness are associated with bulimic symptoms. Undergraduate men ( n = 219) and women ( n = 187) completed questionnaires assessing mindful attention and awareness, chronic thought suppression, and bulimic symptoms. A series of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that thought suppression and mindfulness accounted for unique variance in bulimic symptoms among men and women after accounting for BMI. Results are discussed in terms of the role of dispositional mindfulness and thought suppression in disordered eating.

Variation in Personal Competence and Mental Health Between Entering and Graduating MSW Students: The Contribution of Mindfulness

Social work students are exposed to academic and fieldwork stressors that challenge preexisting self‐concepts and worldviews and temporarily reduce personal competence and mental health. The current study examined the role of mindfulness in explaining the variation in competence and mental health between 37 entering and 28 graduating masters of social work students. Using a paper‐pencil survey, graduating second‐year students reported significantly lower mindfulness, personal competence, and mental health than incoming first‐year students. Furthermore, mindfulness significantly mediated the two groups' variation in personal competence and mental health. Implications are discussed.