Mindfulness

OBJECTIVES: Mindfulness therapy improves drinking outcomes arguably by attenuating negative mood-induced drinking, but this mechanism has not been demonstrated in hazardous community drinkers. To address this, three studies tested whether a key ingredient of mindfulness, breath counting, would attenuate the increase in motivation for alcohol produced by experimentally induced negative mood, in hazardous community drinkers. METHOD: In three studies, hazardous community drinkers were randomized to receive either a 6-min breath counting training or listen to a recited extract from a popular science book, before all participants received a negative mood induction...

OBJECTIVES: Although hospital chaplains play a critical role in delivering emotional and spiritual care to a broad range of both religious and non-religious patients, there is remarkably little research on the best practices or "active ingredients" of chaplain spiritual consults. Here, we examined how chaplains' compassion capacity was associated with their linguistic behavior with hospitalized inpatients, and how their language in turn related to patient outcomes. METHODS: Hospital chaplains ( n = 16) completed self-report measures that together were operationalized as self-reported "compassion capacity...

Contemplative interventions designed to cultivate compassion are receiving increasing empirical attention. Accumulating evidence suggests that these interventions bolster prosocial motivation and warmth towards others. Less is known about how these practices impact compassion in everyday life. Here we consider one mechanistic pathway through which compassion practices may impact perception and action in the world: simulation . Evidence suggests that vividly imagining a situation simulates that experience in the brain as if it were, to a degree, actually happening...

BACKGROUND: Universities increasingly offer mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) to improve student health and reduce their impact on overburdened psychological services. It is critical for evidence-based policy to determine for what health outcomes mindfulness programs are effective and under what conditions. Objectives were to: (a) perform a comprehensive analysis of the effects of mindfulness interventions on physical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes in college undergraduate students, and (b) examine moderators of intervention effects to identify factors that may help improve existing university mindfulness programs and guide the design of new programs...

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess the association between meditation practice and cognitive function over time among middle-aged and older adults. METHOD: We included Health and Retirement Study (HRS) participants assessed for meditation practice in the year 2000 as part of the HRS alternative medicine module ( n = 1,160) and were followed up for outcomes over 2000-2016 period. We examined the association between meditation ≥ twice a week vs none/less frequent practice and changes in the outcomes of recall, global cognitive function, and quantitative reasoning using generalized linear regression models...

OBJECTIVES: In order to promote mindfulness in primary school, the Breathing Break Intervention was developed. This collection of short daily breath-based mindfulness practices was introduced to 15 teachers who delivered them up to 3 times a day to their students. METHOD: In a randomized controlled trial, 146 third and fourth graders (49% female) either received the intervention ( n = 81) or participated in the active wait list control group ( n = 65). Students were asked to nominate prosocial peers and to report on supportive peer relationships in their classrooms before (pretest) and after (posttest) the 9 weeks of the Breathing Break Intervention, and in a follow-up 5 months later...

OBJECTIVES: We explored the effects of a mindfulness program based on the satipatthana sutta (instead of a contemporary Western program), with participants as collaborators, using a single-case experimental design. The main question was whether such a training has positive effects and, if so, whether and how the effects vary across participants and measures. METHOD: Participants chose the design (multiple baseline) and the measures to be repeatedly collected. Then they took part in a 6-week mindfulness training based on the satipatthana sutta; finally, they performed a preliminary data analysis of their own results...

OBJECTIVES: A growing body of evidence shows self-compassion can play a key role in alleviating depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress in various populations. Interventions fostering self-compassion have recently received increased attention. This meta-analysis aimed to identify studies that measured effects of self-compassion focused interventions on reducing depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress. METHODS: A comprehensive search was conducted within four databases to identify relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs)...

OBJECTIVES: While mindfulness in the workplace has received substantial scientific attention in the past decades, it is not yet well-understood if, under what circumstances, and in what ways mindfulness training may be helpful for individuals working in political environments. The aim of this study was to explore the experience of mindfulness training among British politicians, as well as mindfulness facilitators who had taught mindfulness to politicians in the UK Parliament. METHOD: Between September and November 2021, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with British politicians ( n  = 18) who had experience of mindfulness training and mindfulness facilitators ( n  = 4) who had taught mindfulness to politicians in the UK Parliament...

OBJECTIVES: Stress has deleterious effects on teachers' well-being and interactions with students. While in-person mindfulness programs have demonstrated benefits for teachers' mental health, in-person classes are often not feasible due to teachers' busy schedules. This study assessed four components of feasibility (implementation, demand, acceptability, and limited-efficacy testing) for an online mindfulness intervention for teachers. METHOD: A volunteer sample of 50 primary school teachers was recruited across three urban public schools and was offered a 9-week online mindfulness program (DeStress Monday at School)...

OBJECTIVE: The opioid crisis in the USA remains severe during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reduced access to evidence-based interventions. This Stage 1 randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessed the preliminary efficacy of Zoom-based Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) plus Just-in-Time Adaptive Intervention (JITAI) prompts to practice mindfulness triggered by wearable sensors (MORE + JITAI). METHOD: Opioid-treated chronic pain patients ( n  = 63) were randomized to MORE + JITAI or a Zoom-based supportive group (SG) psychotherapy control...

OBJECTIVES: Positive effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) on occupational health have been demonstrated by several systematic review studies during the last two decades. So far, existing reviews excluded mindfulness-informed interventions (MIIs) that build on informal approaches or mixed techniques aiming at improving mindfulness indirectly. To address this research gap, the present comprehensive meta-analysis synthesizes the results of RCTs of MBIs and MIIs conducted in various workplace settings...

OBJECTIVES: Mindfulness meditation apps are used by millions of adults in the USA to improve mental health. However, many new app subscribers quickly abandon their use. The purpose of this study was to determine the behavioral, demographic, and socioeconomic factors associated with the abandonment of meditation apps during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: A survey was distributed to subscribers of a popular meditation app, Calm, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 that assessed meditation app behavior and meditation habit strength, as well as demographic and socioeconomic information...

OBJECTIVES: Teachers play a critical role in preparing our children and adolescents for a successful future. However, despite the large number of students impacted by trauma and adversity, teachers are often not well prepared to provide trauma-sensitive support. Furthermore, while working to support students exposed to trauma and adversity, teachers may experience empathy-based stress exacerbating already high levels of stress among them. This narrative review explores the issue of empathy-based stress within the context of the prosocial classroom model which proposes that teachers' social and emotional competence and well-being are key to their ability to create and maintain supportive learning environments critical to student academic and behavioral outcomes...

OBJECTIVES: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have emerged as promising prophylactic episodic migraine treatments. The present study investigated biopsychosocial predictors and outcomes associated with formal, daily-life meditation practice in migraine patients undergoing MBI, and whether augmented mindfulness mechanistically underlies change. METHODS: Secondary analyses of clinical trial data comparing a 12-week enhanced mindfulness-based stress reduction course (MBSR + ; n = 50) to stress management for headache (SMH; n = 48) were conducted...

OBJECTIVES: Previous research cites mindfulness as a protective factor against risky substance use, but the specific association between dispositional mindfulness (DM) and cannabis use has been inconsistent. Despite known heterogeneity of DM facets across college students, much of the prior research in this area has relied on variable-centered approaches. Only a handful of prior studies within the cannabis literature have utilized person-centered approaches, and only one has specifically examined unique profiles of dispositional mindfulness in relation to patterns of use among college students...

OBJECTIVES: Previous research has investigated potential synergies between classic psychedelics and meditation practice, but relatively little remains known about the relationship between classic psychedelic experiences and engagement with meditation practice.The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between classic psychedelic experiences and engagement with two popular types of meditation: mindfulness meditation and loving-kindness or compassion meditation. METHODS: This retrospective, population-based observational study included 2,822 respondents aged 18 years or older in the United States...

OBJECTIVES: Relative to the tendency to empathize with and help sociocultural in-group members, there are often social and psychological barriers to responding prosocially toward out-group members. This experiment examined the roles of mindfulness instruction and compassion instruction in fostering prosocial behavior toward an ethnic out-group (non-U.S. Arabs) relative to an ethnic in-group (U.S. residents). The study also examined whether contemplative practices would predict less parochial empathy and whether parochial empathy would mediate the relations between mindfulness/compassion and prosocial behavior toward the out-group...

OBJECTIVES: Indigenous university students experience high rates of anxiety and depression due primarily to the pernicious and persistent effects of colonialism, racism, and discrimination. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) hold promise, but likely require adaptation to make them culturally relevant for Indigenous peoples. We sought to gather Indigenous students' perspectives on the consistency and adaptability of MBIs for Indigenous students experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety...

OBJECTIVES: The primary goal of this study was to investigate the influence of the Mindfulness Education Workbook, a 6-week mindfulness-based tool, on emotion regulation, inhibition, physical self-concept, resources, and connectedness to nature. Furthermore, we explored whether a difference in number of hours of mindfulness practice would affect the outcomes. METHOD: Ninety-one children from a public elementary school ( M age = 9.74 years, SD = 0.76) participated in the study and were divided into three groups according to their respective school classes...