Mindfulness

Mental health difficulties in children are increasing, especially following transition from elementary to high-school education. In attempts to mitigate risk of these difficulties, proactive wellbeing interventions are becoming increasingly explored in school settings. Recently, Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) has been shown to be well-accepted and efficacious in promoting school staff wellbeing and prosocial behaviours. This paper outlines the impact of CMT as a pupil wellbeing intervention. Sixty-seven pupils aged 11–12 took part in either Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) lessons as usual (n=30), or CMT-Pupils (n=37) as their PSHE lessons, over a 5-week period. A mixed-methods quantitative and qualitative design was utilised to explore implementation and curricula effectiveness across several wellbeing parameters (e.g., anxiety, self-compassion, perfectionism, moods and feelings, self-esteem). Pupils reported positively on their experiences of the CMT-Pupils lessons, content and practices. Quantitative analyses revealed a significant time-by-group interaction effect for anxiety, reflecting differences in anxiety post CMT-Pupils vs. PSHE as usual. No further interactions reached significance. Qualitative analyses revealed benefits of CMT-Pupils for pupil and classroom behaviour, including emotion regulation, kindness to others and feelings of inclusion. Benefits were also found to extend to the class teachers. CMT-pupils could be a promising school-based wellbeing intervention for improving prosocial behaviours, the classroom environment and protecting against deteriorations in child mental health. Larger scale explorations of CMT-Pupils across wider demographics, including investigation of who can deliver the curriculum efficaciously (e.g., teachers vs. external facilitators), are suggested as next steps for investigation. This study was not preregistered.

In shame, the self is evaluated negatively by oneself, in measures of shame-proneness, or from the perceived perspective of others, as external shame. Both types of shame are associated with anxiety and depression. Mindfulness and self-compassion are associated with shame, and some intervention approaches for shame involve meditation. Aims of the study were to predict each type of shame from mindfulness and self-compassion and to investigate the relationship between meditation practice and each type of shame. A correlational design was used to investigate relationships of external shame and shame-proneness with mindfulness, self-compassion, and meditation practice. Two participant samples, of undergraduate psychology students and participants recruited from mindfulness-related websites, completed an online survey. For both samples, facets of mindfulness predicted external shame and shame-proneness. Self-compassion, administered to the website sample only, also predicted external shame and shame-proneness. Frequency and duration of meditation sessions predicted shame-proneness, but not external shame, in both samples. Meditation did not predict mindfulness or self-compassion for the website sample, but frequency of sessions predicted the Nonjudging facet of mindfulness for the undergraduate sample. Meditation may be protective against shame-proneness, but other intervention practices may be needed to protect against external shame.

This study aimed to explore: (1) whether fatigue, difficulties in emotion regulation and mindful parenting differ based on maternal anxious and/or depressive symptomatology levels in the postpartum period; (2) whether difficulties in emotion regulation mediate the relationship between fatigue and mindful parenting; and (3) whether maternal symptomatology moderates these relationships. A sample of 295 Portuguese mothers of infants aged up to 12 months completed self-report instruments assessing mindful parenting, fatigue, anxious and depressive symptoms and difficulties in emotion regulation. Mothers with clinically significant symptomatology levels showed higher levels of fatigue, more difficulties in emotion regulation and lower levels of mindful parenting than mothers with normal levels of symptomatology. Higher levels of fatigue were directly associated with lower levels of mindful parenting but only in the group of mothers with low levels of symptomatology. In addition, higher levels of fatigue were indirectly associated with lower levels of mindful parenting through higher levels of difficulties in emotion regulation regardless of the mothers’ symptomatology levels. The results of this study highlight the need to reduce fatigue and anxious and/or depressive symptomatology, as well as foster adaptive emotion regulation among mothers in the postpartum period.

Research on the effect of mindfulness meditation on false memories has produced mixed findings. Seminal research on the topic suggested that a brief mindfulness meditation before encoding increases false memories. Subsequent researchers have found no effect or even a decrease in false memories as a result of brief mindfulness meditation. None of these studies have analyzed mood or stimuli valence as a factor. One hundred and twenty-three introductory psychology undergraduate were assigned to one of four between-subject conditions. Depending on the condition to which they were assigned, participants either completed a brief mindfulness meditation exercise or were told to let think about whatever came to their mind (i.e., a control condition). In addition, half of the participants then received a negative mood induction while the other half did not. All participants completed a Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory free recall and recognition procedure using both neutral and negative lists. The results showed that mindfulness and mood had little overall effect on false memory for neutral lures. Negative mood reduced the false recognition of negative lures only for those in the mindfulness condition. This pattern was more applicable to individuals with higher negative trait affect. Mindfulness mediation reduced false memory only when a negative mood and negative lures were present. We discuss the results in terms of the source monitoring framework as well as encoding and retrieval processes. Further work is needed to clarify the specific instances when mindfulness impacts the occurrence of false memory.

Sự không hài lòng về cơ thể là nguồn gốc chính của nỗi khổ sở ở phụ nữ ở mọi lứa tuổi. Một yếu tố tiềm năng có thể làm giảm sự không hài lòng về cơ thể là lòng từ bi, một khái niệm đang nhận được nhiều sự chú ý trong nghiên cứu do mối liên hệ mạnh mẽ của nó với sức khỏe tâm lý. Nghiên cứu này đã điều tra xem một khóa đào tạo thiền lòng từ bi kéo dài 3 tuần có cải thiện sự hài lòng về cơ thể trong một nhóm phụ nữ đa thế hệ hay không. Các tham gia viên được phân ngẫu nhiên vào nhóm can thiệp thiền (N = 98; tuổi trung bình = 38,42) hoặc vào nhóm đối chứng chờ (N = 130; tuổi trung bình = 36,42). Kết quả cho thấy so với nhóm đối chứng, các tham gia viên trong nhóm can thiệp đã trải qua sự giảm đáng kể về sự không hài lòng với cơ thể, sự xấu hổ về cơ thể và giá trị bản thân phụ thuộc vào diện mạo, cũng như những cải thiện lớn hơn về lòng từ bi và sự đánh giá cao về cơ thể. Tất cả những cải thiện này được duy trì khi đánh giá lại sau 3 tháng. Thiền lòng từ bi có thể là một phương pháp hữu ích và tiết kiệm để cải thiện hình ảnh cơ thể ở phụ nữ trưởng thành.

EEG neurofeedback has potential to increase the effectiveness of mobile meditation applications by providing synchronous performance feedback to meditators. This crossover trial aimed to evaluate the effects of auditory EEG neurofeedback on state mindfulness during focused attention meditation—a putative mediator of mental health benefits—relative to no feedback. Adult participants (N = 68, Mage = 22.66, SDage = 7.35) completed a task-based measure of state mindfulness while meditating with and without auditory feedback from a consumer-grade EEG headband. Participants rated subjective meditation experiences in each condition. A subgroup (n = 29) completed 14 days of home practice with the device and responded to open-ended questions about their experience. Auditory feedback was associated with greater state mindfulness (RR = 1.15, 95% CI [1.00, 1.29]). Device-measured mind wandering was lower when feedback was present (d = − 0.22 [− 0.07, − 0.37]), but there was a negligible effect on device-measured recoveries from mind wandering episodes (d = − 0.11 [− 0.30, 0.08]). Feedback was associated with quantitative differences in subjective experiences consistent with heightened arousal. Thematic analysis revealed helpful (active, guiding) and unhelpful (stressful, distracting, incongruent with subjective experience) aspects of feedback. EEG neurofeedback appears to increase state mindfulness in adults during a brief meditation. These results support feedback as an effective adjunct to meditation. Psychoeducation regarding feedback and the meditative experience may help to maximise the beneficial effects. Replication of these findings in clinical populations is warranted.

Children with high rates of disruptive behavior in elementary school are at risk for future psychosocial difficulties. Professionals who work in today's schools are in need of effective interventions to reduce rates of disruptive behaviors in schools in order to ensure optimal outcomes for students. We detail a pilot study of a brief mindfulness-based intervention, Soles of the Feet (SOF), for elementary school students. Three non-disabled students with high rates of off-task behavior during general education periods were selected and taught the SOF intervention. SOF took place over the course of five 20–30-min sessions in a public school setting. Using a multiple-baseline single-subject study design, results obtained via direct observation of student behavior during general education instructional time in the classroom suggest that SOF may be an effective intervention to reduce off-task behavior and increase academically engaged behavior for behaviorally challenging students. Questionnaires administered to these students and their teachers suggest that SOF is socially valid, feasible, and acceptable intervention for use in public schools. Conclusions extend the research of the effectiveness of SOF, and suggest that SOF is an effective short-term, resource non-intensive, and socially valid intervention for use with typically developing students with disruptive behavior in a public school setting.

This study examined the potential buffering role of trait mindfulness in the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms in a community-based sample of racial and ethnic minority adults. Analyses conducted on 97 participants indicated that self-reported trait mindfulness moderated the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms. Individuals low in mindfulness experienced elevated depressive symptoms at high levels of discrimination. However, individuals high in mindfulness reported lower depressive symptoms at high levels of discrimination. Results remained robust when controlling for potential confounding effects of age, sex, and income. Results suggest mindfulness is an important individual difference that may confer resilience for racial and ethnic minority communities who experience disproportionate levels of discrimination-related stressors and health disparities. Findings point to the potential utility of interventions that target mindfulness as a modifiable skill that can be used specifically to cope with discrimination. Socio-cultural considerations for the use of mindfulness-based approaches in racial and ethnic minority communities are discussed.