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There is a well-documented evidence base for the beneficial effects of mindfulness-based interventions for various health issues, and research has increasingly explored the role of mindfulness in nonclinical contexts. While the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FMMQ) was widely used to study dispositional mindfulness, no work has investigated the unique contributions of each mindfulness facet to depression, anxiety, and stress in a general population. The present study used psychometrically refined FFMQ and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) scores obtained from a sample (n = 400) of equal number of students and general population. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to investigate predictive values of mindfulness facets to psychological distress variables. Nonjudgmental attitude was the strongest predictor of lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress across both students and general population with standardized β ranging from − .32 to − .46. Nonreactivity was the second strongest predictor for stress and depression, but Acting with Awareness was a significant predictor for anxiety and stress in students only. Overall, mindfulness facets were stronger predictors of lower DASS scores in students compared to general population. Relationships between some mindfulness facets and distress variables differ between students and general population and therefore may not be generalizable across these populations.
Objectives: Face-to-face mindfulness interventions have been shown to significantly decrease perceived stress, anxiety and depression and research is beginning to show similar benefits for such courses delivered via the internet. We investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of an online mindfulness course for perceived stress, anxiety and depression.Design:A follow-up investigation of an online mindfulness course. Previous research examining the change in perceived stress showed promising results. Measures of anxiety and depression were added to the online mindfulness course and these were investigated as well as perceived stress using a new, larger sample.
Participants:Participants (N=273) were self-referrals to the online course who completed the outcome measure immediately before the course, upon course completion and at 1 month follow-up.
Intervention: The programme consists of 10 sessions, guided meditation videos and automated emails, with elements of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, completed at a pace to suit the individual (minimum length 4 weeks).
Primary and secondary outcome measures: The Perceived Stress Scale, the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment-7 and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (for depression). Mindfulness practice was self-reported at automated time points upon login, once the exercises and sessions for each week were completed.
Results: Perceived stress, anxiety and depression significantly decreased at course completion and further decreased at 1 month follow-up, with effect sizes comparable to those found with face-to-face and other online mindfulness courses and to other types of intervention, such as cognitive behavioural therapy for stress. The amount of meditation practice reported did affect outcome when controlling for baseline severity.
Conclusions: The online mindfulness course appears to be an acceptable, accessible intervention which reduces stress, anxiety and depression. However, there is no control comparison and future research is required to assess the effects of the course for different samples.
This descriptive study uses narrative analysis to examine the nature and quality of pre-service teachers' initial attempts at reflection via the genre of memoir writing in a social studies methods course. The paper begins by reviewing other uses of narrative reflection and autobiographical writing in teacher education. This is followed by an explanation of how students develop a memoir as part of their social studies course work and the methodology employed by the researchers to examine these texts. The paper concludes with an analysis of the findings accompanied by a discussion of the educational significance of this study in initiating reflection through autobiographical writing.
<p>BACKGROUND: Many anecdotes and several uncontrolled case series have suggested that emotionally stressful events, and more specifically, anger, immediately precede and appear to trigger the onset of acute myocardial infarction. However, controlled studies to determine the relative risk of myocardial infarction after episodes of anger have not been reported. METHODS AND RESULTS: We interviewed 1623 patients (501 women) an average of 4 days after myocardial infarction. The interview identified the time, place, and quality of myocardial infarction pain and other symptoms, the estimated usual frequency of anger during the previous year, and the intensity and timing of anger and other potentially triggering factors during the 26 hours before the onset of myocardial infarction. Anger was assessed by the onset anger scale, a single-item, seven-level, self-report scale, and the state anger subscale of the State-Trait Personality Inventory. Occurrence of anger in the 2 hours preceding the onset of myocardial infarction was compared with its expected frequency using two types of self-matched control data based on the case-crossover study design. The onset anger scale identified 39 patients with episodes of anger in the 2 hours before the onset of myocardial infarction. The relative risk of myocardial infarction in the 2 hours after an episode of anger was 2.3 (95% confidence interval, 1.7 to 3.2). The state anger subscale corroborated these findings with a relative risk of 1.9 (95% confidence interval, 1.3 to 2.7). Regular users of aspirin had a significantly lower relative risk (1.4; 95% confidence interval, 0.8 to 2.6) than nonusers (2.9; 95% confidence interval, 2.0 to 4.1) (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: Episodes of anger are capable of triggering the onset of acute myocardial infarction, but aspirin may reduce this risk. A better understanding of the manner in which external events trigger the onset of acute cardiovascular events may lead to innovative preventive strategies aimed at severing the link between these external stressors and their pathological consequences.</p>
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