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Theories of mindfulness claim that a state of present-moment awareness enhances self-regulation in the presence of negative emotion. However, very little research has tested this claim in relation to daily stressors. This paper examined whether present-moment awareness during daily stressful events predicted enhanced responding to (a) the same day’s event, (b) a stressful event on the subsequent day and (c) stressful events on average, among a sample of adults (N = 143) over 20 days. We found support for these predictions, controlling for negative affect and stress-related appraisals. These novel findings extend the personality literature by showing that present-moment awareness facilitates adaptive stress-responses, independent of an individual’s affective state and the severity of threat experienced.
Few studies have explored whether mindfulness facilitates more adaptive coping with stress, and the evidence for this is mixed. It may be that mindfulness influences coping responses only among relatively stressed individuals, but this has not been tested. Two randomized controlled experiments (Study 1, N = 204; Study 2, N = 202) tested whether a brief mindfulness induction enhances coping among adults and whether perceived stress moderates these effects. In Study 1, we found that a mindfulness induction produced less self-reported avoidance coping but only among relatively stressed individuals. In Study 2, a mindful acceptance induction produced more approach and less avoidance coping than relaxation and self-affirmation controls, and these effects were strongest among individuals reporting high levels of perceived stress. These findings suggest that perceived stress is an important moderator of the influence of mindfulness upon coping responses.