Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Managing stress is very important for first-year college students adjusting to undergraduate life. Aspects of emotion regulation, including mindfulness and the ability to regulate distressing emotion adaptively, often correlate positively with well-being. However, little research has examined overlapping and/or distinct effects of these constructs in predicting changes in adjustment over a stressful transition. Thus, the present study examined the contributions of mindfulness and adaptive emotion regulation abilities in maintaining well-being during the transition to college. We further examined experience with mind-body practices, which may promote mindfulness and positive adjustment.DESIGN: Online surveys were administered to 158 undergraduates near the beginning and end of their first semester.
METHODS: Near semester start and end, students reported levels of mindfulness, adaptive emotion regulation abilities, emotional and spiritual well-being, and experience with mind-body practices.
RESULTS: Compared to mindfulness, adaptive emotion regulation abilities largely demonstrated stronger cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with well-being. However, mindfulness uniquely protected against changes in depression for students with greater emotion regulation difficulties. Over half of participants reported having tried mind-body practices, but just 1% reported current use.
CONCLUSIONS: Promoting mindfulness practices and adaptive emotion regulation abilities at the start of college may build resilience in undergraduate students.
Dispositional mindfulness is often linked to higher positive affect and lower negative affect, and coping with stress has been hypothesized to mediate these links. However, few studies have explicitly tested the ways in which stress appraisals, coping strategies, or coping flexibility (i.e., fit of coping to controllability appraisals) uniquely relate to mindfulness and well-being. Drawing on a stress and coping framework, the present study tested the degree to which (a) lower stress appraisals mediate mindfulness' effects on daily positive and negative affect; (b) daily coping mediates mindfulness' impact on daily positive and negative affect, above and beyond the effects of stress appraisals; and (c) coping flexibility mediates mindfulness' impact on positive and negative affect, above and beyond the effects of stress appraisals and average daily coping. Participants were 157 undergraduate students (mean age = 17.81; 79% women), completing daily diary questionnaires regarding stress appraisals, coping, and affect for 1 week. Results demonstrate that lower average stress appraisals mediated 19% of mindfulness' effects on negative affect; further, average use of some "mindful" emotion-focused coping strategies (i.e., non-self-blame and acceptance) independently mediated 3%-13% of mindfulness' effects on positive and negative affect. Although mindfulness was associated with greater "fit" of problem-focused versus acceptance coping to high controllability appraisals, coping flexibility did not appear to mediate mindfulness' effects on either positive or negative affect. Thus, mindfulness-based stress management interventions may be most effective by promoting mindful coping to complement, rather than replace, problem-focused coping. (PsycINFO Database Record