Mindfulness training and practice: Individual differences in mindfulness facets and its relation to emotional regulation, perceived stress and well-being

Abstract

Several studies suggested a positive relation between mindfulness and psychological health positive outcomes. But are still lacking studies that can relate facets of mindfulness with specific psychological health dimensions. The main objective of this study is to analyze the relation between the mindfulness facets (non-reactivity to inner experience, noticing sensations, perceptions, thoughts and feelings, acting with awareness, describing with words, non-judging of experience) and some specific psychological health dimensions such as emotion regulation (non-acceptance, goals, impulse, awareness, strategies and clarity), perceived stress and well-being. We will analyze these dimensions according to participant’s mindfulness training and practice. We used validated self-reporting instruments: the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ, Baer et al., 2006), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS, Gratz & Roemer, 2004), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS, Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein, 1983) and the IWP Multi-affect Indicator (IWP, Warr, 1990). We evaluated 258 individuals who agreed to participate in this study, of which 72,1% were women, 47,7% had already attended mindfulness training, 52,3% never had and 40,3% practice mindfulness meditation regularly. We performed a Pearson’s r correlation and T-Tests to compare means. Results point to clear correlations between mindfulness facets, emotion regulation, stress and well-being. Perceived stress revealed significantly lower levels in individuals who attended mindfulness training and practice daily meditation. Higher scores in mindfulness facets and related higher levels of awareness, clarity and well-being can also be found. The findings indicate that mindfulness training and regular mindfulness meditation practice have a potential to contribute to improving mental health outcomes.

Keywords: Mindfulness, emotion regulation, perceived stress, well-being

Introduction

Mindfulness and associated practices are generally attributed to Buddhist traditions (Chiesa & Malinowski, 2011; Keune & Forintos, 2010) and are widely associated with a variety of psychological states and processes in the psychological and scientific literature (Bergomi, Tschacher, & Kupper, 2013; Hayes & Shenk, 2004; Hölzel et al., 2011; Lutz, Dunne, & Davidson, 2007; Roemer & Orsillo, 2003). Mindfulness is defined as giving attention to the present moment and to the experiences in an accepting, non-reactive and non-judgmental way (Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer & Toney, 2006; Brown & Ryan, 2003; Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Hart, 1987; Kabat-Zinn, 2003; Linehan, 1993a; Marlatt & Kristeller, 1999). Mindfulness practices are referred in psychological literature as decentering (Shapiro, Carlson, Astin & Freedman, 2006), re-perceiving and cognitive insight (Chambers, Gullone & Allen, 2009; Shapiro et al., 2006) and consist in focusing our attention on our thoughts, emotions and sensations, observing them as they arise and as they pass away. Relaxation may be considered as an outcome of mindfulness meditation because there are various mindfulness meditation strategies that follow that purpose. However, induce relaxation is not the purpose of mindfulness training. Learning to observe non-judgmentally the present moment is the primary reason for engaging in mindfulness training. Acceptance is described as one of the several foundations of mindfulness practice (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). Hayes (1994) suggests that acceptance is all about “experiencing events fully and without defense, as they are” (p. 30). It’s not about trying to change unpleasant symptoms but accepting them as they are. In the other way, experiential avoidance or suppression have been found to result in a persistent stressed or depressive states (Bird, Mansell, Dickens, & Tai, 2013).

As the main purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between mindfulness facets, emotion regulation, stress and well-being, we should start to make a point about these concepts. Starting with mindfulness facets, Baer et al. (2006), proposed a facet structure of mindfulness as the authors explain mindfulness as a multifaceted construct. The authors point to five facets of mindfulness: (1) non-reactivity to inner experience, that is to perceive feelings and emotions without having to react to them, without getting lost in them, just noticing them; (2) observing sensations/thoughts/feelings, that is to notice how emotions express themselves through my body, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant, to deliberately notice the sensations of my body and intentionally stay aware of my feelings and emotions and how they affect my thoughts and behavior; (3) acting with awareness, that is not rushing through activities without being really attentive to them, without paying attention to them, making to not getting lost in thoughts and feelings; (4) describing/labelling with words, that is finding the words to describe feelings, perceptions, opinions or expectations at the moment in considerable detail; (5) non-judging of experience, that is not to criticize myself for having emotions, feelings and perceptions whether I judge them as being right or wrong or being good or bad, refraining from that usual evaluation. Based on this five facets Baer et al. (2006) developed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) that was used in the present study.

As for emotion regulation, several authors examined the mechanisms of mindfulness within the context of emotion regulation strategies (Chambers, Gullone & Allen, 2009; Garland et al., 2010; Hoffman & Asmundson, 2008). Gross and Thompson (2007) proposed that there are a set of emotion regulation strategies that are (1) situation selection, (2) situation modification, (3) attentional deployment, (4) cognitive change and (5) response modulation. Situation selection is the strategy that involves taking actions so that the present situation would be more pleasant to the individual and could give rise to the emotions he would like to have. This means that the individual can predict the future consequences of a certain situation and tries to take the appropriate actions to avoid the situation or to be in it. The situation selection assumes that individuals remember how they felt previously in a similar situation and can predict how they will feel currently. Situation modification is the strategy that involves modifying the situation directly. This means that individuals modify external physical environments. For example, if there is a romantic interest individuals tend to take some form of mood lighting and romantic music. Attentional deployment is the strategy that involves redirecting attention within a given situation. This is a situation selection but in an internal version. In this strategy are included the physical withdrawal of attention (e.g., covering your eyes) and the redirection of attention (e.g., telling an interesting story to children to redirect his excited state). Cognitive change is the strategy that involves changing the meaning that the individual gives to the present situation in a way that alters the situation’s emotional significance. This is related with the changing of how one feels about a specific situation or about one’s capacity to manage all the demands it poses. Reappraisal is one form of cognitive change (Gross, 2002) and involves changing the meaning of a certain situation so that there is a change in the individual’s emotional response to that situation (Garland, Gaylord & Park, 2009; Garland et al., 2010). Response modulation is the emotion regulation strategy that refers to influencing psychological or behavioral responses directly. For example, exercise and relaxation practices may be used to decrease individual negative emotions (Michalsen et al. 2005).

Gratz & Roemer (2004) developed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) with six factors that reflect the multifaceted dimension of emotion regulation. The six factors can be labelled (1) Non-acceptance, (2) Goals, (3) Impulse, (4) Awareness, (5) Strategies, and (6) Clarity. Non-acceptance reflects a tendency to non-accepting emotional responses and reactions towards distress. Goals mean that there is a difficulty in engaging in goal-directed behavior and it is related to difficulties in concentrating and accomplishing tasks when negative emotions are present. Impulse is related with difficulties in impulse control when experiencing negative emotions. Awareness reflects the tendency to acknowledge and to attend emotions. Strategies are related to the belief that there is always little that can be done to regulate emotions effectively and is also related to limited access to emotion regulation strategies. Clarity is related to the degree in which individuals know the emotions they are experiencing. The DERS scale was used in the present study.

Regarding stress, mindfulness practices showed to increase our resources to become more resilient and to be very effective at reducing stress and anxiety. So they have been gaining great attention because of their association with low stress levels (Baer, Carmody & Hunsinger, 2012; Carmody, Baer, Lykins & Olendzki, 2009; Chiesa & Serretti, 2010; Chu, 2010; Hofmann, Sawyer, Witt & Oh, 2010; Ivanovski & Malhi, 2007; Keng, Smoski & Robins, 2011; Oman, Hedberg & Thoresen, 2006). Stress can be defined as a psychological condition which results from an imbalance between life demands and individual’s ability to manage those demands. In some degree, stress has an important role during our lifetime. But usually higher stress levels are related to diseases, lower levels of well-being and poor life quality. A positive correlation between stressors and symptoms of distress is well established (Pengilly & Dowd, 2000). Mindfulness is one tool that can buffer stress effects (keng et al., 2011; Loizzo, 2000). To measure stress, Cohen, Kamarck and Mermelstein (1983) developed the Perceived Stress Scale. This scale is used to assess individual’s appraisal of their life as stressful and it was used in the present study.

Mindfulness is also capable of increasing well-being (Roche, Haar & Luthans, 2014). The general affective well-being model was introduced to the workplace by Peter Warr (1987; 1990). This conceptualization classifies work-related emotions into the same two dimensions: pleasure and activation. A certain degree of pleasure/satisfaction or displeasure/dissatisfaction (horizontal dimension) may be accompanied by high or low levels of activation (vertical dimension), and in turn, these levels of activation may be accompanied by different levels of pleasure. Four quadrants result from the combination of the axis of pleasure and the axis of activation level: anxiety (high activation and low pleasure), enthusiasm (high activation and high pleasure), depression (low activation and low pleasure), and comfort (low activation and high pleasure). Consequently, this combination forms two orthogonal axes: (2a) anxiety/ (2b) comfort and (3a) depression/ (3b) enthusiasm. Based on his conceptualization of affective well-being Warr (1990) developed the IWP Multi-Affect Indicator. Its aim is to operationalize this multidimensional conceptualization of work related affective well-being and it used in the present study.

Problem Statement

Many performed studies search for new ways and paths that lead to a healthier life. Mindfulness is found to be one of the most relevant practices that contribute to human flourishing and development. Accumulated evidence showed that mindfulness is related to greater subjective well-being (Baer et al., 2006; Feldman, Hayes, Kumar, Greeson & Laurenceau, 2007; Gu, Strauss, Bond & Cavanagh, 2015; Hofmann, Sawyer, Witt & Oh, 2010; Klainin-Yobas, Cho & Creedy, 2012; Wenzel, Versen, Hirschmuller & Kubiak, 2015). Laboratory experiments also suggest that mindfulness is associated with decreased reactivity to emotional stimuli or acute stressors (Keng et al., 2011).

We performed this present study because we assume this is a very important topic of research that benefits the whole society and we intended to bring out one more contribute to mindfulness research. We pretended to examine the relation between mindfulness training and regular mindfulness meditation practice with individual differences in mindfulness facets and its relation to individual’s well-being, stress, and emotion regulation scores. We explored the facets of mindfulness as outcomes of the mindfulness practice following the research lines of other authors (Bishop et al., 2004; Brown & Ryan, 2004).

Research questions

In this study, we explored the idea that mindfulness training and practice might show its powerful effects on emotion regulation, well-being, and stress. Therefore and based on previous literature it is expected that the scores in mindfulness facets are correlated to higher emotion regulation, higher well-being, and lower stress. Two main research questions were formulated: “Is there a relationship between mindfulness facets, emotion regulation, well-being, and stress?” and “Does mindfulness training and practice contribute to mindfulness facets, emotion regulation, well-being, and stress?”

Purpose of the study

The overall purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between mindfulness facets, emotion regulation, well-being, and stress. To answer our research questions we followed some guidelines in our data analysis: (a) we analysed the relationship between mindfulness facets and emotion regulation, (b) we analysed the relationship between mindfulness facets and well-being, (c) we analysed the relationship between mindfulness facets and stress; (d) we analysed individual differences in mindfulness facets between those who have attended mindfulness training and those who have not and between those who regularly practice mindfulness meditation and those who do not; (e) we analysed individual differences in emotion regulation between those who have attended mindfulness training and those who have not and between those who regularly practice mindfulness meditation and those who do not; (f) we analysed individual differences in well-being between those who have attended mindfulness training and those who have not and between those who regularly practice mindfulness meditation and those who do not; (g) we analysed individual differences in stress between those who have attended mindfulness training and those who have not and between those who regularly practice mindfulness meditation and those who do not.

Research methods

Findings

Conclusions

Psychological health is one of the major concerns of modern societies. Correlational and experimental studies converge to suggest that mindfulness practices (non-reactivity to inner experience, observing sensations/thoughts/feelings, acting with awareness, describing/labeling with words and non-judging of experience) contribute to psychological health and well-being (Baer et al., 2006; Feldman, Hayes, Kumar, Greeson & Laurenceau, 2007; Gu, Strauss, Bond & Cavanagh, 2015; Hofmann, Sawyer, Witt & Oh, 2010; Klainin-Yobas, Cho & Creedy, 2012; Wenzel, Versen, Hirschmuller & Kubiak, 2015). Present study results also converge to the same direction giving us an important view of the association between mindfulness facets, emotion regulation, perceived stress and well-being. Mindfulness training and mindfulness practice appear to have an effect on emotional regulation, psychological health, and well-being. The greater importance of this study is the fact that we could specifically understand the importance of mindfulness training and the importance of regular mindfulness meditation practice to the development of mindfulness facets. To our knowledge, this study is the first to estimate the relationships between these dimensions related to previous mindfulness training and regular mindfulness meditation practice. We point as limitations to our study the fact that, as most psychology researches, it is based on self-reported measures. Future research can examine whether these effects are moderated by individual goals or individual levels of distress. Future research can also examine these relationships in a longitudinal study related to a mindfulness training program. Our study supports the benefits of mindfulness training and, in a more expressive way, the importance of the regular practice of mindfulness meditation.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Vasco Gaspar for his helpful comments on this research.

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