Mindfulness最新文献

We offer an invited commentary on the article entitled “Mindfulness for Global Public Health: Critical Analysis and Agenda” by Doug Oman. First, we question his proposal that it would be advantageous to include a more diverse set of contemplative practices under the mindfulness umbrella term, and instead we argue for the opposite. We propose that academics move the term mindfulness away from the spotlight, acknowledging the role of popular culture in its constant reshaping, while studying the mechanisms and outcomes of contemplative practices such as mindfulness using better delineated terms from relevant academic disciplines. Second, we argue that a head-to-head comparison between the fields of mindfulness and public health incurs a category error. While mindfulness is often defined by a limited set of specific processes and practices, public health is a field defined by its application, irrespective of the practices or interventions used. Instead, thinking of mindfulness as an aid to public health can bring more clarity and increase the scope and impact of the contributions that the mindfulness field can make to public health. We illustrate how this reframing helps see mindfulness training as a potential individual-level component of multi-level public health interventions to tackle social determinants of health, rather than expect mindfulness training to address this singlehandedly. For this potential to realize fully, we argue that the mindfulness field will need to work “with” rather than “as” public health, moving away from the practitioner-researcher model to a collaborative one, whereby mindfulness intervention developers partner with independent public health researchers for intervention evaluation and implementation purposes. In such a model, using participatory research methods, the public health team should first seek to understand the local community health needs, and assess whether and how mindfulness practitioners may be able to address some of those needs. We are delighted that the field is having these conversations, and hope to advance understanding of the potential of contemplative practices to contribute to public health research and implementation efforts.

Objectives

Past studies indicate that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) promote mental health for adolescents. However, most adolescents with mental health vulnerabilities do not have access to an MBI. The goal of the current study was to explore the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of scaling out an MBI through a mentoring program targeted at adolescents experiencing multiple adversities.

Method

We conducted a randomized feasibility trial comparing mentoring alone to mentoring plus MBI. Assessments occurred at baseline and post-intervention, including reports gathered from adolescents and their parents.

Results

The addition of an MBI to the mentoring program did not affect attendance, but was associated with small increases in overall program acceptability. Additionally, adolescents who received mentoring plus MBI showed larger improvements in two aspects of emotion regulation (emotional clarity and managing impulsive behaviors during distress), attention problems, externalizing behaviors, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. In contrast, adolescents who received mentoring alone demonstrated more favorable change in another dimension of emotion regulation (accessing effective emotion regulation strategies) and internalizing symptoms. Many but not all of these effects were more pronounced when focusing specifically on older, high school–aged adolescents, compared to the effects observed in the entire sample of 10–18-year-olds.

Conclusions

Results suggest that it is feasible, acceptable, and potentially effective to expand MBI via mentoring programs for adolescents at high risk for mental health symptoms.

Preregistration

This study was not preregistered.

The burgeoning interest in mindfulness and the way it has been stripped from its Buddhist ontological roots and popularized in the West has recently raised ethical concerns regarding its application in various domains, and more specifically in the educational field. We will address in this article three main ethical concerns regarding implementing mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in the educational field. Firstly, how do we help educators and students cultivate personal awareness while at the same time being conscious of the needs of others and promote a pro-social orientation? Secondly, how do we ethically implement MBIs in the current neoliberal social, cultural, and political context? Thirdly, how do we implement MBIs in a culturally sensitive manner respecting the ethics of other ethnic groups and other societies? We will attempt to offer solutions to those issues by exemplifying how MBIs are integrated with compassion-based interventions (e.g., mindful self-compassion (MSC)) and social-emotional learning (understanding and managing emotions, building positive relationships, and making responsible decisions) among educators and students in Jewish and Arab schools in Israel. We will discuss three MBI programs that incorporate strategies addressing social ailments such as stereotyping and prejudicial attitudes and promote pro-social behavior as well as share research findings regarding their efficacy. Additionally, we will outline ways in which these mindfulness-based programs were adapted to suit different populations. Finally, we will conclude by pointing to future means to address these issues.

Objectives

Despite ongoing interest in the study of mindfulness, there remain differences in the way the construct is defined in research, with some questioning whether current definitions are reflective of experienced practitioners’ understandings, including those from Buddhist backgrounds. The present study sought to investigate how experienced mindfulness practitioners define mindfulness and how they evaluate 13 definitions of mindfulness found in research and historical sources.

Method

One hundred thirty-four participants, with an average of 20.3 years of mindfulness practice experience, completed an original online survey. Participants were first asked to provide their own definition of mindfulness in an open-ended format, then to evaluate how consistent 13 established research and historical definitions of mindfulness were with their own understanding. An exploratory mixed-methods data analytic approach was used to identify areas of agreement and disagreement between experienced practitioners’ and researchers’ conceptualizations.

Results

Results revealed common language used to describe mindfulness: Both experienced practitioners and the established definitions included terms such as attention, awareness, and present moment. On average, participants rated most of the definitions from research and historical sources as at least slightly consistent (5 out of 7 on a Likert scale) with their own understanding. Conceptual disagreements by the experienced practitioners were observed related to a possible overemphasis on present-moment focus, whether mindfulness is best conceptualized as a state and/or a trait, and Buddhist concepts which may be missing from researchers’ definitions.

Conclusions

While the present study demonstrated broad general agreement in understandings of mindfulness among experienced practitioners and researchers, future research is needed to account for specific differences in understandings to work toward more comprehensive operational definitions of mindfulness.

Objectives

Previous research consistently indicates that individuals who experience greater obstruction to valued living report higher levels of psychological distress and are at greater risk of developing mental health problems. Equanimity, which involves a calm and balanced mental attitude towards all experiences, is thought to protect against psychopathology and may be particularly helpful for navigating obstacles to valued living. The present research examined dispositional equanimity as a moderator of the positive relations between values obstruction and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.

Method

Participants completed measures related to equanimity (Even-mindedness subscale of the Two-Factor Equanimity Scale; Equanimity Scale-16), values obstruction (Valuing Questionnaire), and psychological distress (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales). The final sample consisted of 368 American adults (51% women, age range = 18–82 years).

Results

As hypothesized, trait equanimity moderated the positive relations between values obstruction and all three indicators of psychological distress, such that the positive relations were attenuated when individuals reported higher levels of equanimity. Results were consistent across two recently developed measures of equanimity. This research is limited by its cross-sectional design and the use of self-report measures only.

Conclusions

The present research offers preliminary evidence that dispositional equanimity attenuates the psychological distress that is typically associated with values obstruction. Future research can investigate whether cultivating an equanimous disposition through mindfulness exercises helps individuals to respond to obstacles in a manner that reduces adventitious suffering.

Preregistration

This study is not preregistered.

Abstract

Abstract

In this paper, we offer a commentary on Oman’s article “Mindfulness for Global Public Health: Critical Analysis and Agenda” from the perspective of external environments, be they natural or built spaces. Utilizing the 14 domains of mindfulness and public health identified by Oman, we examine how spatio-environmental concerns are aligned, or have potential synergies with, these dimensions. We consider spatial and environmental qualities and relationships, for example, the presence of nature or a sense of safety, as supportive for public health and formal mindfulness practice, synthesizing a growing evidence base within environmental psychology and design literature. We highlight particular points of alignment, namely the impact of environments on mental health, stress, and attentional qualities. Potential synergies are evident where these domains seek to increase resilience and the sustainability of our planet, communities, and individuals, and through the increasing emphasis on designing places that offer inclusive access to, and direct involvement in, the creation of belief (spirituality) and culture-specific interventions. Although these domains offer the potential for greater holistic research and practice, more interdisciplinary research is needed to bridge gaps and bring this potential into the mainstream.

Objectives

Workplace stress is a significant mental health concern that affects teachers, with attendant consequences on students’ academic performance, and yet only little empirical research has been conducted on this area in sub-Saharan Africa. The study therefore assessed the efficacy of mindfulness intervention in addressing workplace stress among adult education lecturers in Nigeria.

Methods

Following a mixed-methods approach, pre-post-test and follow-up survey data, snowballing and purposive sampling techniques were used to recruit 365 lecturers for the survey (Phase 1) and 26 lecturers for the controlled experiment (Phase 2). The study variables were measured with psychometrically robust scales: Daily Stressor Scale and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Short Form (FFMQ-SF).

Results

Overall, 248 (67.9%) male lecturers and 117 (32.1%) female lecturers participated in the study, with ages ranging from 34 to 65 years with an average age of 47.13 (SD = 8.54). We found 56.7% prevalence of workplace stress and mindfulness levels significantly and inversely correlated with workplace stress. Further, introducing or exposing lecturers to modified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (mMBSR) significantly reduced workplace stress, whereas the control group showed no significant reduction in workplace stress.

Conclusion

The conclusion was reached that mMBSR demonstrated its clinical importance and usefulness in mitigating workplace stress prevalent among lecturers. The study findings indicate the importance of enhancing lecturers' awareness for the need of positive coping and adjustment, as well as becoming more emotionaly and socialy adept to their duties.

Preregistration

This study is not preregistered.

In this commentary article, we critically discuss the need for greater understanding of intercultural and interreligious competence when teaching and applying the practice of mindfulness and contemplative meditation. We start by considering the predominant religious and belief systems that exist worldwide, how each system utilises meditation, and how this meditative practice can be linked to the experience of mindfulness. We then consider how mindfulness can be discussed when taught, through the cultivation of intercultural and interreligious competence. To create a clearer direction in the teaching of mindfulness within the context of interreligious competence, we present four propositions or considerations. We have also put forward a model that suggests mindfulness is a means to achieving greater understanding of self and, thus, more than a clinical tool for ameliorating observable malaise. Moreover, we assert that mindfulness and contemplative meditation practices lie on a continuum that provides the opportunity for self-realisation and optimal states of wellbeing. Our aim is to extend previous discussions on intercultural and interreligious competence as this relates to the practice of meditation. In addition, we continue the philosophical and pedagogical debate to enable teachers and students to optimise the full potential of meditation. In doing so, we create an expansive dialogue to enable teachers and students to engage in a richer and more accepting learning landscape.