Stiksma, Melissa

Mindfulness – nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment - has recently garnered significant attention in psychological literature for decreasing clinical symptoms. Certain personality traits such as emotionality, however, can predict higher levels of anxiety and depression. The present study examines whether mindfulness mediates the relationship between personality traits and perceived stress and depression in nonclinical populations. A total of 321 participants from two samples—American and Japanese undergraduates —self-reported scores on measures of mindfulness, personality, perceived stress and depression. Cross-cultural comparisons following measurement invariance tests also allow for insight into the definition of mindfulness, especially given the Eastern religion origin of mindfulness. Results demonstrate that mindfulness partially mediates the relationships between personality clinical symptoms, particularly for extraversion and conscientiousness. These results can play an important role for developing mindfulness-based treatment and prevention programs and bridge an important gap between Western conceived and Eastern religion mindfulness.

Mindfulness involves nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. Previous research has found that higher levels of mindfulness are positively associated with adaptive psychological outcomes and negatively associated with maladaptive outcomes. We examined the effects of a 55-minute mindfulness training session comprised of psychoeducation and meditation. Questionnaires measuring mindfulness, emotion regulation, stress, anxiety, social behavior and emotion, and mood were administered pre and post session and at one week follow-up. Consistent with hypotheses, mindfulness and social behavior and emotion increased from pre-session to one-week follow-up and difficulties in emotion regulation, negative mood, and perceived stress significantly decreased. These findings suggest that some of the beneficial results found with longer, more intensive mindfulness training programs may be achievable with a short single-session intervention.