Within-Person variations in mindfulness mediate effects of daily stressors on psychological distress in adolescence

The benefits of mindfulness training for momentary mindfulness and emotion regulation: A randomized controlled trial for adolescents exposed to chronic stressors

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this study was to test if a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) compared to an active control ameliorates the impacts of life stressors on momentary mindfulness and emotion regulation difficulties among adolescents exposed to chronic stressors.

METHOD

Adolescents exposed to chronic stressors (N = 81, Mage = 13.75 years; 56% boys; 24% Hispanic/Latino, 57% White) were randomized to receive MBI within the context of a community-based mentoring program (MBI + mentoring) or mentoring-alone. Participants completed ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) three times each day for 7 days at three intervals/bursts (preintervention, midintervention, and postintervention), contributing to a total of 3,178 EMA reports. EMA assessed momentary exposure to life stressors, mindfulness (vs. mindlessness), and emotion regulation difficulties.

RESULTS

Linear mixed-effects models revealed that the interaction between intervention arm (MBI + mentoring vs. mentoring-alone) and burst was significantly associated with the random slopes of life stressor exposure predicting mindful attention (b = -.05, SE = .01, p < .001), mindful nonjudgment (b = -.03, SE = .01, p < .001), and emotion regulation difficulties (b = -.04, SE = .01, p < .001). Estimated marginal means revealed that MBI + mentoring, compared to mentoring-alone, produced small but significant attenuation in the association of life stressors with mindful attention, mindful nonjudgment, and emotion regulation difficulties at postintervention.

CONCLUSION

Mindfulness training may buffer adolescents exposed to chronic stressors against the negative impacts of life stressors on mindfulness and emotion regulation in daily life. Going forward, it will be important to investigate these relationships in the context of mental/physical health outcomes and to include longer periods of follow-up to determine the sustainable benefits of MBI for adolescent health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Momentary effects of life stressors on mindfulness and emotion regulation difficulties among adolescents exposed to chronic stressors

Adolescents faced with chronic stressors (e.g., financial instability, interpersonal violence) are at heightened risk for developing mental health problems, likely due in part to stressors that interfere with effective emotion regulation. Although mindfulness may help to act as a buffer against the deleterious effects of life stressors, a relatively untested assumption is that adolescents can maintain mindfulness during periods of stress. This paper explores this assumption by investigating the real-time, dynamic relationships among life stressors, mindfulness, and emotion regulation difficulties among adolescents exposed to chronic stressors. Eighty-one participants who were 10-18 years old (M = 14.33; SD = 2.20; 56% male; 57% Non-Hispanic White) completed ecological momentary assessments (EMA) three times a day for 7 days and contributed a total of 1186 EMA reports. Multilevel structural equation modelling revealed that the presence (vs. absence) of stressors was associated with lower momentary mindfulness and greater momentary emotion regulation difficulties concurrently and prospectively. Stressors with greater severity were also concurrently, but not prospectively, associated with lower momentary mindfulness and greater momentary emotion regulation difficulties. Findings highlight that exposure to life stressors may degrade momentary mindfulness and emotion regulation. Given that mindfulness and emotion regulation are closely associated with mental health, these results also demonstrate one way that stressors may contribute to health disparities at the micro-level. Going forward, it will be important to investigate methods of helping adolescents learn to maintain mindfulness and adaptive emotion regulation in the face of stressful events. This study was preregistered (NCT04927286).

Daily mindfulness, negative affect, and eating behaviors in adolescents at risk for excess weight gain

OBJECTIVE

Loss-of-control and overeating are common in adolescents with high body mass index (BMI). Mindfulness may affect negative affect, and both may relate to loss-of-control and overeating. Yet, there is limited understanding of these associations in adolescents' daily lives.

METHODS

Forty-five adolescents (77% female; Mage  = 14.4 years, SDage  = 1.7 years) with high weight (92% with BMI [kg/m2 ] ≥85th percentile for age/sex) provided daily, repeated measurements of mindfulness, negative affect, loss-of-control, and overeating for ~7 days (M = 5.6 days; range = 1-13). Multilevel mixed modeling was conducted to test within-person (intraindividual) and between-person (interindividual) associations for the same-day (concurrent) and next-day (time-ordered/prospective).

RESULTS

There were within-person and between-person associations of higher mindfulness with lower negative affect on the same-day and next-day. Greater between-person mindfulness related to lower odds of adolescents' loss-of-control occurrence (same-day) and conversely, more perceived control over eating (same-day and next-day). Greater within-person mindfulness related to less odds of next-day overeating.

DISCUSSION

Dynamic relations exist among mindfulness, negative affect, and eating in adolescents at-risk for excess weight gain. Mindfulness may be an important element to consider in loss-of-control and overeating. Future work using momentary-data within an experimental design would help disentangle the intraindividual effects of increasing mindfulness/decreasing negative affect on disordered eating.

PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE

Loss-of-control and overeating are common in teenagers with high weight. Greater mindfulness-present-moment, non-judgmental attention-and less negative emotions may relate to healthier eating, but we do not know how these processes play out in teenagers' daily lives. Addressing this knowledge gap, the current findings showed that greater daily mindfulness, but not negative affect, related to less loss-of-control/overeating, suggesting the importance of mindfulness for eating patterns in teenagers' daily lives.

An integrated dual-process model for coping behaviour

Stress management interventions have traditionally aimed to change coping behaviour with little attention to mechanisms that drive behaviour change. We sought to test an integrated dual-process model, accounting for reasoned and automatic processes, for predicting problem-focussed coping behaviour. The study adopted a two-wave prospective correlational design with a 1-week follow-up. University students aged 17-25 (N = 272) completed survey measures online. At Time 1, participants completed self-report measures of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, intention, behavioural automaticity, and past problem-focussed coping behaviour. At Time 2, participants completed follow-up measures of behavioural automaticity and problem-focussed coping behaviour. Structural equation modelling testing the hypothesised dual-process model exhibited a good fit to the data, accounting for 50.0% and 45.4% of the variance in intentions and problem-focussed coping behaviour, respectively. Attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, and past behaviour directly predicted intention. Intention, past behaviour, and behavioural automaticity directly predicted problem-focussed coping behaviour. Past behaviour also indirectly predicted problem-focussed coping behaviour via behavioural automaticity. Results suggest that problem-focussed coping behaviour tends to be regulated by reasoned psychological processes, and more strongly by automatic psychological processes. Future research aiming to increase problem-focussed coping should utilise behaviour change methods known to influence these processes.

Testing Bidirectional Within-Person Associations between Mindful Attention and Sleep in Adolescence

Developments during adolescence increase risk for sleep problems. Research in adults suggests mindfulness and sleep are associated, with two different theoretical explanations for direction of effects. Our goal was to directly test these competing theoretical models at the daily level in adolescents using objective and self-reported measurements of sleep. Adolescents (N=138; 14-21yrs) reported mindful attention and sleep for a week, while wearing an actigraph. Results indicated that, within-person, poor sleep at night predicted less mindful attention the next day; however, mindful attention during the day did not predict sleep that night. These findings provide support for the developmental model of sleep and regulation and suggest poor sleep may impair regulatory abilities the following day.