By Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, Ph.D.
It now is well known that stress negatively impacts both physical and mental health. Across species, higher levels of stress are associated with mortality rates; systemic inflammation; development of various physical health conditions, like asthma, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases; deficits in cognitive functioning, like problems with memory recall, lapses of attention, and decreased decision speed; and higher rates of emotion dysregulation, resulting in clinical levels of depression and anxiety. As a result of such an unequivocal impact of stress on health and the exponential increase in levels of perceived stress across the developmental spectrum, there has been a growing recognition for the importance of studying mindfulness-based approaches to regulate the impact of stress on our health.
Study examined the association between trait mindfulness and perceived stress in 50 older and 50 young adults
Mindfulness, as defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn, is the ability to bring one’s complete attention to experiences of the present moment with an attitude of acceptance and non-judgment. To unpack this further, being mindful presumes our ability to sustain attention on what we are experiencing on a moment-by-moment basis, whether that is a sensation, a thought, or an emotion. Research shows that about 50% of our lives can be spent in daydreaming, fantasizing, or other activities that take us away from the present moment. Collectively called mind-wandering, these tendencies have been further linked with unhappiness. Being mindful allows the cultivation of sustained attention on internal and external experiences resulting in reduced mind-wandering. Additionally, embedded in the definition of mindfulness is the critical importance of attitudes of acceptance, non-judgment, non-reactivity, patience, and trust. Attending to a painful sensation, a traumatic memory from the past, or thoughts about self-doubt can be productive in an environment that promotes non-judgment and acceptance of these experiences. As such, the ability to regulate our emotions is a key component of the definition of mindfulness.
Study examined relationships among mindfulness and measures of attentional control and emotion regulation
In our 2015 manuscript, published in Psychology & Aging, my laboratory examined the association between trait mindfulness and perceived stress in 50 older and 50 young adults. We were interested in examining whether there is a differential relationship between these constructs across the developmental spectrum. Additionally, given that the definition of mindfulness has components of emotion regulation and attentional control, we also examined the relationships among mindfulness and measures of attentional control and emotion regulation in both cohorts. All participants completed self-report measures of mindfulness, perceived stress, and emotion regulation. Additionally, participants also completed laboratory-based measures of attentional control.
Is there a differential relationship between trait mindfulness and perceived stress across the developmental spectrum?
The main finding of our study was that trait mindfulness was associated with higher levels of perceived stress in both older and young adults, with no age-related differences in the direction or magnitude of this association. Critically, emotion regulation abilities, but not attentional control as defined in this study, was associated with both mindfulness and perceived levels of stress. Although this was a cross-sectional study that cannot imply causation, we conducted mediational analyses to determine whether emotion regulation and attentional control could be probable pathways through which mindfulness negatively associates with levels of stress. Interestingly, in both older and young adults, only emotion regulation difficulties came out as the probable pathway in the relationship between mindfulness and stress. These results provide the first step in suggesting that perhaps the stress-buffering impact of mindfulness can be achieved through targeting difficulties in regulating emotions. It is critical for future research to conduct rigorous randomized controlled trials that test the efficacy of mindfulness-based approaches in reducing stress in older and young adults via targeting emotion regulation.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank her two students, Mariam Hussain and Brittney Schirda for their critical contributions to this research, as well as the rest of her laboratory for their help in data collection.
Reference
Prakash, R. S., Hussain, M. A., & Schirda, B. (2015). The role of emotion regulation and cognitive control in the association between mindfulness disposition and stress. Psychology and Aging, 30(1), 160-171.
About the Author
Dr. Ruchika Prakash is an associate professor at the Department of Psychology at The Ohio State University. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology in 2009 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after which she started her faculty position at The Ohio State University, directing the Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory. Her laboratory has been taking the lead in examining the effect of mindfulness meditation as a cognitive and emotional rehabilitation tool for the elderly. She has published 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, with many of her papers published in top tier psychology and neuroscience journals such as Psychology and Aging, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, NeuroImage, Cerebral Cortex, and Developmental Psychology. She received the “Rising Star Designation” given by the Association for Psychological Science in 2013 and the “Springer Early Career Achievement Award in Research on Adult Development and Aging” from American Psychological Association (Division 20) in 2016. For more on her research, please visit: http://freud.psy.ohio-state.edu/lab/CNL/The_Lab.html
