Mechanisms of Mindfulness: the Mediating Roles of Adaptive and Maladaptive Cognitive Factors

The successful outcomes of mindfulness derived interventions are well established and it has been suggested that cognitive factors may be responsible for the therapeutic benefits. With a sample of 296 individuals, we examined the mediating role of adaptive (i.e., effortful control) and maladaptive cognitive factors (i.e., repetitive negative thinking) in the relationship between the tendency to act mindfully and internalized and externalized problems, after controlling for confounding demographic and personal variables. We hypothesized that mindfulness would be positively related to effortful control, while inversely related to repetitive negative thinking. Furthermore, effortful control would be inversely related to internalized and externalized problems, while repetitive negative thinking would be positively related to these problems. Our results indicated that the original model could be improved by adding a path between mindfulness and internalized problems and by being more parsimonious. The final model provided an adequate fit for the data. Our findings are in line with theoretical models of mindfulness, which conceive its benefits in terms of cognitive process and self-regulation.