Katleen Van der Gucht

Processes of change in a school-based mindfulness programme: cognitive reactivity and self-coldness as mediators

ABSTRACT The underlying mechanisms of the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for emotional well-being remain poorly understood. Here, we examined the potential mediating effects of cognitive reactivity and self-compassion on symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress using data from an earlier randomised controlled school trial. A moderated time-lagged mediation model based on multilevel modelling was used to analyse the data. The findings showed that post-treatment changes in cognitive reactivity and self-coldness, an aspect of self-compassion, mediated subsequent changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. These results suggest that cognitive reactivity and self-coldness may be considered as transdiagnostic mechanisms of change of a mindfulness-based intervention programme for youth.

mhealth and psycho-physical well-being.

Both in academia and in industry, mHealth applications have started to address mental health, as well as physical health. Apart from monitoring physical parameters to help patients to manage their conditions themselves, an increasing number of mHealth apps include dedicated sections for mental health based on cognitive behavioural approaches and mindfulness. Nevertheless, the combination of mental health support with specific self-management paradigms poses particular challenges for the design of the technology. While health monitoring apps should efficiently provide information and encourage users to achieve goals, constant access to detailed health data can be overwhelming and induce additional stress and anxiety. This workshop zooms in on mHealth technology that integrates these mental well-being concerns. Specifically, the focus is on design challenges related to the combination of self-management of conditions on the one hand and mental well-being and mindfulness on the other.

An experience sampling study examining the potential impact of a mindfulness-based intervention on emotion differentiation.

Research has shown that how well people can differentiate between different emotional states is an essential requirement for adaptive emotion regulation. People with low levels of emotion differentiation tend to be more vulnerable to develop emotional disorders. Although we know quite a lot about the correlates of emotion differentiation, research on factors or interventions which could improve emotion differentiation skills is scarce. Here, we hypothesize, and study empirically, whether a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) may impact the differentiation of negative and positive emotions. A within-subjects pre-, post-, and follow-up design involving experience sampling was used. At each phase participants reported their current emotions and mindfulness skills up to 40 times across 4 consecutive days using smartphones. Multilevel modeling showed a significant improvement in negative emotion differentiation postintervention and at 4 months of follow-up, and a significant improvement in positive emotion differentiation at 4 months follow-up. The improvement in negative emotion differentiation, however, was no longer significant when controlling for levels of negative affect. A time-lagged mediation model showed that posttreatment changes in mindfulness skills mediated subsequent changes in negative emotion differentiation, also when controlling for levels of negative affect. These results suggest that MBI is a promising approach to improve people’s emotion differentiation skills.

Mindfulness-Based Interventions as School-Based Mental Health Promoting Programs

Prevalence of mental health problems in youth is high and appear to be on the increase. Therefore there is a critical need for effective low-threshold evidence-based mental health promoting programs. Universal school-based approaches might have the most potential as they have a broad social scope and can be made available to all students. The program should focus on training self-regulatory skills based on alterations in basic cognitive and emotional processes and may affect neural systems, psychological functions and behavioral outcomes. Self-regulatory skills that can enable young people to successfully cope with the challenges they will face in their future life. Solid evidence is emerging that mindfulness based interventions tick all these boxes.