Objective Mindfulness meditation reduces psychological distress among individuals with cancer. However, mechanisms for intervention effects have not been fully determined. This study tested emotion regulation strategies as mediators of intervention effects in a sample of younger women treated for breast cancer, a group at risk for psychological distress. We focused on two distinct strategies targeted by the intervention -rumination and self-kindness- and further examined the broader construct of mindfulness as a potential mediator. Method Women (n=71) with Stage 0–III breast cancer diagnosed at or before age 50 who had completed cancer treatment were randomly assigned to a 6-week mindfulness intervention or wait-list control group. Assessments occurred at study entry, post-intervention, and a 3-month follow-up. Results In single mediator analyses, increases in self-kindness (CIB=−7.83, −1.93), decreases in rumination (CIB =−5.05, −.31), and increases in mindfulness (CIB=−6.58, −.82) each mediated reductions in depressive symptoms from pre- to post-intervention. Increases in self-kindness also mediated reductions in perceived stress (CIB=−5.37, −.62) from pre-to post-intervention, and increases in self-kindness (CIB=−5.67, −.22) and in mindfulness (CIB=−5.51, −.16) each mediated intervention effects on perceived stress from pre-intervention to 3-month follow-up. In multiple mediator analysis, only self-kindness mediated intervention effects on depressive symptoms from pre- to post-intervention (CIB=−6.41, −.61), and self-kindness and mindfulness together mediated intervention effects on perceived stress from pre-intervention to follow-up (CIB=−6.77, −.35). Conclusions Self-kindness played a consistent role in reducing distress in younger women with breast cancer. The efficacy of this understudied emotion regulation strategy should be evaluated in other clinical populations.

Minor increases in inflammation were associated with corresponding increases in features of depression, and these associations occurred in the absence of any physical symptoms. The influenza vaccine could be used to probe causal relationships with a high degree of ecological validity, even in high-risk and vulnerable populations, to better understand the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of depression.

Objective Many women report positive life changes, or posttraumatic growth (PTG), as a result of their experience with breast cancer. However, despite compelling evidence that younger age at diagnosis is associated consistently with greater distress, age has not been integrated into models of PTG. Drawing from the theoretical and empirical literature, we tested whether key correlates (i.e., cancer-related impact and engagement, positive mood) of PTG varied by age at breast cancer diagnosis. Methods Participants were 175 women with early stage breast cancer followed from completion of primary treatment through one year post-treatment. Analyses involved data collected at the one-year assessment. Results As hypothesized, correlates of PTG varied significantly as a function of age. Perceived negative impact of the cancer experience was associated with growth for older women (p = .046), whereas approach-oriented coping (p = .004), an expansive time perspective (p = .007), and positive mood were associated with growth for younger women (p = .007). Conclusions Posttraumatic growth may involve distinct processes for women diagnosed at different ages. Consideration of lifespan developmental processes is necessary when studying positive adjustment to cancer.

Predictions about the future are susceptible to mood-congruent influences of emotional state. However, recent work suggests individuals also differ in the degree to which they incorporate emotion into cognition. This study examined the role of such individual differences in the context of state negative emotion. We examined whether trait tendencies to use negative or positive emotion as information affect individuals' predictions of what will happen in the future (likelihood estimation) and how events will feel (affective forecasting), and whether trait influences depend on emotional state. Participants (N=119) reported on tendencies to use emotion as information (“following feelings”), underwent an emotion induction (negative versus neutral), and made likelihood estimates and affective forecasts for future events. Views of the future were predicted by both emotional state and individual differences in following feelings. Whereas following negative feelings affected most future-oriented cognition across emotional states, following positive feelings specifically buffered individuals' views of the future in the negative emotion condition, and specifically for positive future events, a category of future-event prediction especially important in psychological health. Individual differences may confer predisposition toward optimistic or pessimistic expectations of the future in the context of acute negative emotion, with implications for adaptive and maladaptive functioning.

Background: Alterations in reward processing are a central feature of depression and may be influenced by inflammation. Indeed, inflammation is associated with deficits in reward-related processes in animal models and with dysregulation in reward-related neural circuitry in humans. However, the downstream behavioral manifestations of such impairments are rarely examined in humans. Methods: The influenza vaccination was used to elicit a mild inflammatory response in 41 healthy young adults (age range: 18-22, 30 female). Participants provided blood samples and completed behavioral measures of three key aspects of reward-reward motivation, reward learning, and reward sensitivity-before and 1 day after receiving the influenza vaccine.