Dispositional mindfulness in people with HIV: Associations with psychological and physical health

Abstract

We used a Stress and Coping model to examine the association of dispositional mindfulness, defined as the tendency to intentionally bring nonjudgmental attention and awareness to one’s experience in the present moment, with psychological and physical health in adults with HIV. Data were collected at baseline of a randomized controlled trial of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Four facets of mindfulness (acting with attention/awareness, nonjudging of inner experience, observing, and describing) were examined as correlates of appraisal, positive and negative affect, coping, and indicators of psychological well-being and physical health. We found that mindfulness was inversely related to depression, stress appraisal, and negative affect, and positively related to positive affect. Mindfulness was also inversely related to escape/avoidance and self-blame forms of coping. Mediational analyses indicate that perceived stress and negative affect were the most consistent mediators of the association of mindfulness and psychological well-being. The findings from this paper contribute to a growing understanding of the potential adaptive role of mindfulness in people living with the stress of serious illness.

Perceived stress mediates the relationship between mindfulness and negative affect variability: A randomized controlled trial among middle‐aged to older adults

“…For example, early childhood adversity has been associated with greater threat appraisals and affective regulation difficulties, both associated with alterations in stress physiology (Repetti, Taylor, & Seeman, 2002;Woody & Szechtman, 2011). This pattern of appraisal and affective reactivity may be particularly salient in shaping physiological responses to stress and likely plays a prominent role in age-related processes and disease (Epel et al, 2018;Moskowitz et al, 2015).…”

The interplay between mindfulness, depression, stress and academic performance in medical students: A Saudi perspective

“…Researchers have investigated these issues with great emphasis on the role of mindfulness [16][17][18][19]. In Western populations, it has been shown that a higher level of mindfulness is negatively associated with stress [19] and depression [17]. As for academic performance, mindfulness also has a positive effect on grade point average (GPA) [20].…”

The context of coping: a qualitative exploration of underlying inequalities that influence health services support for people living with long‐term conditions

“…, Moskowitz et al . , Silver et al . ), or alternatively on coping as a distinct process (Pennebaker et al .…”

“…Within the literature coping has been extensively discussed, mainly within the field of health psychology (Folkman et al 1986, Hagger and Orbell 2003, Leventhal et al 1992, Yi-Frazier et al 2015. Much of this research has focused on the categorisation of various 'coping strategies' (Dunkelschetter et al 1992, Dempster et al 2015, Moskowitz et al 2015, Silver et al 2002, or alternatively on coping as a distinct process (Pennebaker et al 1990) that overlaps with the concept of adaptation to illness (Charmaz 1995, Persson et al 2013. Psychological studies on coping are supported by health-related quality of life research that has led to the development of metrics such as the COPE inventory (Carver et al 1989) and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (Folkman and Lazarus 1988); these and other measures are used to assess aspects of coping (Kato 2015) and their relationships to health outcomes (Penley et al 2002).…”

“…These dominant approaches for understanding coping focus almost exclusively on the individual affected by illness, for example their personal attributes (Taylor and Armor 1996) or their abilities to make behavioural / cognitive changes towards coping (Moskowitz et al 2015). Even work on chronic illness that is sociologically informed (e.g.…”