The relationship between anxiety and mindfulness: The role of mindfulness facets, implicit anxiety, and the problem of measuring anxiety by self-report

Abstract

Although mindfulness interventions are increasingly used for coping with excessive anxiety, the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety is not yet clear. The study focused on this relationship. On a sample drawn from the general population, three mindfulness questionnaires were utilized. Anxiety was assessed by means of two self-report instruments as well as by two implicit anxiety measures. The latter were included because of the possibility that mindfulness might correlate with measurement error in measuring anxiety by self-report, which would cause biased results. A robust, moderate to high negative association was established between mindfulness and anxiety. Mindfulness facets related to acceptance contributed strongly to this relationship, while the role of awareness-related facets of mindfulness appeared to be less clear, seemingly contradictory and possibly twofold. The study also suggested that level of mindfulness might indeed represent a confounding variable in self-report assessment of anxiety and probably of other constructs as well.

Mindfulness and Its Relationship to Moral Anxiety among Adolescents in Jordan

“…Furthermore, Mindfulness facets provoke higher positive predictions rather than negatives in return reducing an individual's moral anxiety. Mindfulness declines spontaneous and impetuosity reactions to threatening stimuli; it enables the individual to adopt objective perspectives rather than self-standpoints (Cernetic, 2016).…”