Ecological momentary assessment of mechanisms of change during a mindfulness-based intervention for adolescents exposed to chronic stressors
Date
2023
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Volume Title
Abstract
Adolescents exposed to chronic stressors (e.g., financial instability) are at heightened risk for developing mental health problems. Chronic stressors may contribute to greater mental health problems by interfering with adolescents' ability to effectively regulate emotions. According to the mindfulness stress buffering hypothesis, mindfulness acts as a buffer against the deleterious effects of life stressors by ameliorating maladaptive stress appraisals and by improving emotion regulation. However, an assumption of this hypothesis is that individuals can maintain mindfulness and regulate their emotions during periods of stress. These two papers explore this assumption by first investigating the real-time, dynamic relationship between life stressors, mindfulness, and emotion regulation difficulties (Study 1) and then by exploring if mindfulness training may help to ameliorate the negative effects of life stressors on mindfulness and emotion regulation (Study 2). Eighty-one participants who were 10-18 years of age (Mage=13.75 years, SD=2.17; 56% male; 57% Caucasian; 24% Hispanic/Latino; 7% Native American; 7% more than race; and 5% Asian/Pacific Islander or Black/African American) completed ecological momentary assessments (EMA) three times a day for seven days at three different intervals (baseline, mid-intervention and post-intervention) throughout the study, contributing to a total of 3,178 EMA reports. Multilevel structural equation modeling revealed that the presence (versus absence) of stressors and the greater severity of stressors both were associated with lower mindfulness and greater emotion regulation difficulties concurrently in the same moment, but not prospectively from one moment to the next. In other words, life stressors may only be more immediately associated with lower mindfulness and greater emotion regulation difficulties as short-term, delayed effects from one moment (T1) to the next moment (T2) were not observed. Also, mindfulness training, compared to an active control group, was protective at post-intervention against the negative (concurrent) effects of stressors on mindfulness and emotion regulation (Study 2). Findings highlight that adolescents' life stressors may degrade untrained mindfulness and emotion regulation at given moments, but mindfulness training may help to buffer against these negative impacts of life stressors. Going forward, it will be helpful to investigate these relationships in the context of mental and physical health outcomes and to include longer periods of follow-up to determine the sustainable benefits of mindfulness training for adolescent health.
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Embargo expires: 08/28/2025.
Subject
EMA
mindfulness
adolescents
mindfulness-based intervention
emotion regulation