Cognitive emotion regulation: Exploring the non-stress mediated relationship between mindfulness and physical health

Mindfulness, the practice of bringing one’s attention to the present moment with open curiosity, has gained much attention over the past couple of decades for its measurable impact on psychological and physical health. There have been many studies that have explored the processes through which mindfulness can reduce psychological distress, yet the mechanisms of mindfulness that facilitate better health are not yet well understood. Theoretically a stress-buffering hypothesis (Creswell & Lindsay, 2014) has been proposed, claiming that mindfulness improves health simply by reducing the harmful effects of stress reactivity. This study however aimed to explore other possible mechanisms proposed in the literature, as well assess the merit of this stress-buffering hypothesis. Some research indicates that emotional state can impact health outcomes, and as mindfulness has also been shown to increase emotional regulation, its function as a key mechanism in health effects was explored. Also, this research supported the effectiveness of an online, guided delivery of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme, though unfortunately control group comparisons were not possible. Following a review of the literature, an 8-week online MBSR programme was delivered to 40 participants, with self-report data obtained on dispositional mindfulness, medical outcomes, perceived stress, emotion regulation, and health behaviours pre- and post-MBSR intervention. Results demonstrated that although there were significant improvements on all outcomes after mindfulness training, mediation analysis demonstrated that emotion regulation did not mediate the relationship between mindfulness and health. Also, though health behaviour significantly improved after the intervention, it also did not mediate the relationship. However, perceived stress was shown to fully mediate the relationship between mindfulness and health, therefore highlighting stress-reduction as a primary mechanism of health changes in MBSR training. These findings provide further support for the stress-reducing, health benefits of mindfulness that can be used to inform future interventions, policy, and public health practice