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Investigating Unique Contributions of Dispositional Mindfulness Facets to Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in General and Student Populations

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Abstract

There is a well-documented evidence base for the beneficial effects of mindfulness-based interventions for various health issues, and research has increasingly explored the role of mindfulness in nonclinical contexts. While the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FMMQ) was widely used to study dispositional mindfulness, no work has investigated the unique contributions of each mindfulness facet to depression, anxiety, and stress in a general population. The present study used psychometrically refined FFMQ and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) scores obtained from a sample (n = 400) of equal number of students and general population. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to investigate predictive values of mindfulness facets to psychological distress variables. Nonjudgmental attitude was the strongest predictor of lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress across both students and general population with standardized β ranging from − .32 to − .46. Nonreactivity was the second strongest predictor for stress and depression, but Acting with Awareness was a significant predictor for anxiety and stress in students only. Overall, mindfulness facets were stronger predictors of lower DASS scores in students compared to general population. Relationships between some mindfulness facets and distress variables differ between students and general population and therefore may not be generalizable across these populations.

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Acknowledgements

This study used the data from the doctoral work of the first author funded by the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship of the Auckland University of Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education, School of Medicine, University of Auckland, Rm 12.025, Bldg 599, 2 Park Rd, Grafton, Private Bag 92-019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Oleg N. Medvedev

  2. Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Phoenix A. Norden, Christian U. Krägeloh & Richard J. Siegert

Authors
  1. Oleg N. Medvedev
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  2. Phoenix A. Norden
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  3. Christian U. Krägeloh
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  4. Richard J. Siegert
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Contributions

ONM, PAN, CUK, and RJS: designed the study. ONM: conducted the research and data collection. ONM, PAN, and CUK: analyzed the data presented and interpreted the results, and drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to subsequent iterations and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oleg N. Medvedev.

Ethics declarations

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional ethics committee of the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Medvedev, O.N., Norden, P.A., Krägeloh, C.U. et al. Investigating Unique Contributions of Dispositional Mindfulness Facets to Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in General and Student Populations. Mindfulness 9, 1757–1767 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0917-0

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