Abstract
Objectives
Mindfulness has been associated with improved psychological wellbeing and health, although outcomes from mindfulness-based interventions are mixed. One challenge is a limited understanding about which specific processes are core to mindfulness. Network analysis offers a method to characterize the core processes of mindfulness.
Method
This study used network analysis to identify which processes are central to mindfulness (have the strongest connectivity with other mindfulness processes) as measured by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire—Short Form, analyzed at item level, in a sample of 505 adults who smoked cigarettes. Data were obtained from baseline of a randomized clinical trial of smartphone app–based mindfulness training for smoking cessation.
Results
The most central processes in the mindfulness network included, “I think some of my emotions are bad or inappropriate and I shouldn’t feel them,” an aspect of Non-judgment/acceptance; as well as “I can easily put my beliefs, opinions, and expectations into words,” and “It’s hard for me to find the words to describe what I’m thinking,” aspects of Describing.
Conclusions
Findings help to clarify which processes are core to mindfulness, contributing to a better understanding of the definition of mindfulness, and suggest factors that may be promising to target in mindfulness-based interventions. Future research should examine if mindfulness-based interventions may be improved by targeting these core mindfulness processes.
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Data Availability
The data are available upon request to the last author. We are unable to share data given that it was collected in collaboration with other individuals who were not part of this manuscript.
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Acknowledgements
We’d like to acknowledge Judson Brewer, Stephanie O’Malley, and Prasanta Pal for their contributions to the parent clinical trial. We’d like to thank our participants.
Funding
This research was funded by the American Heart Association 14CRP18200010 and NIDA K12DA000167. Dr. Gueorguieva is supported by grant number 5UL1TR001863 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).
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Kathleen Garrison: conceptualization; data curation; funding acquisition; investigation; methodology; project administration; resources; supervision; validation; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing. Mihaela Aslan: conceptualization; data curation; formal analysis; methodology; software; validation; visualization; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing. Margaret Sala: conceptualization; methodology; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing. Ralitza Gueorguieva: conceptualization; formal analysis; methodology; supervision; visualization; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing. Madeline Schupak: conceptualization; writing—review and editing.
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The study was approved by the Yale University Institutional Review Board and we certify that the study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study and was conducted online as approved by our HIC.
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Sala, M., Aslan, M., Gueorguieva, R. et al. A Network Investigation of Core Mindfulness Processes. Mindfulness 14, 992–1004 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02109-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02109-4