Mindfulness is known to decrease anger and aggression. Self-compassion is a related and relatively new construct that may predict other clinical outcomes more strongly than does mindfulness. Little ...research has focused on whether self-compassion is related to anger and aggression, and no studies have explored mechanisms of these associations. The current survey study explores whether angry rumination mediates the unique associations between self-compassion and anger and aggression, controlling for trait mindfulness. Two hundred and one undergraduates completed questionnaires assessing self-compassion, mindfulness, angry rumination, and recent anger and aggression. Supporting our hypotheses, angry rumination mediated the associations between self-compassion—particularly its over-identification subscale—and anger and aggression when controlling for mindfulness. Mindfulness did not predict angry rumination, recent anger, or aggression when controlling for self-compassion. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses predicting aggression-related variables indicated that angry rumination uniquely predicted over-identification, one of the six self-compassion subscales. These findings suggest that self-compassion, particularly a lack of cognitive and emotion fusion, may be a more proximal predictor of clinical outcomes than mindfulness. Implications for current conceptualizations and measures of mindfulness are discussed. Self-compassion may be useful for developing clinical interventions targeting anger and aggressive behavior.
Research suggests that perceived ethnic discrimination is associated with poor psychological and physiological health. Rumination, or perseverative thoughts about negative experiences, may constitute ...a maladaptive coping strategy that mediates the associations between perceived discrimination, emotional distress, and aggression. Our sample consisted of 170 ethnic minority and 134 White American participants. For ethnic minority participants, we found a pattern of correlations consistent with rumination partially mediating a causal link between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms, hostility, anger, and aggression. In White participants, by contrast, the significant associations between perceived discrimination and these indices of emotional and behavioral distress were not statistically mediated by rumination. We discuss possible theoretical and clinical implications of these results.
This study examined associations between uncertainty about sexual orientation, rumination, and psychological distress in university students. We hypothesized that increased rumination would mediate ...associations between higher sexual orientation uncertainty and greater psychological distress. Furthermore, we hypothesized that these associations might differ for self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) versus heterosexual emerging adults. A sample of 207 university students completed questionnaires assessing sexual orientation uncertainty, rumination, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and aggression. Path analyses indicated that higher sexual orientation uncertainty was associated with greater rumination, depressive symptoms, and perceived stress. Furthermore, rumination mediated associations between sexual orientation uncertainty and all measures of psychological distress across the entire sample. However, multi-group analyses indicated that these associations emerged for LGB participants but not for heterosexuals. Results suggest that rumination may constitute a common but maladaptive coping response for sexual minorities facing sexual orientation uncertainty. Interventions for this population should focus on decreasing rumination.
People are more willing to engage in collective action when they feel anger about collective disadvantage (van Zomeren, Postmes, & Spears, 2008). However, anger is often a fleeting emotion, whereas ...collective action is deliberate and sustained. Moreover, people cannot always engage in collective action on demand. We propose that rumination, or repetitive thoughts about negative emotions and experiences, may constitute a mechanism by which anger about collective disadvantage is sustained, and through it the motivation to engage in collective action. In three separate samples (128 students of color, 155 women, and 150 sexual minorities), we measured group-based anger about discrimination, group efficacy, group identification, rumination about discrimination, and collective action intentions. In all samples, rumination mediated the unique association between group-based anger and collective action intentions, controlling for group efficacy and group identification. Further, in an experimental study with 117 undergraduate women, we found that rumination, compared to distraction, sustained anger about collective disadvantage over a short period of time, and this sustained level of anger mediated the relationship between rumination and collective action intentions. These results lend support to conceptualizing collective action as a form of coping with collective disadvantage, and highlight the potential role of emotion regulation strategies like rumination in understanding intergroup relations.
Objective: The majority of individuals who endure traumatic events are resilient; however, we do not yet understand why some individuals are more resilient than others. We used data from a ...prospective longitudinal study Army National Guard and Reserve personnel to examine how unit cohesion (military-specific social support) and avoidant coping relate to resilience over the first year after return from deployment. Method: Soldiers (N = 767) were assessed at 4 phases: predeployment (P1), immediately postdeployment (P2), 3 months' postdeployment (P3), and 1-year postdeployment (P4). Results: After controlling for predeployment avoidant coping and overall social support, higher unit cohesion was associated with a reduction in avoidant coping (from P1 to P3). This reduction in avoidant coping (from P1 to P3) mediated the relationship between unit cohesion (P2) and improvement in mental health function (from P1 to P3). Conclusions: The results are consistent with the hypothesis that higher unit cohesion may mitigate increases in avoidant coping in military personnel after a combat deployment and in turn may improve mental health function.
•Perceived ethnic discrimination (PED) is associated with risky behaviors.•Theory suggests that this is particularly true for individuals with poor coping.•In a survey study, angry rumination ...interacted with PED to predict risky behaviors.•This interaction was not mediated by increased depressive or anxious symptoms.•Rumination may be an important process to target in ethnic minorities.
Perceived ethnic discrimination (PED) is associated with increased engagement in risky behaviors in ethnic minority emerging adults. Risky behaviors may reflect efforts to cope with emotional distress like depression or anxiety resulting from PED, particularly for individuals with poor emotion regulation skills. We hypothesized that the association between PED and risky behaviors would be particularly strong for emerging adults with tendencies for angry rumination. We further hypothesized that increased depressive and anxious symptoms would mediate the effect of the PED-rumination interaction on risky behaviors. In this survey study, 155 ethnic minority college students completed measures of PED, depressive and anxiety symptoms, trait angry rumination, and risky behaviors. Analyses revealed that angry rumination moderated the association between PED and greater risky behaviors. Depressive and anxiety symptoms did not mediate this effect. Although cross-sectional, these findings suggest that individuals with poor coping skills may be especially likely to respond to stressors such as PED by engaging in risky behaviors. Implications include using rumination-focused interventions in order to prevent engagement in risky behaviors in ethnic minority emerging adults.
The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) is one of the most popular measures of mindfulness, exhibiting promising psychometric properties and theoretically consistent relationships to brain ...activity, mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) outcomes, and mediation of MBI effects. The present study investigated the response patterns and scale properties in a large sample of undergraduate students (
N
=
414) using Item Response Theory analyses. The findings suggest that general statements of “automatic inattentiveness” or “automatic pilot” confer greater statistical information about the underlying latent trait. Evidence of limited abilities to report on mindlessness and of response bias to “mindfulness-absent” items suggests challenges to the construct validity of the MAAS. The current findings, along with pre-existing data, suggest that reverse-scoring the scale may be inadequate to represent intentional attention or awareness. Further research is needed to determine which variations, components, and correlates of the numerous operationalizations of mindfulness are theoretically consistent and most salient to positive outcomes, especially in psychopathology.
•Self-compassion may be a more proximal predictor of eating disorder psychopathology than general mindfulness, a similar yet distinct construct.•Self-compassion predicts less eating disorder ...psychopathology cross-sectionally and longitudinally, even when controlling for mindfulness.•Contrarily, mindfulness does not predict less eating disorder psychopathology, when controlling for self-compassion.•Less depressive rumination mediates the unique associations between greater self-compassion and less eating disorder psychopathology cross-sectionally but not longitudinally.
Mindfulness reduces eating disorder (ED) psychopathology. Self-compassion is a related but distinct construct that may predict other clinical outcomes more strongly than does mindfulness. Previous evidence suggests that self-compassion is associated with less ED psychopathology, although no studies have compared the unique effects of self-compassion and mindfulness. Moreover, few studies have explored mechanisms of this association. The current survey study explored the unique association between self-compassion and ED psychopathology, controlling for mindfulness, as well as whether depressive rumination mediates this association. One hundred and ninety undergraduates completed questionnaires assessing self-compassion, mindfulness, depressive rumination, and ED psychopathology at baseline and five months later. In cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, self-compassion predicted ED psychopathology even when controlling for mindfulness. By contrast, mindfulness did not predict ED psychopathology when controlling for self-compassion. Depressive rumination mediated the unique association between self-compassion and ED psychopathology in cross-sectional but not longitudinal analyses. The current findings suggest that self-compassion may be a more proximal predictor of ED psychopathology than is mindfulness. Additional research will need to further explore whether depressive rumination is a mechanism of this effect.
Procrastination is common among college students, involving irrational delay of task completion. Theorists understand procrastination to be an avoidance response to negative emotions. Past research ...suggests that depression and anxiety predict procrastination. However, only limited research has examined the unique effects of shame and guilt—self-conscious emotions—on procrastination, and no studies have examined potential mechanisms. Depressive rumination, the repetitive and maladaptive thinking about a negative event composed of brooding and reflective pondering, is uniquely predicted by shame—but not guilt—and also predicts greater procrastination. Thus, the current cross-sectional survey study examined (1) whether shame and guilt uniquely predict procrastination and (2) whether depressive rumination mediates those effects in a collegiate sample. Results supported a model wherein brooding and reflective pondering mediate the unique relationship between shame and procrastination. A second model suggested that guilt leads to less procrastination directly but greater procrastination indirectly via increased reflective pondering. Theoretical and clinical implications of the current findings are discussed.
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