Momentary and longitudinal relationships of mindfulness to stress and anxiety among Chinese elementary school students: mediations of cognitive flexibility, self-awareness, and social environment

The relationship between mindfulness and suboptimal health status: a chain/serial mediation model

Background

Suboptimal health status (SHS) represents a third state between health and disease and often progresses into chronic conditions, negatively impacting an individual's well-being. Studies have shown that mindfulness has a beneficial effect on various SHS symptoms. This study aims to explore the influence of mindfulness on SHS and its underlying mechanisms, with a particular focus on examining the mediating roles of stress and social support.

Methods

A total of 173 healthy Chinese college or graduate students, with an average age of 21.85 years, participated in this study. Measurements were taken using the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire, the Sub-Health Measurement Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, and a self-constructed scale that included demographic information. The PROCESS plugin for SPSS was used to assess mediating effects.

Results

Significant correlations were found among SHS, social support, mindfulness, and perceived stress (|r| = 0.38-0.85, p < 0.01). Specifically, mindfulness showed a significant positive correlation with SHS and social support (r = 0.38-0.77), while perceived stress was significantly negatively correlated with mindfulness, social support, and SHS (|r| = 0.45-0.85). Perceived social support was positively associated with SHS (r = 0.65). Furthermore, social support and perceived stress partially mediated the influence of mindfulness on SHS. Additionally, a sequential mediation effect of perceived social support and stress in the relationship between mindfulness and SHS was supported.

Conclusion

The cultivation of trait mindfulness may be advantageous for individuals' sub-health. Perceived social support and perceived stress are important underlying mechanisms contributing to this effect.

Unveiling the links between physical activity, self-identity, social anxiety, and emotional eating among overweight and obese young adults

Introduction

Emotional eating not only contributes to physical obesity but also leads to the experience of guilt and shame, exacerbating emotional problems. Increasing physical activity, adopting a balanced diet, and seeking psychological support help improve emotional eating issues in overweight or obese young adults, enhancing overall mental and physical well-being.

Methods

This study investigates the correlation between physical activity, self-identity, social anxiety, and emotional eating among 373 overweight and obese college students aged 18-26 in central China. By utilizing AMOS v.26, a structural equation model was constructed to examine the hypotheses.

Results

The findings reveal that physical activity significantly influences self-identity and social anxiety, which, in turn, significantly impact emotional eating. Moreover, self-identity and social anxiety serve as mediators in the relationship between physical activity and emotional eating. These results emphasize the role of physical activity in mitigating emotional eating among young individuals struggling with overweight and obesity.

Discussion

Consequently, the government and relevant agencies are urged to address the issue of obesity among young adults and provide support for their engagement in physical activity.

Longitudinal associations of parental psychological control and friend support with autonomy during early adolescence

Although theories suggest transactional associations between adolescents' autonomy and relationships with parents and friends, few studies have examined these within-person effects. This longitudinal study examined the within-person co-development of adolescents' autonomy and relationships with parents and friends. Adolescents (N = 244 Mage  = 11.54, SD = 0.43 at T1; 50% boys) participated in a four-wave study across 2 years in the Netherlands. In random-intercept cross-lagged panel models, within-person results showed that higher levels of autonomy predicted less parental psychological control but not vice versa. However, no lagged-effects between friend support and autonomy were found. This study suggests that adolescents' autonomy steers changes in parental psychological control.

Delving into the role of mindfulness on the relationship among creativity, anxiety, and boredom of young EFL learners

Anxiety may contribute to agitation and distress in learners that can influence learning. Along with anxiety, boredom has been the focus of many recent investigations in the context of second language (L2) learning involving young learners. Anxiety and boredom would limit learners' imagination power, and can deter creativity, one of the indispensable skills in the 21st century. Mindfulness is another construct that is in line with creativity and its perspective to control anxiety is assured in literature. The proposed programs of mindfulness can influence creativity positively in the moment and over time. This is made possible by enhancing the level of the person's attention on daily activities which yields creative outcomes. In a world where stress and, often, distress undermine creativity, mindfulness emerges as an essential contributor to learners' success in educational practice. The current review focuses on young English as a foreign language (EFL) learners given that many believe stress and anxiety are commonplace among youth, leading to a decrease in creativity. Research findings reveal that mindfulness enhances creativity. Therefore, the improvement of students' well-being can be achieved by gradually incorporating mindfulness into the educational domain. Considering the important role of these factors in the language learning process, the purpose of this review is to examine the possible interactional effect of mindfulness in relation to creativity, learners' anxiety, and boredom in the context of L2 education among young learners. This is followed by proposing some suggestions for future research, as well as pedagogical implications.

Mindfulness and psychological well-being in adolescents: the mediating role of self-compassion, emotional dysregulation and cognitive flexibility

INTRODUCTION

Adolescence is a critical period of growth. Mental health during adolescence is one of the most important determinants of mental health in adulthood. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between mindfulness and psychological well-being of adolescents considering the mediating role of self-compassion, emotional dysregulation and cognitive flexibility.

METHODS

The method of this research is cross-sectional. The research population was adolescents (elementary, first and second high school) in Zanjan, Iran in 2021, whose approximate number was 14,000. Data through adolescent mindfulness questionnaires (Brown, West, Loverich, and Biegel, 2011), short form of psychological well-being questionnaire (Ryff and Keyes, 1995), short form of self-compassion scale (Raes et al., 2011), difficulty in Emotion regulation (Gratz and Roemer, 2004) and cognitive flexibility (Dennis and Vander Wal, 2010) were collected. Data analysis was performed using Pearson correlation coefficient and path analysis with SPSS-26 and lisrel-10.2 software.

RESULTS

According the results, in addition to the fact that mindfulness is directly and positively related to psychological well-being (p < 0.05), it is also indirectly through self-compassion and Cognitive flexibility has a positive and significant relationship with psychological well-being and also mindfulness has an indirect, negative and significant relationship with psychological well-being through emotional dysregulation (p < 0.05). The results supported the goodness of model fit and confirmation of hypotheses.

CONCLUSION

Therefore, it is recommended that practitioners provide the basis for promoting psychological well-being through mindfulness, emotional dysregulation, self-compassion and cognitive flexibility.

The relationship between peer victimization and social anxiety among adolescents: a moderated mediation model with cognitive flexibility and affect intensity

Building a friendship with peers is an important developmental task. However, peer victimization and social anxiety are among the most disturbing problems and have impaired adolescents' adaptive development. A total of 942 adolescents completed the survey. The results showed that peer victimization was related to social anxiety and that this effect was mediated by cognitive flexibility and moderated by affect intensity. Specifically, the damage of peer victimization and social anxiety was aggrevated for those with high levels of affect intensity. The current study provides evidence for the association between peer victimization and social anxiety. It contributes to the literature by clarifying the equivocal findings and uncovering the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between peer victimization and social anxiety. In the future, researchers and teachers should pay attention to adolescents' peer social status as early as possible, especially for adolescents with higher levels of affect intensity.