Prakash Ruchika Shaurya, Hussain Mariam A, Schirda Brittney
Department of Psychology.
Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.
Psychol Aging. 2015 Mar;30(1):160-171. doi: 10.1037/a0038544. Epub 2014 Dec 29.
Dispositional mindfulness is associated with lower levels of perceived stress, with increased emotional regulation and cognitive control proposed as mechanisms underlying these stress-buffering effects of mindfulness. Within aging, these controlled processes represent paradoxically divergent trajectories such that older adults exhibit reduced cognitive control capacities, while emotional regulation abilities are well maintained, and at times enhanced. Our study seeks to examine the role of emotional regulation and cognitive control as possible mediators of the association between mindfulness and perceived stress. In addition, we examined age-related differences in the observed associations among mindfulness, stress, and controlled regulatory behavior. Fifty older adults and fifty young adults were recruited for the study and completed self-report measures assessing mindfulness disposition, perceived stress, and emotional regulation. In addition, computerized measures of cognitive control assessing working memory, inhibitory control, and set-shifting were also administered. We hypothesized a negative correlation between mindfulness disposition and perceived stress such that participants reporting higher levels of dispositional mindfulness would report lower stress. In addition, we hypothesized increased difficulties in emotion regulation and lower cognitive control to mediate this relationship. Corroborating previous literature, results revealed that mindfulness disposition and perceived stress were negatively correlated in both groups. However, emotion regulation, but not cognitive control, was found to mediate the relationship between mindfulness and perceived stress in both groups. Age group was not found to moderate the observed effects. Our findings reveal the role of enhanced emotional regulation abilities as a potential factor associated with the stress-reducing capacity of dispositional mindfulness.
特质正念与较低水平的感知压力相关，情绪调节和认知控制的增强被认为是正念这些压力缓冲效应的潜在机制。在衰老过程中，这些受控过程呈现出矛盾的不同轨迹，即老年人的认知控制能力下降，而情绪调节能力则得到良好维持，有时甚至会增强。我们的研究旨在探讨情绪调节和认知控制作为正念与感知压力之间关联的可能中介作用。此外，我们还研究了正念、压力和受控调节行为之间观察到的关联中的年龄差异。招募了五十名老年人和五十名年轻人参与该研究，并完成了评估正念特质、感知压力和情绪调节的自我报告测量。此外，还进行了评估工作记忆、抑制控制和任务转换的认知控制计算机化测量。我们假设正念特质与感知压力之间存在负相关，即报告特质正念水平较高的参与者报告的压力较低。此外，我们假设情绪调节困难增加和认知控制降低会介导这种关系。与先前的文献一致，结果显示两组中正念特质与感知压力均呈负相关。然而，发现情绪调节而非认知控制介导了两组中正念与感知压力之间的关系。未发现年龄组对观察到的效应有调节作用。我们的研究结果揭示了增强的情绪调节能力作为与特质正念减压能力相关的潜在因素的作用。
