Does mindfulness practice promote psychological functioning or is it the other way around? A daily diary study.

Summary

Mindfulness practice time and psychological outcomes are linked on the same day, but practicing more on one day does not predict better outcomes the next day. Instead, feeling better or more mindful on a given day predicts more practice the following day. Over 12 weeks, 25 participants in a standardized mindfulness program completed daily diaries. Same-day relationships showed expected patterns: more practice was associated with higher positive affect and mindfulness and lower negative affect. However, lagged analyses found no evidence that practice time drives next-day outcomes. Post hoc analysis indicated that practice time moderated the connection between day-to-day affect, strengthening the positive affect link and weakening the negative affect link. The findings suggest that the causal direction may flow from outcome to practice time, not the reverse.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mindfulness-based interventions are commonly used to reduce psychological symptoms and enhance positive qualities of human functioning. However, the influence of mindfulness practice dosage remains poorly understood, limiting dissemination and implementation efforts. The current study examined the association between practice dosage and several constructs related to psychological functioning (positive and negative affect, state mindfulness) over the course of a standardized mindfulness-based intervention (Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement). Twenty-five participants completed daily diary assessments for 12 weeks. Two-part gamma regression models examined the dichotomous (did practice occur?) and continuous (how much practice?) components of practice minutes. Practice time and outcomes showed same-day relationships in the expected directions. Lagged models, however, showed no evidence that current day practice time predicts subsequent day outcomes. In contrast, higher current day negative affect predicted less subsequent day practice time, and higher current day mindfulness predicted more subsequent day practice time. In a post hoc analysis, practice time moderated the link between day-to-day affect, strengthening the link for positive affect and weakening the link for negative affect. Collectively, these findings suggest that the causal direction linking practice time and outcome may flow from outcome to practice time, rather than the reverse-with potential recursive relationships between these factors. Further examination of lagged relationships between practice time and outcome as well as random assignment of participants to varying practice dosages (e.g., in within-person microrandomized trials) may help clarify the influence of this central treatment ingredient within mindfulness-based interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).