Mechanics of Mindfulness: Investigating Metacognitive Beliefs as a Pathway of Effect on Anxiety and Depression.
European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education June 12, 2025 Corey Jackson, Christian M Jones 2 citations
Dispositional mindfulness is strongly linked to lower anxiety and depression through its effect on metacognitive beliefs. A survey of 178 adults (average age 53) found that people who meditated daily scored higher on three facets of mindfulness and reported less anxiety, depression, and maladaptive cognitive patterns (worry, rumination, mind wandering) than those who rarely meditated. Negative metacognitive beliefs were associated with more worry, spontaneous mind wandering, and brooding rumination, which in turn were linked to greater symptomology. The findings suggest that mindfulness reduces symptomology by weakening negative metacognitive beliefs, which then reduces the maladaptive cognitive-attentional syndrome. Spontaneous mind wandering and brooding rumination appear more harmful than deliberate forms, and the authors propose these subtypes may be better understood as extremes on a continuum rather than distinct categories.