Mindfulness Matters: Untangling Entrapment and Mental Well-Being in Married Couples.
Yusuf Akyıl, Beste Erdinç, Seydi Ahmet Satıcı
The Psychiatric quarterly June 11, 2025 DOI: 10.1007/s11126-025-10168-0 via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractEntrapment—a feeling of being trapped—harms the mental well-being of married individuals, and mindfulness within the marriage plays a mediating role. Data from 423 married couples (846 people) showed that for both husbands and wives, one partner's entrapment predicted the other partner's mindfulness, which in turn predicted the first partner's mental well-being. For example, women's entrapment predicted their own well-being through men's mindfulness, and women's mindfulness predicted men's well-being. Higher mindfulness in a spouse experiencing entrapment is expected to improve both partners' well-being.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Cross-sectional survey using actor-partner interdependence mediation model Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 846 |
| Population | Married couples |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Actor-partner interdependence model Dyadic Entrapment Mental well-being Psychological research |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key finding | Entrapment in one spouse predicted the other spouse's mindfulness, which then predicted the first spouse's mental well-being, indicating a partner-mediated pathway. |
Abstract
Individual experiences can influence the mental health of married couples. The objective of the present study is to investigate the mediating role of mindfulness in marriage between entrapment and mental well-being by examining the relationships between actors and partners. The actor-partner interdependence mediation model was employed to apply a dyadic approach to the data collected from 423 (N = 846) married couples for this purpose. The mean age of the women was 35.80 (SD = 9.57), while the mean age of the men was 39.0 (SD = 10.46). The results indicated that the relationships between entrapment, mindfulness, and mental well-being were substantial for both genders. It was discovered that the entrapment experienced by each of the couples predicted their own well-being through the mindfulness of the other in marriage in the context of partner effects. In other words, women's entrapment predicted their mental well-being, which in turn predicted men's mindfulness in marriage. Similarly, the mindfulness of women in marriage predicts the mental well-being of men. Consequently, it is anticipated that the well-being of both spouses will be enhanced if the mindfulness levels of individuals experiencing entrapment are high.