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Mindfulness, irrational beliefs and health in mindfulness meditators
Author
Teo, Chuan Ann
Supervisor
Lee, Boon Ooi
Abstract
The current study aimed to compare the psychological and physical health outcomes of a group of long-term mindfulness meditators and demographically similar non-meditators. It also sought to investigate the mediator role of irrational beliefs between mindfulness and the health outcomes. A cross-sectional design was adopted with 70 long-term mindfulness meditators and an equal number of non-meditators. All were Chinese Buddhists matched on gender. The majority of meditators had between one and five years of experiences and reported engaging in mindfulness practice on an average of more than 20 minutes but less than 60 minutes weekly. Results showed that meditators presented with significantly better psychological health outcomes than non-meditators fter controlling for education. Specifically, meditators scored significantly higher on measures of mindfulness, self-compassion, satisfaction with life conditions and statistically lower on emotional distress as well as irrational beliefs. Amongst the meditators, mindfulness was found to be positively correlated with self-compassion and satisfaction with life conditions, but inversely associated with irrational beliefs and emotional distress. Furthermore, hierarchical regression analysis showed that mindfulness, self-compassion and satisfaction with life conditions predicted emotional distress. On the other hand, emotional distress predicted somatic symptoms. Using the Sobel test, it was found that irrational beliefs mediated the relationship between mindfulness and self-compassion, satisfaction with life conditions and emotional distress. Most of the results yielded were consistent with findings from existing literature. Recommendations for future direction, implications for clinical practice and limitations were also discussed.
Date Issued
2012
Call Number
BQ5612 Teo
Date Submitted
2012