Mindfulness and Attachment

Style: &

The Explanatory Role of

Emotion Regulation

Crystal Pearce, William Lovegrove, Steven Roodenrys

Overview

Definitions of terms

Study background

The current study

Implications

Future Directions

Definitions of Terms

Mindfulness (Kabat-Zinn, 1994)

The state of being attentive to and aware of present experiences in a non-judgmental way.

FFMQ (Baer et al., 2006):• observing • describing• acting w awareness• non-judging• non-reactivity

Attachment A child’s earliest relationship with their primary caregiver

creates the template that shapes expectations for future relationships (Bowlby,1998; Siegel and Hartzell, 2003).

ATTACHMENT STYLES

SECURE ATTACHMENT

• INSECURE ATTACHMENT

ANXOUS

• INSECURE ATTACHMENT

AVOIDANT

Emotion Regulation

The extrinsic and intrinsic regulatory processes responsible for managing positive and negative emotions toward goal accomplishment (Thomson, 1994).

Gross (1998) Model

• Antecedent focussed

Cognitive Reapprais

al

• Response focussed

Suppressive

Expression

EMOTION REGULATIO

N

Mindful Coping Model (Garland, Gaylord & Park, 2009) Metacognitive mode of mindfulness allows one to shift from

stress appraisals to positive reappraisals. Decentering: Thoughts are transient events, not reality.

Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation

Why Attachment Styles?

Low mindfulness <-> Insecure attachment

High mindfulness <-> Secure attachment

Attachment and processes of mindfulness may be bi-directionally related (Siegel, 2007):

1. Secure attachment -> greater capacity for mindfulness

2. Mindfulness training -> secure attachment

The Current Study

Study AimsStudy 1- Cross-section: Are they related?1. Aims to replicate previous findings that dispositional mindfulness will correlate with attachment style in non-meditators.

Study 2 - Pre-post Intervention: Did they change? How?1. Aims to investigate whether an 8-week MBSR course can facilitate secure attachment within interpersonal relationships.2. To Investigate the role emotion regulation strategies play in mindfulness.3.To test the Mindful Coping Model (Garland, Gaylord & Park, 2009) that proposes positive reappraisal will increase as a mechanism of change in mindfulness. 4.Based on this model, determine whether a change in attachment style is mediated by positive reappraisal.

Pre-Post Hypotheses

Path Diagram of proposed mediation model

The Current Study

STUDY1: Cross-sectional analyses in University students

STUDY 2: Pre- post study in the general population :

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program Control group (regular exercisers)

Method Study 1 Study 2 MBSR CONTROL

Pre-test survey N=75

8-week MBSR Program

Post-test surveyN=16

Pre-test survey N=62

8 weeks of regular exercise

Post-test surveyN=22

240 University Students-

Survey responses

Measures Mindfulness = FFMQ e.g. Non-reactivity“I perceive my feelings and emotions without having to react to them.”

Emotion Regulation = ERQ e.g. Positive Reappraisal“When I want to feel more positive emotion (such as joy or amusement), I change what I’m thinking about.”

Attachment Style = ECR-RS e.g. Anxious attachment“I often worry that this person doesn't really care for me.”

Results & Discussion Study 1

There was a significant positive association between dispositional mindfulness and anxious attachment at p< .01, but there was no significant relationship with avoidant attachment.

There was a significant negative relationship between mindfulness and reappraisal r= -.340, sig<.001. (not supporting the Mindful Coping Model)

There was a significant positive relationship between mindfulness and suppression r= .285, sig<.001.

Cont.

Correlations on pre-test MBSR group, N=75 and pre-test control group, N=62 indicated the same significant pattern of relationships between mindfulness, reappraisal and suppression.

REAPPRAISAL correlated negatively with all four subscales of FFMQ but ‘acting with awareness’.

SUPPRESSION correlated positively with all four scales of the FFMQ but ‘non-reactivity’.

Cont.

FFMQ Mindfulness

Reappraisal

Anxious Attachment

Anxious Attachment

Suppression

FFMQ Mindfulness

-0.14**

0.11**

0.08**

0.12**

** Sig< 0.01

Study 2

MBSR N: Pre = 75 : Post = 16 Control N: Pre 62 : Post = 22

Pre-test Correlations: No relationship between mindfulness and attachment styles

Suppression + Mindfulness Reappraisal - Mindfulness

Pre Post10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

Group Mean Pre-post Values of Reappraisal

MBSRControl

Mean R

eappra

isal Score

s

2(control, MBSR) X 2(time1, time2) mixed model ANOVAS were conducted to compare effects of time and group on the key variables.

No significant changes in variable scores in the control group between Pre- and Post- testing

Pre Post110

115

120

125

130

135

140

145

Group Mean Pre-Post values of Mindfulness

MBSRControl

Mean F

MQ

score

s

Aims/Hypotheses SupportedStudy 1: To replicate previous findings; hypothesising that mindfulness will correlate with attachment style in non-meditators.

Unexpected correlation between mindfulness and anxious attachment in student population.

Study 2 : 1. An MBSR course will facilitate a secure attachment style within interpersonal relationships.

Decrease in anxious attachment but not significant.

2. To Investigate the role emotion regulation strategies play in mindfulness.

Suppression correlated positively with mindfulness.Reappraisal correlated negatively with mindfulness.(In 3 population samples) ✔

3. To test the Mindful Coping Model (Garland, Gaylord & Park, 2009), hypothesising that positive reappraisal will increase as a mechanism of change in mindfulness.

Reappraisal did not increase with mindfulness training as suggested by this model. The model was unsupported as Reappraisal significantly decreased.

4. Based on this model, determine whether a change in attachment style is mediated by positive reappraisal.

No significant change in attachment style to assess mediating relationships.

Implications Within this study, the Mindful Coping Model (2009) is

unsupported: Results indicate reappraisal decreases with mindfulness training rather than increases.

Consistent pattern across populations show that reappraisal goes down with increased mindfulness, and expressive suppression plays a role in mindfulness.

There were no changes in attachment styles, although as such patterns of behaviour have been reinforced since infancy, 8-weeks may not be enough to effectively change attachment styles

LimitationsOverall: Over-reliance on self-report measures Time restrictions of participants, and use of the

population by concurrent researchers meant selecting small measures.

Study 2: Low response & high attrition Lack of additional measures. Self-selected groups

Future Directions

Further exploration of the relationship between suppression, reappraisal and mindfulness.

Results did not support the Mindful Coping Model, however a much larger sample size should be used in future research on the model.

To investigate attachment correlations and changes with mindfulness training, a larger sample size is necessary. Follow-up analyses will be beneficial to examine long-term effects of mindfulness on attachment style to determine a change.

Correlation Matrix