The Relative Importance of Mindfulness Facets and Their Interactions: Relations to Psychological Symptoms in Chronic Pain

• Published in: Mindfulness 2022-04, Vol.13 (4), p.1054-1068
• Main Authors: Azizi, Zahra, Jandaghi, Gholamreza, Firoozi, Manijeh, Zia-Tohidi, Ali, Ebnerasouli, Shahrokh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child and School Psychology; Chronic pain; Cognitive Psychology; Comorbidity; Discriminant analysis; Hypotheses; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mindfulness; Original Paper; Pediatrics; Psychology; Public Health; Social Sciences
• ISSN: 1868-8527; 1868-8535
• DOI: 10.1007/s12671-022-01862-2

Objectives This study had three objectives: first, to investigate the relative importance of mindfulness facets to negative affect (NA) among patients with chronic pain; second, to test the monitor and acceptance theory that observing is associated with lower NA only if occurs in an accepting manner; and third, to investigate the relation between mindfulness and obsessive–compulsive symptoms (OCS). Methods One hundred and nineteen patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain completed the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS), and the Obsessive–Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R). A latent variable was constructed to represent NA. Multiple regression analysis was conducted, and several indices of relative importance were calculated. Results Except for Observing, all mindfulness facets had significant bivariate and unique relation with NA. Acting with Awareness was the most important predictor, followed by Nonjudging and Describing. The contribution of Nonreactivity was small. Regarding the second objective, the Observing × Nonjudging and Observing × Nonreactivity interactions were not significant. Finally, the five mindfulness facets explained about one-half of the variance in obsession and one-fifth of the variance in compulsion. After excluding the shared variance between obsession and compulsion, mindfulness was only related to obsession. Conclusions Except for Observing, all mindfulness facets seem to have unique contributions to psychological symptoms; among them, Acting with Awareness seems most important. Current evidence is inconsistent in supporting the moderating role of acceptance in the influence of observing. Finally, in the context of OCS, it seems that mindfulness is more related to obsession than compulsion.