Brief mindfulness training de-couples the anxiogenic effects of distress intolerance on reactivity to and recovery from stress among deprived smokers
Section snippets
Participants
One-hundred-four adult (M(SD)age = 26.02(5.36)) daily smokers (>10 cigarettes per day) were recruited from the general city of Haifa community (Please see Table 1 for additional demographic information). Participants reported being a daily smoker for a M(SD) = 8.98(5.41) years and initiating smoking at M(SD) = 17.18(2.23) years of age. Potential participants met study inclusion criteria if they: (a) were between 18 and 65 years of age; (b) smoked regularly for at least one year; (c) currently
Effect of mindfulness elicitation
To compare degree of change in state mindfulness from baseline to post-induction between the PMAA and control groups, we conducted a mixed effects ANOVA predicting log-transformed SMS scores by Time (pre-post), Group and their interaction. The Time × Group interaction was significant (F(1,79) = 95.695, p = .000); as expected, the PMAA group (M(SE) = 0.42(0.12)) demonstrated significantly greater elevation of state mindfulness (SMS) than the control group (M(SE) = 0.23(0.11)). Furthermore, on a
Discussion
Findings support the theorized buffering effect of PMAA on the subjective experience of anxiety in response to and in recovery from the anxiogenic stressor (i.e., hyperventilation). The salutary effect of PMAA is particularly noteworthy in light of the smoking deprivation – designed to acutely pre-dispose bio-psycho-behavioral reactivity and delayed recovery in response to the distressing stressor. In contrast, PMAA did not similarly buffer the effect of distress intolerance on physiological
Acknowledgements
We want to thank members of the research team for their help in carrying out the study – Aviv Ben Shabbat, M.A., Danielle Elimelech, B.A., Oded Bryt, B.A., Iftach Amir, M.A., Osnat Harari-Dahan, M.A., and Yaara Nitzan-Assayag, Ph.D.
Dr. Bernstein recognizes the funding support from the Israeli Council for Higher Education Yigal Alon Fellowship, the European Union FP-7 Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant, Psychology Beyond Borders Mission Award, Israel Science Foundation, and the
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