The Effect of a Brief Mindfulness Training on Distress Tolerance and Stress Reactivity

Abstract

Poor distress tolerance (DT) is considered an underlying facet of anxiety, depression, and a number of other psychological disorders. Mindfulness may help to increase DT by fostering an attitude of acceptance or nonjudgment toward distressing experiences. Accordingly, the present study examined the effects of a brief mindfulness training on tolerance of different types of distress, and tested whether trait mindfulness moderates the effect of such training. Undergraduates (n = 107) naïve to mindfulness completed a measure of trait mindfulness and underwent a series of stress tasks (cold pressor, hyperventilation challenge, neutralization task) before and after completing a 15-minute mindfulness training or a no-instruction control in which participants listened to relaxing music. Participants in the mindfulness condition demonstrated greater task persistence on the hyperventilation task compared to the control group, as well as a decreased urge to neutralize the effects of writing an upsetting sentence. No effect on distress ratings during the tasks were found. Overall trait mindfulness did not significantly moderate task persistence, but those with lower scores on the act with awareness facet of mindfulness demonstrated greater relative benefit of mindfulness training on the hyperventilation challenge. Mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects of mindfulness training on cold pressor task persistence and urges to neutralize through the use of the nonjudge and nonreact facets of mindfulness. These results suggest that a brief mindfulness training can increase DT without affecting the subjective experience of distress.

Keywords: anxiety; distress tolerance; mediation; mindfulness; moderation.

Figure 1.

Group means for task persistence pre- and post-intervention for the hyperventilation challenge and cold pressor, and urge to neutralize after rumination and neutralization periods on the neutralization task. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. p values correspond to the Beta statistic in the regression models in Tables 2 and 3, representing the effect of condition on the each outcome controlling for gender and FFMQ (all tasks), baseline task performance (cold pressor and hyperventilation), and tidal volume ratio (hyperventilation only).

Figure 2.

Mediation of the effect of condition on cold pressor task persistence (left) and urge to neutralize (right) through the Nonreact and Nonjudge mindfulness use items. Regression coefficients represent unstandardized values controlling for pre-intervention task persistence (cold pressor only) and gender. Condition coded 0 = control, 1 = mindfulness. + p < 0.10, * p < 0.05, p < 0.01.