Associations Between Chronic Stress, Attention, Working Memory, and Mindful Acceptance in the Context of Monitor and Acceptance Theory: A Direct Replication and Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study

Objectives

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can reduce chronic stress, but their therapeutic mechanisms remain unclear. MBIs may train monitor (i.e., attention) and acceptance skills that have been impaired by chronic stress exposure, and the interaction between these skills might lead to chronic stress reduction. In the present study, we aimed at directly replicating one of the few existing studies that tested these hypotheses. Moreover, we explored the hypothesis that working memory capacity is negatively associated with chronic stress and that the association between working memory capacity and chronic stress is moderated by acceptance. To increase the generalisability of the results of this line of research, we obtained our sample from the Japanese population.

Method

Eighty-five adults participated in the study and completed self-reported chronic stress and mindful acceptance questionnaires, and attention and working memory behavioural tasks.

Results

The results revealed that chronic stress was significantly associated with lower acceptance, but not with monitor or working memory capacity. The interaction between acceptance and monitor or working memory measures was not significantly associated with chronic stress levels.

Conclusions

Our results almost exactly replicated the findings of the original study, provide limited support to the hypotheses, and suggest that acceptance, but not monitoring, may be a key mechanism of the therapeutic effects of MBIs. Future independent direct replication studies of this line of research or randomised-controlled trials testing other theory-driven research hypotheses are encouraged.

Preregistration

This study was pre-registered at AsPredicted.org (https://aspredicted.org/DS9_4CZ).