Dispositional mindfulness is associated with less cognitive fusion and better effortful control in young people: The mediating role of repetitive negative thinking

Introduction: The scientific community is taking an increasing interest in mindfulness due to its positive association with physical and psychological health indicators. However, there is still ongoing debate as to whether there could be other explanations for these effects. Aim: This study explores the relationships between dispositional mindfulness, cognitive fusion, effortful control and repetitive negative thinking (RNT). RNT was chosen as a potential mediating variable due to its presence in multiple psychological disorders. Method: A mediation analysis was performed using the bootstrap method with 5000 replications on data collected from a non-clinical sample of 415 young adults who completed a battery of online questionnaires. Results: Dispositional mindfulness is negatively associated with measures of RNT, effortful control and cognitive fusion. The analyses indicate that the effect that dispositional mindfulness has on cognitive fusion in young people can be partially mediated with medium effect size by RNT. Conclusion: RNT may play a central role as an underlying process in the link between mindfulness and different psychological aspects.