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Dept. of Humanities & Social Sciences, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida, A-10, Sector: 62, Noida 201307, India
Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8686
Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, Noida Campus,,B-1 Sector: 62, Noida 201307, India
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 12 January 2016
Received in revised form 21 February 2016
Accepted 27 February 2016
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Mindfulness
Self-esteem
Anxiety
Depression
a b s t r a c t
The current study aimed to examine the mediation effects of self-esteem on the association between mindfulness
and anxiety and depression. A sample of 417 undergraduate students completed a packet of questionnaires that
assessed mindfulness, self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. Correlation results indicated that mindfulness was
associated with self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), mediational
analyses showed that mindfulness exerted its indirect effect on anxiety and depression through self-esteem. A
multi-group analysis showed that the mediational model was not moderated by gender and thus provided a preliminary support for the robustness of the nal meditational model. The ndings corroborate an important role of
self-esteem in mindfulness exerting its benecial effects on anxiety and depression.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Mindfulness refers to a process that leads to a mental state characterized by nonjudgmental and nonreactive awareness of presentmoment experiences, including emotions, cognitions, and bodily sensations, as well as external stimuli such as sights, sounds, and smells
(Bishop et al., 2004; Brown & Ryan, 2003; Brown, Ryan, & Creswell,
2007; Kabat-Zinn, 2003). Experiencing the present-moment nonjudgmentally and openly can effectively counter the effects of stressors,
because excessive orientation toward the past or future when dealing
with stressors can be related to feelings of depression and anxiety
(Kabat-Zinn, 2003). Mindfulness allows individuals to perceive
thoughts and events the way they are and keep them away from
judging it critically (Brown et al., 2007). Mindfulness is also conceptualized as a psychological trait that refers to the tendency to be mindful in
everyday life (Brown & Ryan, 2003). Meditation or mindfulness training
may be used to enhance levels of mindfulness (Baer et al., 2008;
Falkenstrom, 2010).
1.1. Mindfulness, anxiety and depression
Mindfulness could help the individuals to give up depressive
rumination (Teasdale et al., 2000; Williams, 2008). Increasing evidence
has demonstrated that mindfulness-based interventions can effectively
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: badri.bajaj@jiit.ac.in (B. Bajaj), rwrobins@ucdavis.edu
(R.W. Robins), neerja@iiml.ac.in (N. Pande).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.02.085
0191-8869/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
128
Pepping, O'Donovan, & Davis, 2013; Thompson & Waltz, 2008). Higher
mindfulness makes an individual less engrossed by negative feelings
and thoughts that represent low self-esteem (Pepping et al., 2013).
Increased awareness and describing through mindfulness may encourage people to maintain attention on present experiences, making them
less likely to experience negative beliefs or critical thoughts, further
enhancing self-esteem. The enhanced self-esteem acts as a cushion for
people against feelings of anxiety, it enhances coping, and promotes
physical and mental health (Greenberg et al., 1992; Pepping et al.,
2013; Taylor & Brown, 1988). Individuals with low self-esteem, experience virtually every negative emotion more often than those with high
self-esteem (Goswick & Jones, 1981; Leary, 1983; Taylor & Brown,
1988). Mindfulness may help people to recognize that thoughts and
feelings are events in the mind and not self-evident truths or aspects
of the self. This might reduce the tendency to develop strong emotions
as a consequence of cognitions related to low self-esteem (Michalak,
Teismann, Heidenreich, Strohle, & Vocks, 2011). Thus, mindfulness
inuences self-esteem and the enhanced self-esteem affects levels of
anxiety and depression.
Self-esteem is strongly correlated with anxiety and depression in
cross-sectional studies (Liu, Wang, Zhou, & Li, 2014; Michalak et al.,
2011; Pinniger, Brown, Thorsteinsson, & McKinley, 2012). Moreover,
numerous longitudinal studies have demonstrated that low selfesteem prospectively predicts increases over time in anxiety and
depression, whereas anxiety and depression do not predict declining
levels of self-esteem (Orth & Robins, 2014; Sowislo & Orth, 2013).
Thus, consistent with our proposed mediation model, the research
literature supports the claim that low self-esteem leads to anxiety and
depression, but does not support an effect of anxiety and depression
on self-esteem.
Based on the preceding rationale and available literature showing
that mindfulness contributes to self-esteem (Brown & Ryan, 2003;
Thompson & Waltz, 2008), and that self-esteem correlate to depression
and anxiety (Liu et al., 2014; Rasmussen & Pidgeon, 2011), in this study,
self-esteem was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between
mindfulness and anxiety and depression. Thus mindfulness will
indirectly predict lower levels of anxiety and depression through selfesteem. To our knowledge, no study has been encountered to examine
the effects of mindfulness on depression through self-esteem and to
examine the effects of mindfulness on anxiety through self-esteem in
a sample of students in Indian context.
Life at a university can be quite complex and demanding with the
heavy burden of studies and the high levels of stress due to study/life
balance, nancial problems, and relationship related issues. University
students also feel lonely and homesick as they are away from their
parents and live independently. In this period, many students may
face anxiety and depression due to these problems. Thus, the present
study might throw some light on the potential psychological mechanism in helping university students in reducing anxiety and depression.
2. Method
2.1. Participants
417 undergraduate students from an Indian university volunteered
to take part in the study. In the sample, 305 were males and 112 were
females. The mean age of the sample was 20.2 years (standard
deviation = 1.4 years).
2.2. Measures
3. Results
2.2.1. Mindfulness
Mindfulness was assessed with 15 item Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003). The participants expressed
their agreement on a six point Likert type scale ranging from 1 = almost
always, to 6 = almost never. It includes items such as, I do jobs or tasks
Mean
SD
1. Mindfulness
2. Self-esteem
3. Anxiety
4. Depression
3.8
2.8
0.82
0.82
0.77
0.43
0.49
0.58
0.84
0.81
0.72
0.79
0.44
0.42
0.43
0.30
0.58
0.45
129
Table 2
Fit indices among competing models.
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
df
2/df
RMSEA
SRMR
CF1
AIC
ECVI
60.4
92.4
70.4
30
32
30
2.013
2.887
2.347
0.049
0.067
0.057
0.016
0.028
0.022
0. 982
0.965
0.977
110.393
138.394
120.419
0.265
0.333
0.289
130
Fig. 1. The Structural Equation Model regarding the mediating effect of self-esteem on the relation between mindfulness, anxiety, and depression. Note: factor loadings are standardized.
M1M3 = three parcels of mindfulness; SE1SE3 = three parcels of self-esteem; ANX1ANX2 = two parcels of anxiety; DEP1DEP2 = two parcels of depression.
physical and mental health (Greenberg et al., 1992; Pepping et al., 2013;
Taylor & Brown, 1988). Individuals with higher mindfulness might notice self-critical thoughts and identify them as thoughts rather than
truth, and acts as a buffer for low self-esteem (Michalak et al., 2011).
Based on this rationale, it is reasonable to infer that self-esteem plays
a mediating role in the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety
and depression.
Individuals with higher mindfulness might identify thoughts as
mental processes rather than facts. Further, mindfulness approach
might encourage individuals with low self-esteem not to be critical
with their thoughts, feelings and stimuli. These hypotheses need to be
investigated in future research to uncover important underlying
mechanisms by which mindfulness enhances self-esteem.
Our ndings suggest that intervention programs addressing anxiety
and depression may need to focus on helping participants recognize
their own sense of worth through enhancing their mindfulness levels.
Programs aimed at increasing both mindfulness and self-esteem are
likely to reduce anxiety and depression. Mindfulness interventions
may help promote levels of self-esteem that is secure and based on
heightened awareness and acceptance of self-traits (Brown et al.,
2007). This is in contrast to social comparison and self-evaluative
methods that may lead to fragile self-esteem (Schne, Tandler, &
Stiensmeier-Pelster, 2015; Wood, Anthony, & Foddis, 2006). Mindfulness may be used to enhance self-esteem, without temporarily
bolstering positive views of oneself by focusing on achievement or
transient factors. Thus mindfulness may increase secure form of high
self-esteem. Mindfulness training by improving self-esteem may subvert the negative self-schemas that elicit and maintain anxiety and
depression. As our sample consists of undergraduate students, the
study results do not allow for rm conclusions regarding the effect of
self-esteem on major anxiety and depression symptoms because we
did not assess clinical levels of anxiety and depression. Nevertheless,
longitudinal studies have demonstrated a relation between low selfesteem and clinically diagnosed anxiety and depression (Sowislo &
Orth, 2013; Trzesniewski et al., 2006), suggesting that the present
results are relevant for levels of anxiety and depression that represent
a signicant impairment in psychological functioning.
Table 3
Bootstrapping indirect effects and 95% condence intervals (CI) for the meditational
model.
Model pathways
Point estimates
.358
.124
95% CI
Lower
Upper
.475
.227
.269
.030
The current study had some limitations. First, this study had a crosssectional design which makes it difcult to draw any causal relationship
among the variables. In future, researchers may conduct experimental
or longitudinal studies to examine the mediation model. Second, the
data relied exclusively on self-report measures, multiple assessment
methods (e.g., peer reports) may be used to further strengthen the
validity of the ndings in future studies. Another limitation is that the
mediating role of self-esteem has been demonstrated in our study, but
other mediators need to be identied and tested so that the theory
regarding the powerful relationship between mindfulness and anxiety
and depression can be further developed. Future research may also
consider testing whether mediation process works for an internalizing
factor anxiety combined with depression.
Apart from these limitations the current study is the rst attempt to
investigate the relationship between mindfulness, self-esteem, anxiety,
and depression in a sample of students in Indian context. Gathering data
from a sample of Indian participants offers meaningful evidence for
external validity for mindfulness as the predictor of self-esteem,
anxiety, and depression. The study provides important implications
for understanding the link between mindfulness, self-esteem, anxiety
and depression and treating anxiety and depression. As mindfulness
may increase secure form of high self-esteem, the ndings of this
mechanism can provide useful suggestions to design intervention and
prevention programs. These interventions can have impact on students'
anxiety and depression in university years and this learning may help
them later in their careers as well.
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