Lindsay, E. K., Young, S., & Creswell, J. D. (2025). Mindfulness training fosters a positive outlook during acute stress: A randomized controlled trial. Emotion, 25(4), 815–826. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001452
Key Takeaways
- Focus: Examining whether mindfulness training increases positive experiences during stress.
- Method: A randomized controlled trial assigned 153 adults to either mindfulness with acceptance, mindfulness without acceptance, or a coping control intervention, followed by a social stress test.
- Findings: Participants trained in mindfulness with acceptance noticed significantly more positive experiences during a stressful task than those who only monitored or used general coping strategies.
- Implications: Mindfulness and acceptance training may improve coping mechanisms by enhancing awareness of positive experiences, beneficial for long-term emotional resilience and health.
Rationale
Mindfulness refers to maintaining awareness of present experiences with an accepting, non-judgmental attitude.
Previous research shows mindfulness helps reduce stress and increase daily positive emotions. Yet, it’s unclear precisely how mindfulness influences emotional experiences under acute stress.
Typically, stress narrows attention, highlighting negative aspects and reducing awareness of positive or neutral experiences.
This study addresses the gap by explicitly testing if mindfulness and acceptance training expands awareness to include positive experiences during stress.
Clarifying this mechanism is crucial because enhancing positive emotional awareness may significantly contribute to psychological resilience and health outcomes
Method
This study was a randomized controlled trial that tested the impact of mindfulness training on participants’ awareness of positive and negative experiences during an acute stress situation.
Sample
- Sample size: 153 adults
- Demographic characteristics: Participants were aged around 32 years on average, with 67% female, predominantly White (53%), with Black (22%) and Asian (22%) participants. Most had at least some college education and were recruited from the Pittsburgh community.
Variables
- Independent Variable: Type of intervention training participants received:
- Monitor + Accept (MA): mindfulness training emphasizing both observing experiences and accepting them.
- Monitor Only (MO): mindfulness training focused solely on observing experiences without acceptance instruction.
- Coping Control: a stress-management intervention without mindfulness, involving reflection and problem-solving.
- Dependent Variable:
- Awareness of positive and negative experiences reported during an acute stress task.
Procedure
Participants experienced the following steps:
- Screening and Baseline Assessment: Participants were screened by phone and then assessed in person, including questionnaires and baseline measurements.
- Random Assignment: Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups (MA, MO, Coping control).
- Two-Week Training Period: Participants completed daily audio lessons (20 minutes/day) and brief home practice sessions using a smartphone app.
- Daily Life Assessments: Participants completed brief daily surveys for three days before and after the training period, assessing mood and emotional states.
- Post-Intervention Lab Visit: Participants underwent a modified Trier Social Stress Test (mTSST), involving:
- Preparation for a stressful speech (3 minutes)
- A brief booster training session aligned with their assigned intervention (20 minutes)
- A stressful speech and mental arithmetic task evaluated critically by assessors (10 minutes total)
- A short recovery period (5 minutes)
- Completion of the Stress-Affect Experiences Checklist assessing their experiences during the stress task.
Measures
- Stress-Affect Experiences Checklist:
- Assesses the frequency of positive and negative experiences participants noticed during acute stress.
- Appropriateness: Tailored to evaluate mindfulness’s impact on attention and perception of experiences specifically during stress.
- Daily Life Positive Affect (EMA and Diaries):
- Measures daily emotional experiences at random times throughout the day and at day’s end.
- Appropriateness: Captures real-world emotional states to examine the intervention’s broader effects on daily life.
- Treatment Expectancies Questionnaire:
- Evaluates participants’ beliefs about how effective the training would be.
- Appropriateness: Ensures that differences observed are not due to varying expectations about intervention efficacy.
- Intervention Adherence Tracking:
- Monitors completion of audio lessons and daily home practice via timestamps.
- Appropriateness: Confirms participants’ engagement with training content, essential for understanding intervention effects.
Statistical Measures
- The researchers used analyses of variance (ANOVA) to test differences between groups on positive and negative experiences during stress.
- Suitability: ANOVA effectively compares multiple groups to see if interventions produced significant differences, making it ideal for randomized controlled trials.
Results
- Participants who received mindfulness training focused on both monitoring and acceptance (Monitor + Accept group) noticed significantly more positive experiences during acute stress compared to participants who received mindfulness training focused only on monitoring (Monitor Only) or those who received standard coping strategies (Coping Control).
- There were no significant differences between groups in noticing negative experiences during acute stress.
- Higher positive experiences during the laboratory stress test correlated positively with daily life positive emotions recorded after intervention.
Insight
The key insight from this study is that mindfulness training specifically involving acceptance broadens emotional awareness during stressful situations, enabling individuals to perceive positive aspects even amidst stress.
Unlike traditional stress-management approaches that often focus primarily on reducing negative feelings, this mindfulness approach uniquely fosters emotional balance by highlighting positive experiences without diminishing the reality of negative emotions.
This study extends prior findings by demonstrating that acceptance, not just monitoring, is crucial for noticing these positive experiences.
Future research could investigate whether these effects endure over longer periods and how they impact long-term mental and physical health.
Clinical Implications
- Clinicians can use mindfulness with acceptance practices to help clients cope better during stressful situations.
- Mindfulness interventions might be integrated into stress management programs in educational or workplace settings to foster emotional resilience.
- Challenges include maintaining consistent mindfulness practice and accessibility of training, particularly in lower-resource settings.
Strengths
- High methodological rigor using an RCT design.
- Precise isolation of mindfulness components (acceptance vs. monitoring).
- Realistic stress scenario enhancing ecological validity.
- High participant adherence and retention rates.
Limitations
- Short-term assessment without long-term follow-up.
- Generalizability limited due to higher female and educated participant representation.
- Reliance on self-report measures, which may introduce bias.
Socratic Questions
- How might the specific mindfulness practices used in this study differ in impact from other types of emotional or cognitive interventions?
- Can you think of situations where enhancing positive experiences might not always be helpful or might lead to avoidance of dealing with stress directly?
- How might results differ if this study included a broader demographic, such as individuals from varied socioeconomic backgrounds?
- If you designed a follow-up study, what would you measure to assess the longer-term impact of mindfulness training?
- What practical strategies could help individuals maintain mindfulness practices in their daily lives beyond structured interventions?
