Evaluation of the causal relationship model of mindfulness with anxiety and depression by mediating unintentional mind wandering

Past researches have found mindfulness to be associated with improved mental health. Anxiety and depression are the most common problems in the field of mental health. The present research aims to indicate that the unintentional mind wandering is a mechanism mediating the relationship of mindfulness with anxiety and depression.

In order to test the mediator model, 300 female students of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz in 2017 were selected by multistage random sampling method. So, in the first stage of sampling, 5 faculties (psychology and education, engineering, literature and humanities, basic sciences, economics and social sciences) were selected randomly from 12 faculties of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz. Then, among the undergraduate students in 23 different disciplines, 300 students were selected. They fulfilled the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), short-form of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (SSTAI), and the Mind Wandering: Deliberate and Mind Wandering: Spontaneous Scale. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS and AMOS and using structural equations modeling method. In order to earn the suitable model fitness indices, the item parceling method was used.

On the base of values of some indices (for example, RMSEA = 0.07 and GFI = 0.95), model had a good fit. Also, the results showed that mindfulness has significant relationships with unintentional mind wandering, depression, and anxiety and unintentional mind wandering has significant relationships with anxiety and depression (p ≤ 0.01). In addition, the indirect effects of mindfulness on anxiety and depression were also significant through unintentional mind wandering.

Unintentional mind wandering is a factor that facilitating the anxiety and depression and mindfulness can affect the anxiety and depression with reducing the unintentional unrelated thoughts.