Knowledge and Perceived Ambiguity of Physical Activity Recommendations and Physical Activity in Men and Women in the United States

Background: The majority of Americans - especially women - do not meet physical activity recommendations. Having physical activity goals has been associated with physical activity participation, and physical activity recommendations set by public health experts can be viewed as externally set goals. However, past research has shown that goals that are specific rather than ambiguous are more likely to be achieved, and variations in recommendations over time and across sources may have created perceived goal ambiguity.Objectives: This study aimed to (1) examine the extent of physical activity recommendation knowledge among adults in the United States, (2) quantify perceptions of the ambiguity of these recommendations, (3) determine whether knowledge of physical activity recommendations is associated with physical activity level, and (4) investigate whether perceived ambiguity of recommendations moderates the relationship between recommendation knowledge and activity. An additional objective was to explore demographic differences in any associations detected.Methods: SUDAAN was used to weight data from the 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) (N=5,586) to represent the U.S. population. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and logistic regression was used to determine crude and adjusted odds ratios.Results: An estimated 31% of Americans had accurate knowledge of recommendations, and 35% reported engaging in physical activity at the recommended level. An estimated 75% perceived the recommendations as ambiguous. The odds of reporting accurate knowledge of recommendations were significantly higher among women than among men (OR 1.53,95% CI 1.22-1.93), but accurate knowledge of recommendations was associated with physical activity at the recommended level only among men (OR 1.67,95% CI 1.06-2.64). Perceived ambiguity did not moderate the association between knowledge and activity level in any analysis.Conclusions: These findings support disseminating updated physical activity recommendations as indicated by the scientific evidence base. Future research should explore: (1) how to boost knowledge of recommendations, particularly in men, (2) factors that would enable women to act on such knowledge, and (3) gender differences in other determinants of physical activity

Paths from Spiritual Support to College Self-Efficacy in Southeastern Christian and Southeastern Public University Students

Using a modified portion of Lent’s (2004) normative model of life satisfaction, this study assessed the role spiritual models play in Southeastern Christian university students’ and Southeastern public university students’ traits of spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope, and the associations these traits had with college self-efficacy. Additionally, this study proposed perspective-taking as a moderator of the association between environmental support from spiritual models and spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope, such that college students high in perspective-taking would understand and internalize traits of models rather than only imitating the spiritual practices of the model. Participants (n = 384) in this one-time survey study were recruited from a Southeaster Christian university and a Southeastern public university. Results of the paths show spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope mediated the association between environmental support from spiritual models and college self-efficacy, but perspective-taking did not moderate associations from environmental support from spiritual models to the mediators. These findings supported the modified portion of Lent’s (2004) normative model of life satisfaction which states that environmental support, including support given by spiritual models, enhanced the development of healthy traits such as spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope. In turn, the healthy traits were associated with increased college self-efficacy

Preventing guilt by association: Mindfulness and susceptibility to evaluative conditioning

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a type of attitude formation in which a stimulus is evaluated as positive or negative based on repeated pairings with valenced stimuli. Emerging evidence suggests that individuals differ in susceptibility to EC and these differences may be related to various social and psychological biases. One variable that has been linked with less negative attitude formation, although not using an EC paradigm, is mindfulness. Further, mindfulness is proposed to alter dimensions of elaboration that may underlie EC, particularly conditioning of negative attitudes. Therefore, three studies were conducted to examine whether mindfulness is linked to differential susceptibility to EC, particularly less conditioning of negative attitudes, and whether aspects of elaboration mediate this proposed relation. In all three studies, participants were exposed to an EC paradigm in which positive and negative pictures were paired with neutral Chinese ideographs. Then, they completed ideograph likability ratings. In Study 1, a measure of trait mindfulness was inversely associated with conditioning of negative attitudes, but not after accounting for negative state affect. In Study 2, there was no relation between either of two measures of trait mindfulness and susceptibility to EC. In Study 3, mindfulness was experimentally manipulated by randomly assigning participants to a mindful breathing induction or a mind-wandering control condition before they completed measures of elaboration and the EC paradigm. As compared to the control condition, the mindfulness condition showed greater susceptibility to conditioning of negative attitudes, after controlling for awareness of the picture-ideograph pairings. There was no support for the proposed mediation models through elaboration in either Studies 2 or 3. However, both studies provided evidence that more mindful individuals demonstrated less cognitive elaboration on negative stimuli. Further, both studies suggested that greater cognitive elaboration in response to pictures predicted less susceptibility to conditioning of positive attitudes and possibly greater susceptibility to conditioning of negative attitudes. Altogether, the three studies provided mixed and inconclusive evidence as to the relation between mindfulness and susceptibility to EC. However, the findings regarding cognitive elaboration may help to advance both the mindfulness and EC literatures

Does mindfulness attenuate thoughts emphasizing negativity, but not positivity?

The current research investigated whether mindfulness is differentially associated with thoughts that emphasize positive or negative valence. In Study 1, trait mindfulness was inversely associated with negative rumination but unassociated with positive rumination, controlling for state affect. In Study 2, participants completed either a mindful breathing meditation or a comparable control exercise, followed by a thought listing while viewing affective images. Compared to the control condition, the mindfulness condition listed proportionately fewer negative thoughts, particularly in response to negative images, and more non-valenced thoughts. The conditions did not differ in their proportions of positive thoughts. These results suggest that mindfulness may attenuate thoughts that emphasize negativity but not those that emphasize positivity

The Relationship Between Trait Mindfulness and Servant Leadership

In recent years, servant leadership has become a widely studied leadership style. Literature has focused on the outcomes of servant leadership, and only a few studies have looked at the antecedents of servant leadership. The purpose of this study was to examine trait mindfulness as an antecedent of eight dimensions of servant leader behaviors. It was hypothesized that trait mindfulness would have a positive relationship with the servant leader dimensions humility, authenticity, and standing back. In addition, a research question was posited to see if trait mindfulness would have a relationship with the other dimensions of servant leadership including empowerment, courage, stewardship, accountability, and forgiveness. A total of 142 managers were obtained via an online survey to test the hypotheses and research question. Results showed that trait mindfulness showed a significant positive relationship with humility, authenticity, empowerment, stewardship, and courage. These results suggest that trait mindfulness is an antecedent of servant leadership behaviors. Organizations should assess leaders on their levels of trait mindfulness if they aim to hire servant leaders. In addition, organizations should look at mindfulness trainings to develop servant leaders within the company

From a state to a trait: Trajectories of state mindfulness in meditation during intervention predict changes in trait mindfulness

Theory suggests that heightening state mindfulness in meditation practice over time increases trait mindfulness, which benefits psychological health. We prospectively examined individual trajectories of state mindfulness in meditation during a mindfulness-based intervention in relation to changes in trait mindfulness and psychological distress. Each week during the eight-week intervention, participants reported their state mindfulness in meditation after a brief mindfulness meditation. Participants also completed pre- and post-intervention measures of trait mindfulness and psychological symptoms. Tests of combined latent growth and path models suggested that individuals varied significantly in their rates of change in state mindfulness in meditation during the intervention, and that these individual trajectories predicted pre-post intervention changes in trait mindfulness and distress. These findings support that increasing state mindfulness over repeated meditation sessions may contribute to a more mindful and less distressed disposition. However, individuals’ trajectories of change may vary and warrant further investigation

Exploring relations among mindfulness facets and various meditation practices: Do they work in different ways?

Several meditation practices are associated with mindfulness-based interventions but little is known about their specific effects on the development of different mindfulness facets. This study aimed to assess the relations among different practice variables, types of meditation, and mindfulness facets. The final sample was composed of 185 participants who completed an on-line survey, including information on the frequency and duration of each meditation practice, lifetime practice, and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. A Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes structural model was specified, estimated, and tested. Results showed that the Model's overall fit was adequate: v2 (1045) = 1542.800 (p < 0.001), CFI = 0.902, RMSEA = 0.042. Results revealed that mindfulness facets were uniquely related to the different variables and types of meditation. Our findings showed the importance of specific practices in promoting mindfulness, compared to compassion and informal practices, and they pointed out which one fits each mindfulness facet better

Exploring relations among mindfulness facets and various meditation practices: Do they work in different ways?

Several meditation practices are associated with mindfulness-based interventions but little is known about their specific effects on the development of different mindfulness facets. This study aimed to assess the relations among different practice variables, types of meditation, and mindfulness facets. The final sample was composed of 185 participants who completed an on-line survey, including information on the frequency and duration of each meditation practice, lifetime practice, and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. A Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes structural model was specified, estimated, and tested. Results showed that the Model’s overall fit was adequate: χ2 (1045) = 1542.800 (p < 0.001), CFI = 0.902, RMSEA = 0.042. Results revealed that mindfulness facets were uniquely related to the different variables and types of meditation. Our findings showed the importance of specific practices in promoting mindfulness, compared to compassion and informal practices, and they pointed out which one fits each mindfulness facet better

Mindfulness & cognitive processing. Examining the link between a brief mindfulness intervention and cognitive reflection

This thesis examinesthe link between a brief mindfulness induction and cognitive reflection. It hypothesizesthat a brief mindfulness induction increases task engagement, assessed by self-reported task focus and time takenon tasks.It further hypothesizesthata brief mindfulness induction increasesperformance on cognitive reflection tasksand thattask engagement mediatesthatrelationship. Results show no significant link between mindfulness and task engagement and no significant mediating effects. However, findingssuggesta negative correlation between mindfulness and cognitive reflection task performance, which disconfirmsthe hypothesis. This contributes to the literature on the negative effects of mindfulness