The Executive Control of Attention: The Thread That Links Mindfulness and Hope

Background and purpose: A growing body of research has shown that mindfulness and hope are important predictors of overall psychological well-being. To explore the relationship between mindfulness and hope, we sought to answer the research questions: 1.) Does a mindfulness based intervention result in higher hope and lower stress?; and 2.) Do mindfulness scores moderate the relationship between hope and stress?  We hypothesized the answer to both questions was yes. We believe such a result is consistent with the theory that mindfulness and hope are linked via the executive control of attention.  Method: A nonequivalent control group design was used to test the effects of a mindfulness based intervention on mindfulness, hope, and stress. Participants were staff recruited via e-mail and word of mouth within a university located in the South Central United States. Participants were divided into two groups: 1.) a treatment group that received a mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention and 2.) a control. A total of 13 participated in the treatment group (mean age = 47.6 years, SD = 16.2) and 17 participated in the control (mean age = 43.4 years, SD = 11.1). Pretests and posttests were given to both groups using Freiburg’s Mindfulness Scale, Snyder's Hope Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale. Results: For the 3 variables of interest, a Multivariate Analysis of Co-Variance (MANCOVA) adjusting for pretest differences was used  to compare groups on posttest scores. Using an α = .10, results indicated a significant difference between groups on the dependent variables (V = 0.267, F(3, 24) = 2.91, p = .055), with the treatment group exhibiting significantly higher scores on mindfulness (ŋ²_partial = .12; p = .07)  and hope (ŋ²_partial = .18; p = .02), and significantly lower scores on stress (ŋ²_partial = .21; p = .01).  A hierarchical regression was then performed on posttests scores to test for an interaction between mindfulness and stress in the prediction of hope. Results indicated an interaction (p < .01) between mindfulness and stress with higher mindfulness scores “buffering” the relationship between hope and stress. Discussion: Our data supports the theory that mindfulness and hope are linked via the executive control of attention. Our data indicates when mindfulness is high, participants are better able to attend to hope inducing stimuli even in the face of higher stress.  For individuals low in mindfulness, hope and stress have a stronger linear relationship, suggesting that a higher stress state is associated with attention centering on stress inducing stimuli. If mindfulness and hope are linked via attention, both mindfulness and hope based interventions fit well into the growing camp of cognitive bias modification therapies (CBM). CBM is a developing field that holds the etiology of dysphoria traces to biases in information processing. Mindfulness and hope based interventions that include explicit attentional modification elements, such as visual probe tasks, may increase the effectiveness of both therapies in reducing dysphoria.