Session: Mechanisms of Mindfulness and Their Applications to Social Work Practice (Society for Social Work and Research 21st Annual Conference - Ensure Healthy Development for all Youth)

Over the past two decades, research on mindfulness has proliferated in medicine and psychology. More recently, social work scholars and practitioners have begun to pursue mindfulness as a means of empowering marginalized individuals and intervening with social problems. Yet, social work research in mindfulness has lagged behind other disciplines, particularly with regard to understanding the therapeutic mechanisms of mindfulness.  Mechanistic research may be crucial to answering the question “How does mindfulness work to produce beneficial outcomes?”  and thereby fostering a line of inquiry with direct implications for intervention development and testing. The question of mechanism is a pragmatic one –by understanding how mindfulness-based interventions work, they can be optimized to improve outcomes and adapted to address vulnerable populations with unique needs. This symposium represents one of the first attempts of social work researchers to answer this question using a variety of sophisticated research methodologies to explore an array of applied social work questions. 

Garland will present results of a NIH-funded randomized-controlled trial (N = 115) of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) demonstrating that this mindfulness-based, social work intervention may reduce prescription opioid misuse among chronic pain patients by increasing responsiveness to naturally rewarding, healthful and social affiliative experiences – a mechanism with direct clinical relevance to the treatment of addiction and affective disorders. Priddy and Riquino will present observational data (N = 71) demonstrating that dispositional mindfulness is associated with increased capacity to reappraise stressful events as meaningful and growth-promoting, a capacity which is linked with reduced drug craving. Li et al. will present data from a pilot RCT of MORE for internet gaming disorder (N=30) suggesting that mindfulness training decreases addictive video gaming behavior by reducing craving, maladaptive cognitions, and social isolation. Hicks and colleagues will present observational data demonstrating that dispositional mindfulness buffers low income, urban parents (N=102) from depressive reactions that might otherwise have adverse consequences on prenatal bonding and future child rearing. Lastly, Howard will serve as a discussant by integrating these findings and presenting methodological and conceptual recommendations for advancing a science of mindfulness that is sensitive to the context, ethos, and mission of social work.

Taken together, this diverse set of randomized controlled trials and observational studies reveals a range of cognitive, affective, social, and physiological mediating and moderating mechanisms to be explored in future social work research on mindfulness. Ultimately, data from these studies may facilitate the development of the next generation of mindfulness-based interventions both within and beyond the field of social work.