Abstract
Mindfulness involves reducing potential influences from aversive cognitions, sensations,
and emotions on behavior. Mindfulness may influence the experience of pain-related
anxiety, and thereby enhance other aspects of physical and psychosocial functioning.
Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate a potential mediating role of pain-related
anxiety between mindfulness and physical and psychosocial functioning in chronic pain
patients. This cross-sectional/correlational study used archival data (N = 226) obtained
from the larger Korean Pain Study at a university-based pain-management center in
Korea. Based on the inclusion criterion for the present study, archival data were
analyzed for a final sample of 179 patients with chronic pain. Structural equation
analyses showed that both the partial- and full-mediation models had adequate goodness-of-fit
indices for physical and psychosocial functioning. Subsequent chi-square tests, however,
indicated that the more parsimonious full-mediation model was preferred to the partial-mediation
model for physical and psychosocial functioning. Bootstrapping procedures yielded
significant mediation effects of pain-related anxiety in the full-mediation models
on physical and psychosocial functioning. These findings suggest that being mindful
may lead indirectly to a decrease in the disabling influences of pain-related anxiety,
thereby contributing to better physical and psychosocial functioning, rather than
playing a direct contributing role for better functioning among chronic pain patients
in Korea.
Perspective
This article examines the mediating role of pain-related anxiety between mindfulness
and physical/psychosocial functioning. Results suggest that mindfulness methods may
benefit patients having pain-related anxiety and consequent disability. These benefits
may derive from the way processes of mindfulness interact with processes of avoidance
and with cognitive influences on emotional suffering.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 25, 2010
Accepted:
December 2,
2009
Received in revised form:
November 25,
2009
Received:
July 23,
2009
Footnotes
Supported by the Center for Korean Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
