On the Relation Between Mindfulness and Depressive Symptoms: Rumination as a Possible Mediator

The extent to which rumination mediates the relation between mindfulness skills and depressive symptoms in nonclinical undergraduates (N=254) was examined. Measures of mindfulness (Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills), ruminative brooding and reflective pondering (Ruminative Response Scale), and depressive symptomatology (Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology) were administered. The contribution of mindfulness and rumination subscales was investigated in mediation analyses using the bootstrapping methodology. The relations among the mindfulness scales and rumination and depressive symptomatology were investigated. The results suggest that brooding partially mediated the relation from awareness to depressive symptomatology and from depressive symptomatology to awareness (higher levels of awareness result in lower levels of brooding and, as a result, lower levels of depressive symptomatology and vice versa). Brooding fully mediated the relation from accepting without judgment to depressive symptomatology (higher levels of accepting without judgment result in lower levels of brooding, which results in lower levels of depressive symptomatology). Brooding partially mediated the relation from depressive symptomatology to accepting without judgment (higher levels of depressive symptomatology result in higher levels of brooding and thus in lower levels of accepting without judgment). Reflective pondering fully mediated the relation from depressive symptomatology to observing (higher levels of depressive symptomatology result in higher levels of reflective pondering and thus in higher levels of observing). Mindful observing was negatively correlated with awareness and accepting without judgment. Mindful describing was unrelated to rumination. The current study helps clarify the relations between mindfulness and depression, as influenced by rumination. A necessary step will be to investigate these relations in a clinical population.