Pathways to Vitality: the Role of Mindfulness and Coping

This study tests perceived stress and three coping strategies (i.e., emotion suppression, reappraisal, and direct action) as mediators in the relationship between mindfulness during stressful events and subjective vitality. Thirty Chinese international students (M _age  = 18.67, SD = 0.89) from a large mid-Western university completed an online survey on trait mindfulness (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire), and then completed daily diary reports each day for 2 weeks about their experiences of stress, coping, subjective vitality, and state mindfulness. Using multilevel path modeling, we found that state mindfulness predicted less perceived stress (b _between  = − 14.14, SE = 4.69, p <.001), less emotional suppression (b _between  = − 0.65, SE = 0.15, p <.001), and greater direct action (b _between  = 0.53, SE = 0.19, p =.01). Further, less perceived stress (ab = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.001, 0.309), less emotional suppression (ab = 0.35, 95% CI = 0.126, 0.600), and greater direct action (ab = 0.37, 95% CI = 0.128, 0.671) mediated the relationship between state mindfulness and subjective vitality. Results also suggested that emotional suppression may be adaptive in the moment (b _within  = 0.13, SE = 0.06, p =.02), yet maladaptive (b _between  = − 0.56, SE = 0.23, p =.02) as a long-term coping strategy for Chinese individuals. Overall, results suggest that mindfulness can help individuals cope with stress by perceiving less stress and encouraging adaptive coping strategies during duress.