Mindfulness as a mediator of the relationship between trait anxiety, attentional control and cognitive failures. A multimodel inference approach

The aim of the presented studies was to investigate the relationships between mindfulness, trait anxiety, attentional control and cognitive failures. In two studies the structural equation modelling and multimodel inference were applied. The results of the first study (N = 203) led us to conclude that trait anxiety is a strong predictor of both receptive attention and decentration; these two facets of mindfulness are not correlated with each other when anxiety is controlled; attentional control partially mediates the relationship between anxiety and decentration but attentional control does not relate to receptive attention. In study two (N = 216) the findings of the first study were replicated, and models with cognitive failures as the dependent variable were tested. The results strongly suggested that both facets of mindfulness are independent mediators of the relationship between trait anxiety and cognitive failures. Moreover, decentration, but not receptive attention, was also a full mediator between attentional control and cognitive failures. Both studies revealed that anxiety is a more important predictor of mindfulness than attentional control. They also showed that mindfulness explains some effects of anxiety independently of attentional control. These results are discussed in the context of previous findings and the metacognitive model of mindfulness.