Grit

Mindfulness is Associated with Nursing Students’ Grit and Achievement Emotions

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Mindfulness is Associated with Nursing Students’ Grit and Achievement Emotions

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Grit is defined as having perseverance and passion for long-term goals. It is challenging yourself despite your fears. It’s being resilient. It’s having the willingness to fail, fail again, and to fail better until you finally succeed.” – Shilpi Mahajan

 

Mindfulness practice has been shown to improve emotion regulation. Practitioners demonstrate the ability to fully sense and experience emotions but respond to them in more appropriate and adaptive ways. The ability of mindfulness training to improve emotion regulation is thought to be the basis for a wide variety of benefits that mindfulness provides to mental health and the treatment of mental illness especially depression and anxiety disorders.

 

Mindfulness can be divided into two different aspects. Meditation mindfulness emphasizes focusing on what is occurring right now without judgement. On the other hand, socio-cognitive mindfulness emphasizes openness to external stimuli allowing for flexible interactions with the environment. It would be expected that socio-cognitive mindfulness with its flexibility in interpreting external events in particular would underlie improvements in emotion regulation. Grit is perseverance for long-term goals which would also be expected to be related to emotions and mindfulness. But little is known regarding the relationships of mindfulness, grit, and emotions.

 

In today’s Research News article “Nursing Students’ Grit, Socio-Cognitive Mindfulness, and Achievement Emotions: Mediating Effects of Socio-Cognitive Mindfulness.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8909993/ ) Lee recruited nursing students and had them complete measures of socio-cognitive mindfulness, grit, and achievement emotions.

 

They found that the higher the levels of mindfulness the higher the levels of grit and positive emotions and the lower the levels of negative emotions. They also found that the higher the levels of grit the higher the levels of positive emotions and the lower the levels of negative emotions, Further the relationships between grit and emotions were mediated in part by mindfulness. Grit was positively related to positive emotions directly and indirectly by being associated with higher levels of mindfulness which was in turn also related to higher levels of positive emotions. Similarly, grit was negatively related to negative emotions directly and indirectly by being associated with higher levels of mindfulness which was in turn also related to lower levels of negative emotions.

 

These findings are correlative and as such causation cannot be determined. Nevertheless, they help to clarify the relationships of perseverance for long-term goals with nursing students’ emotions. Grit is associated with emotional well-being directly and indirectly through mindfulness.

 

“Follow-through (or Grit) is one of the greatest predictors of college success.” – Sarah Ritter

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Lee M. (2022). Nursing Students’ Grit, Socio-Cognitive Mindfulness, and Achievement Emotions: Mediating Effects of Socio-Cognitive Mindfulness. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(5), 3032. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19053032

 

Abstract

Background: Recognizing the under-examined socio-cognitive mindfulness and achievement emotions in nursing, this study aimed to examine the relationships between grit, socio-cognitive mindfulness, and achievement emotions among nursing students, as well as the mediating effects of socio-cognitive mindfulness. Methods: This study utilized a cross-sectional design. A total of 220 nursing students in Korea completed the questionnaire measuring the levels of grit, socio-cognitive mindfulness, and achievement emotions. To analyze data, structural equation modeling and path analysis were performed. Results: Grit was positively related to socio-cognitive mindfulness and positive achievement emotions but negatively related to negative emotions. Socio-cognitive mindfulness was positively related to positive emotions but negatively related to negative emotions. In addition, the mediating effects of socio-cognitive mindfulness were found in the association between grit and achievement emotions in nursing students. Conclusions: Grittier students tend to have higher socio-cognitive mindfulness and positive emotions but lower negative emotions in learning environments. Mediating effects highlight the benefits of socio-cognitive mindfulness in the context of nursing education, providing the basis for developing practical mindfulness programs to cultivate nursing students’ socio-cognitive mindfulness.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8909993/

Mindfulness Promotes Grit in College Students with Adverse Childhood Experiences

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Mindfulness Promotes Grit in College Students with Adverse Childhood Experiences

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“As we introduce Mindfulness and the concept of “whole grit, the focus moves from the outside benchmarks of achievement to the inside benchmarks of achievement. The focus shifts from being a product to the process of learning and happiness. The focus shifts from the tangible grades to the intangible happiness and being in the present moment.” – Shilpi Mahajan

 

Childhood trauma can leave in its wake symptoms which can haunt the victims for the rest of their lives. These include persistent recurrent re-experiencing of the traumatic event, including flashbacks and nightmares, loss of interest in life, detachment from other people, increased depression, anxiety and emotional arousal, including outbursts of anger, difficulty concentration, and jumpiness, startling easily. Unfortunately, childhood maltreatment can continue to affect mental and physical health throughout the individual’s life. How individuals cope with childhood maltreatment helps determine the effects of the maltreatment on their mental health.

 

It has been found that experiencing the feelings and thoughts produced by trauma completely, allows for better coping. This can be provided by mindfulness. Indeed, mindfulness has been found to be effective for relieving trauma symptoms. But it is not known how mindfulness interacts with adverse childhood experiences to impact psychological well-being later. One possibility is that mindfulness helps to promote grit, perseverance for long-term goals.

 

In today’s Research News article “Adverse Childhood Experiences, Mindfulness, and Grit in College Students in China.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.891532/full?utm_source=F-AAE&utm_medium=EMLF&utm_campaign=MRK_1885330_a0P58000000G0YfEAK_Psycho_20220614_arts_A ) Cheung and colleagues recruited university students online and had them complete measures of mindfulness, grit, adverse childhood experiences, and socioeconomic status.

 

They found hat the higher the level of adverse childhood experiences the lower the level of grit while the higher the levels of mindfulness the higher the levels of grit. But considering the levels of mindfulness, the negative association of adverse childhood experiences with grit became nonsignificant. In other words, being mindful prevents adverse childhood experiences from being associated with lower levels of grit.

 

These results are correlative, and causation cannot be determined. Nevertheless, the result suggests that persevering in the pursuit of long-term goals is harmed by having experienced neglect of abuse in childhood, but being mindful prevents this, allowing the student to still pursue long-term goals even though they’ve experienced significant trauma.

 

“the best predictor of success in any situation is “grit”” – Ria Sankar

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Cheung SP, Tu B and Huang C (2022) Adverse Childhood Experiences, Mindfulness, and Grit in College Students in China. Front. Psychol. 13:891532. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.891532

 

This study investigated the effect of ACEs and COVID-19 on grit and whether this effect is mediated by mindfulness. Although current scholarship has found that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have harmful consequences to individuals across the life span, less is known about the relationship between ACEs and grit. Grit is predictive of educational success and subjective wellbeing. A cross-sectional online survey administered to junior and senior students from 12 universities spread across China was conducted from September 20, 2020 to October 5, 2020. The universities were selected from geographically diverse regions of China to ensure a diverse sample. We received 1,871 completed responses from 2,229 invited students. The survey response rate was 83.9%. The results indicated that ACEs had significantly negative effects on grit, while mindfulness had significantly positive effects on grit. Once controlling for level of mindfulness, the effects of ACEs on grit largely reduced and became insignificant. The findings of this research indicate that mindfulness has a significant mediational effect on the relation between ACEs and grit and call for mindfulness-based interventions for enhancing grit for the population at risks.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.891532/full?utm_source=F-AAE&utm_medium=EMLF&utm_campaign=MRK_1885330_a0P58000000G0YfEAK_Psycho_20220614_arts_A