The relationship between mindfulness and mental health among Chinese elite athletes:The parallel mediating roles of experiential acceptance,decentering and cognitive defusion
Objective To explore the effect of mindfulness training on mental health of elite athletes and its possible mechanism.Methods Totally 462 Chinese elite athletes(Mage=18.16,SD=3.14,Range=12~28,44.8%female)were conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.SPSS23 was employed for data statistical analysis,and the mediation model was tested through the Bootstrap program of the extension program PROCESS.Results Mindfulness significantly and negatively predicted anxiety(β=-0.386,P<0.001),depression(β=-0.342,P<0.001),and poor sleep quality(β=-0.324,P<0.001),but significantly and positively predicted training&competition satisfaction(β=0.432,P<0.001)and psychological well-being(β=0.399,P<0.001).Moreover,mindfulness showed significant effects on anxi-ety,poor sleep quality,and satisfaction to training and competition through experiential acceptance,cognitive defusion,and decentering.However,it performed significant impacts on their depression and psychological well-being only through experiential acceptance and cognitive defusion.Conclusion Mind-fulness directly predicts negative reactions such as anxiety,depression and poor sleep quality,as well as positive ones including training and competition satisfaction and psychological well-being in elite ath-letes.Moreover,it has indirect effects on anxiety,poor sleep and training and competition satisfaction through experiential acceptance,cognitive defusion and decentering,together with on depression and psychological well-being through the former two factors.