Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine (a) the effects of emotion-focused mindfulness on the emotional states of depressed female university students and (b) the role of attention as a mechanism underlying this process. To do so, female university students located in Seoul were recruited and categorized as depressed and non-depressed. Depressed participants were assigned to either a treatment group or a control group. The emotion-focused mindfulness was administered to the treatment group 1-2 times a week, for approximately 60 minutes per session. Treatment lasted for a total of 8 sessions. The main treatment components of the program included emotion-focused mindfulness education, practice, and feedback. Depression, anxiety, and positive and negative emotions were assessed at pretest and posttest for each group. Participants’ levels of attention-control were also measured using selective attention, sustained attention, emotional bias, and emotional interference stimulations. Data from 13 depressed participants from the treatment group, 13 depressed participants from the control group, and 12 non-depressed participants were analyzed. The treatment group showed a greater reduction in depression and anxiety scores compared to the control group; they also showed increased sustained attention, decreased attentional bias of negative emotions, and were better able to control emotional interference compared to the control group. Notably, attention bias toward negative emotional words and attention control based on the emotional interference stimulation changed to a level similar to that of the non-depressed control group. However, there were no significant differences among groups in terms of negative emotions, positive emotions, and selective attention. The utility of this emotion-focused mindfulness, its implications, and areas for future research are also discussed.