Objective: Despite consistent evidence for the beneficial effects of meditation on mental health, little is known about the mechanisms that make mindfulness meditation effective.
Method: The levels of mental health, self-compassion, presence of meaning in life, and experiential avoidance of meditators (n = 414) and nonmeditators (n = 414) were measured and compared. Bootstrap-based structural equation modeling (SEM) modeling analyses were used to test multiple-step multiple-mediator models.
Results: Meditation was positively associated with mental health, although the regularity of practice was an influential element to be considered. Significant indirect effects of meditation on mental health through self-compassion, meaning in life, and experiential avoidance were found. SEM models were able to account for 58% of the variance in mental health scores.
Conclusions: Self-compassion, presence of meaning in life, and reduced experiential avoidance may be active components of healthy meditation practices. Identifying the mechanisms involved in effective meditation practices has relevant implications for well-being and mental health-promoting interventions.
Keywords: experiential avoidance; meaning in life; meditation; mental health; mindfulness; self-compassion.
© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.