Barriers to Meditation in Russia: What Factors Contribute?
Thesis
by
Svetlana Golounina
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Arts
in
Psychology
State University of New York
Empire State College
2016
Reader: Dr. Judith Gerardi
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my mentor, Judith Gerardi, Ph.D. for patiently guiding me through
this work. I would also like to thank my teacher, Raluca Topciu, Ph.D. for introducing
to me a concept of mindfulness. Finally, I would like to thank my dear husband for
supporting me through all these years of study for the bachelor degree.
Table of Content
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6
Literature review......................................................................................................................... 8
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program ................................................................... 8
Diffusion of Innovation Theory............................................................................................ 9
Compatibility of meditation with existing values and beliefs ................................. 11
Relative advantage................................................................................................... 17
Complexity .............................................................................................................. 18
Stress ...................................................................................................................................... 20
Method ....................................................................................................................................... 24
Participants ............................................................................................................................ 24
Research design .................................................................................................................... 24
Instrumentation ..................................................................................................................... 25
Procedure ............................................................................................................................... 27
Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 28
Results ........................................................................................................................................ 29
Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 39
Relative advantage ............................................................................................................... 40
Compatibility with existing values and practices ............................................................. 41
Religion. .................................................................................................................. 41
Socio cultural beliefs. .............................................................................................. 44
Stress ...................................................................................................................................... 45
Gender. .................................................................................................................... 49
Time issues .............................................................................................................. 50
Complexity ............................................................................................................................ 50
Misconceptions about the practices ................................................................................... 51
Lack of knowledge. ................................................................................................. 51
Pragmatic concerns .................................................................................................. 52
Methods to control stress ..................................................................................................... 52
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research ........................................................... 53
Summary and Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 55
References ................................................................................................................................. 57
Abstract
Although Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was found to be an effective
intervention, it is still underutilized in Western Countries, include Russia. Diffusion of
Innovation theory (Rogers, 2003) is widely used in health psychology.
Diffusion
scholars recognize five qualities that determine the success of an innovation, and
relative advantage, compatibility with existing values and practices, simplicity and ease
of use are among of them. Meditation is a core practice in MBSR. The aim of the
current study was to identify Russians’ attitudes toward meditation in accordance to the
theory. If identified, these problematic attitudes can be better addressed by program
developers and MBSR teachers. 302 people (62 males and 240 females) participated in
the current research. The participants’ level of stress, perception of the usefulness of
meditation in stress reduction, meditation behavior, reasons that participants apply
against meditating, level of religiousness, gender, and age were assessed. It was found
that the participants’ level of religiousness did not affect their attitude toward
meditation and meditation behavior. However, stress seemed to be a barrier to
meditation. In addition, socio-cultural beliefs and lack of knowledge about meditation
appeared to be important obstacles for the diffusion of the meditation-based
interventions.
Introduction
A prolonged psychological distress has been shown to have a negative impact on
physical and mental health of the person experiencing it (Everly & Lating, 2003). Due
to dramatic socio-political changes and a series of economic crises over last three
decades in Russia (Shtemberg , 2014), the country’s population were found to live
under constant stress. According to recent study (Kozyreva, Nizamova & Smirnov,
2013), 11% of Russians admitted that they experience severe stress regularly, and also
76% said that they live under strong to moderate stress. Considering harmfulness of
distress and its negative consequences for Russian society, ways of reducing it must be
found. While dealing with stressors such as poverty and crime is a prerogative of policy
makers, the role of psychology is to help people to become more resistant to life
hardships. Modern psychology offers many methods to decrease stress level.
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), developed by John Kabat-Zinn, has been
found to be an effective intervention (Baer, 2006). Meditation is the core practice in the
program (Zinn, 1991). Regardless of its efficiency, the program was found to be
underused (Lederer & Middlestadt, 2014) in many Western countries, including Russia.
However, the underutilization is not on the same level across different nation states.
While in the United Kingdom MBSR and other Mindfulness Based Intervention
programs (MBIs) are recently under implementation in the national health care system
(Demarzo, Cebolla, & Garcia-Campayo, 2015), and 746 research articles about MBIs
were published in the last decade (Tukaev & Kuznetsov, 2013); in Russia there are only
two officially registered centers that use MBIs programs and only 5 research articles
related to MBIs were found (Tukaev & Kuznetsov, 2013). This huge discrepancy
6
between usage of MBIs in these two countries shows that there must be some barriers to
MBIs implementation that are specific to Russian society.
Researchers Dimidjian and Segal also called for attention to MBSR implementation
problem (2015). They mapped all existing evidence-based research about MBIs in order
to see to what stages the studies were addressed: intervention generalization
/refinement, efficacy in different settings, effectiveness, implementation, and basic
research. The findings show that there are less than 1% of studies that address MBIs
implementation and dissemination, in comparison with 45% of intervention
generalization /refinement. The researchers warned about probability for MBIs become
one of the “orphan innovations”, in which effort is directed to the design and initial
testing of an intervention but little care is allocated to the task of studying the reach of
the intervention to the context of need (Dimidjian & Segal, 2015). Regardless of
effectiveness of the intervention, there will be little use if it would not reach the
population it was developed for.
According to the new Medical Research Council Guidance the value of evidence-based
psychological intervention is finally determined by its availability in the health service.
Even if the intervention has clear aims, has been shown to be effective with clear theory
– driven mechanism of action, and cost –effective, implementation is the final challenge
for it (2008). All these findings and arguments suggest that implementation is an
important stage. Study of barriers which might be influential in preventing people from
engaging in the MBIs is necessary for understanding a potential direction of
implementation
as
well
as
needs
of
addressed
population.
7
Literature review
In order to understand obstacles to MBSR implementation in Russia, previous findings
in the other countries are considered in this chapter. It starts from the overview of
MBSR program and a core role of meditation in the intervention, as well as in the public
perception of it. Due to novelty of the program to Russia, Diffusion of Innovation
Theory is used to shade a light on different aspects regarding to the implementation.
Comparability of meditation with values and beliefs existed in society, its’ perceived
relative advantage to other practices, as well as its complexity is discussed. Although
many factors, such as participants socio cultural beliefs, age, and gender, together with
misconception and lack of knowledge about meditation, and pragmatic difficulties
associated with it play an important role in MBSR implementation, participants’
religiousness and stress level seem to be the most influential on their decision to
practices meditation.
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program
MBSR was developed in 1979 by Professor of Medicine John Kabat-Zinn as the first
program of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical
School. MBSR is a combination of adapted Buddhist teachings on mindfulness and
modern Western scientific understanding of stress, and methods of its reduction.
Mindfulness meditation is a core practice in MBSR and in all other MBIs (McCown, &
Reibel, 2010). Mindfulness was defined by Kabat-Zinn as paying nonjudgmental
attention to moment by moment, and thus living in the present (1991). The program
consists from eight sessions 2.5 to 3 hours long that takes place once per week, and full
day session at the end of the course. During meetings, participants learn and practice
8
different kinds of mindfulness meditation. The practices can be formal (sitting
meditation, body scan, easy yoga) and informal (meditation with food, walking and
talking meditation, meditation in everyday life). In addition, participants are assigned to
practice mindfulness meditation at home between sessions (Mace, 2008).
Effectiveness of the program was widely studied and health benefits were found for
people with chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and different medical symptoms. Even
studies done with healthy participants (different professionals, caregivers, and students)
showed improvement in the overall quality of their life. According to meta analysis
done by Baer (2003) that included ninety-five original studies of effectiveness of MBSR
interventions, where effect was measured by self –report, psychological and medical
measures, the mean effect was on the level that let to consider MBSR as an effective
intervention (McCown & Reibel, 2010). These findings illustrate that MBSR can be a
good alternative for stress reduction. The program is novel to Russians. Thus, Diffusion
of Innovation Theory seems to be useful to understand mechanisms of utilization of
MBSR, and in particular, to study specific barriers to its implementation.
Diffusion of Innovation Theory
In order to understand better what factors might be barriers to meditation for Russians,
the situation can be studied from the perspective of Diffusion of Innovation Theory
(Rogers, 2003). According to Boyer and Paharia (2008) Diffusion of Innovation Theory
is one of the most tested theories that helps predict how a new product, idea or practice
will be spread within a given community. The theory has been widely used in health
promotion research and interventions (Bracht, 1999) and planning health education
9
(Macdonald, 1997). This theory is extensively used in health psychology (Boyer &
Paharia, 2008), especially in the areas of implementation of new treatments, for
example a drug Oxaliplatin against cancer (Carpenter, 2012) or when promoting a new
healthy behavior such as anti-conception usage (Harding, 1973).
According to the theory, there are five attributes of innovation that determine its
success. These qualities are: relative advantage, compatibility with existing values and
practices, simplicity and ease of use, trialability, and observability (Rogers, 2003). In
addition, the name of innovation was found to be influential on its adoption (Rogers,
2003). Mindfulness meditation is a rather new term even for English-speakers, and
some of US researchers pointed to problems with understanding the term among
prospective patients as a barrier to participation in the program (Martinez, 2015;
Williams, 2011). In Russian, there is no exact term for mindfulness. While some
Russian researchers and providers use osoznannost (awareness) (Tukaev and
Kuznetsov, 2013), other use vnimatelnost (attentiveness) (Kupriyanova, Tuzikov &
Gural, 2014), and others use English term mindfulness without translation
(http://realmindfulness.ru). This indistinctiveness of the term mindfulness leads to the
higher semantic pressure on the word meditation. Studies have shown that attitudes
toward meditation predict participation in the MBSR and other MBIs more, than other
factors such us participants’ busyness of schedules and transportation logistics
(Williams, 2011; Amaro, 2014; Lederer & Middlestadt, 2014 ). Thus, Russians’
attitudes toward meditation practices are reasonable to study it order to understand
barriers to MBSR and other MBIs implementation.
10
Compatibility of meditation with existing values and beliefs. According to Diffusion
of Innovation Theory, compatibility is the degree of perceived consistency of
innovation with needs of potential adopters, their past experience and existing values.
Studies found that sociocultural beliefs and previously introduced ideas play a
prominent role in the fate of innovation (Rogers, 2003). Such factors as religion and
socio cultural beliefs in the wider sense, age and gender were found to be powerful
predictors of acceptance of meditation as health benefitted practices.
Religion. Indeed, in relation to meditation, participants’ religiosity was found to be
influential on their decision to participate in MBSR (Williams, 2011). For example,
Sobczak and West reported that clients who identify strongly with Christianity and
other Western religious teachings may be averse to employing Eastern practices due to
their association with Buddhism and Hinduism (2013). Bayer (2006) clearly pointed to
the challenge of presenting meditation practices in a nonthreatening way which allows
to avoid raising of concerns about religious identity.
To deal with the problem, in all MBIs participation in the orientation session is
mandatory before enrolment in the program. In that talk Buddhist’s roots of mindfulness
meditation are acknowledged, but secularity of practice is stressed (Kabat-Zinn, 1991).
Another tactic is to stress that specific techniques used in MBIs are drawn from
Buddhist psychology, rather than Buddhist religion (Baer, 2006). In addition it may be
helpful to point out that meditation traditions exist in almost all known religions
because it is the method to sooth the mind and access inner wisdom (Baer, 2006).
11
Although researchers found such tactics helpful in making participants more
comfortable with their involvement, and, as a result, eliminating early drop-outs (Baer,
2006), perceived contradictions to religious beliefs still remain influential and are
responsible for unprecedented levels of course withdrawal’s (Williams, 2011). Sohl,
Schnur, Daly, Suslov, and Montgomery reported that participants’ perception of yoga
(which is also part of the MBSR program) as a practice, which goes against their
religious beliefs, also leads to participants withdrawing from the program (2011).
Although no study about religion as a barrier to participate in MBIs was found done
with Russian population, antagonism to meditation from Russian Orthodox was
described in several articles. Mironova in her comparative analysis of meditation and
Orthodox prayer came to conclusion about an obvious contradiction between these two
practices. The author states that meditation is dangerous for physical and mental health
of its practitioners (2009). Although no empirical evidence was reported, it was
published as a research article in two issues of a Russian peer review journal. In other
publication, Mironov and Ivanov (2013) asserted that meditation and yoga are
heterogeneous for Russian society due to religious inconsistency and can be potentially
harmful for practitioners. In both articles meditation is closely connected with the idea
of cult, occult, and esoteric. This association possibly appeared due to Transcendental
Meditation Movement (Larson & Larson, 1989) that according to several authors
(Bourdeaux, 2003) has obvious characteristics of cult. According to recent national
survey (Kozhevina, 2014) 60% of the Russian population have a negative attitude
toward non-traditional religions.
12
That attitude toward meditation in conjunction with growth of Russian Orthodox
Church influence (64% of Russians see themselves as followers of the religion; in
comparison with 29% twenty years ago) (Public Opinion Foundation, 2013) suggest
that in Russia religiosity can be a considerable barrier to meditation.
Socio cultural beliefs. Culture in wider sense can also be influential upon a person’s
decision to practice meditation. Researchers Williams, Dixon, McCorkle, and Van Ness
(2011) found that along with religion, participants’ socio cultural beliefs such as family’
and friends’ approval of meditation, beliefs about appropriate interpersonal behaviors
and the supernatural are influential in their decision to practice meditation. In the other
study, Lederer and Middlestadt reported that participants’ intention to meditate was
significantly predicted by their attitude toward meditation and perceived social norm
(2014). Sobczak and West (2013) in their article Clinical Considerations in Using
Mindfulness- and Acceptance-Based Approaches With Diverse Populations gave
several examples of negative stereotypes about mindfulness and meditation; the
researchers stressed the importance of adjusting mindfulness to cultural norms and
beliefs.
According to Bayer, mindfulness meditation used in MBSR was developed in Western
culture with such individualistic values as self-care. One challenge the author sees, is
adjusting the practice to clients from the more family- or, community-oriented cultures
(2006). However, according to David Marks, Western society also has negative
attitudes toward many kinds of self –care, and thus toward meditation as a form of it.
These attitudes are reflected in the form of the social pressures to prioritize using time
13
in caring about others, working and other duties over their own well-being and self-care,
for example in the form of meditation and physical activity (2002). In study done by
Lomas (2014) participants also reported perceived conflict between meditation and
duties.
Another aspect that influences attitudes toward meditation is the dynamic of modern
time. For example, research that considers implementation of MBIs in the UK health
care system, found that the idea of meditation is often inconsistent with modern “quick,
solution-oriented culture”, in which fast and clearly measurable solution are preferred
(Crane & Kuyken, 2012). In addition, Smith found that it is typical for Western people
to have anti relaxation beliefs that may prevent them from meditating (2005).
In regards to Russia, there may be an additional barrier to meditation usage and MBSR
implementation. MBIs were originated in the US. Russian psychological school has a
long history of opposition to Western branches (Marcinkovskaya, 2004), possibly due to
the long cold war and political competition. The tendency to use domestic methods
rather than foreign ones is reflected in the row of psychological works, for example the
study done by Tukaev and Kuznetsov (2013). In the research, the authors list modern
findings about effectiveness of MBIs and admitted its growing popularity in the
Western health care system. Tukaev and Kuznetsov analyzed similarities and
differences between MBIs and hypnotherapy. The researchers admitted that
hypnotherapy is lacking a characteristic of non judgmental attention (that is core feature
of mindfulness). However, they came to conclusion that hypnotherapy (that is already
well developed and widely spread in Russia’s psychological intervention) is a Russian
14
analog of MBIs and is better than MBIs in several prominent aspects such us length of
the intervention and the absence of the need to maintain the practices (2013).
Inconsistency of meditation with social norms, concerns about family, friends, or peer
disapproval, priority of duties over self-care, perception of psychological intervention
developed in the West as alien appear to be sociocultural barriers to diffusion of
meditation-based interventions.
Age and gender. Even for people from the same cultural background, age and gender
were found to be predictors of practicing meditation. In relation to gender, the tendency
is quite obvious and several studies showed consistency in regard to the issue. Results
of the National Health Survey in which 16, 409 participants were involved, showed that
men were half as likely as women to meditate or to engage in other mindfulness
practices such as yoga, tai chi, or qigong (Olano, at el., 2015). In the other study, that
was done with participants, who were already engaged in MBSR program, men carried
out the assigned exercises less often than women (Lyssenko, at el., 2015). In relation to
mind-body medicine (MBM), to which meditation belonged, female physicians were
significantly more likely to use MBM, both with patients and for their own self-care,
and were less likely to be concerned that recommending these therapies would make
patients feel that their symptoms were being discounted. In addition, female physicians
also had significantly higher beliefs about the benefits of MBM on health disorders
(Sierpina, Levine, Astin, & Tan, 2007). In the study of use of complementary and
alternative medicine, gender was also significantly correlated with disuse of meditation,
where men do it less frequently than the opposite sex (Jain, & Astin, 2001).
15
A qualitative study (Lomas, 2014) done with male participants in MBSR sheds some
light on the situation. In the study participants’ narratives were analyzed. Some men
reported at the first initial stage, that engaging in meditation seemed for them as not
masculine behavior. One of the reasons was, that for many participants meditation
practices were strongly connected with spirituality, which was not regarded as
traditionally masculine, partly due to its conflict with ideals of rationality. This attitude
can create a positive loop, where the less men engage in meditation, the less will do in
the future. For example, the situation was reflected in developing Beliefs About Yoga
Scale (Sohl et al., 2011) that was designed to find out what factors might prevent people
from participating in yoga classes. The item “There will be only women in the class”
loaded solely on separate factor. Men seem to be less likely to engage in meditation due
to cultural beliefs and social influence.
Age differences in regards to meditation behavior were found as not so obvious and
discrepant among studies. Whitebird et al. reported age differences in acceptability of
yoga, meditation, and complementary therapies as a whole. The authors found that it
was more acceptable among younger population, but not among many middle aged and
older adults. The researchers believed that the fact that years ago such practices were
seen with a great level of skepticism, which in turn influenced the decision of older
participants’ (2011). On the other hand, Lyssenko et al., who studied people already
participating in the MBSR program, found that younger participants practiced
mindfulness less frequently than older participants (2015). Based on these findings, it is
possible to conclude that older people are less ready to initiate the practice of meditation
than younger people, but if starting, they are more conscientious about the practices.
16
From the perspective of Diffusion of Innovation Theory, existing values in Russian
society and sociocultural beliefs may stand as barriers for meditation-based
interventions.
Another aspect of the theory is the perceived complexity and/or
simplicity of the innovation.
Relative advantage. According to Diffusion of Innovation Theory, relative advantage
is “the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being better than the idea it
supersedes” (Rogers, 2003, p. 213). In relation to the innovation in the healthcare
system, the degree of relative advantage is expressed in the perceived effectiveness of it
(Marks, 2002).
Attitudes toward meditation are related to the general public perception of
complementary and alternative medicine, the branch that includes meditation. Many
people in the US perceive complementary, and alternative medicine as ineffective or
inferior to classical medicine (Jain & Astin, 2001). Researchers Sierpina, Levine, Astin,
and Tan (2007) studied attitudes and barriers of use of mind-body therapies (MBT) in
psychiatry by mental health professionals for themselves and for their patients. The
researchers found that for the doctors’ beliefs in lack of acceptance of MBT among their
peers and concern that that patients would feel their symptoms were being discounted if
doctors suggest MBT use, prevented MBT utilization.
In regards to meditation itself, Wisner who studied implementation of MBSR in the
school context in the US, found, that children perceived meditation as a waste of time, a
17
dumb idea, or a cliché (2013). However, this attitude is not specific to the children. One
of the items from the scale Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory is: “It is a
waste of time to sit and do nothing” (Williams, 2011) Lederer and Middlestadt (2014)
found that the belief that meditation will not work, prevented participation. To
conclude, people perceive low relative advantage of meditation comparing to existed
practices.
Complexity. In accordance with Diffusion of Innovation theory, complexity is the
degree to which an innovation is perceived as relatively difficult to understand and use.
The complexity of an innovation, as perceived by members of a social system, is
negatively related to its rate of adoption. There are several studies that support an
importance of complexity in the relation to diffusion of innovation (Rogers, 2003). In
regards to meditation-based interventions, complexity consists from misconceptions
about the practices, lack of knowledge about it, and pragmatic concerns.
Misconceptions about meditation and lack of knowledge. Several authors reported
misconceptions about mindfulness meditation as a barrier to participation in the
program. Williams et al. found that the highest frequency of barriers related to
misconceptions about meditation (2010). For example Baer described such popular
beliefs as a great challenge to practices meditation. These beliefs are frequent mind
wondering, dealing with restlessness and fatigue, as well as difficulties maintaining
daily practices. In addition, participants sometimes have unreasonably high
expectations, that meditation should always be relaxing and mind clearing (2006). The
author stated that if the former misconceptions prevent people from starting practicing
18
meditation, the latter are responsible for some percentage of drop outs. In addition,
difficulties with understanding purpose and mechanisms of MBIs were found among
health care professionals who were not involved with the program (Crane & Kuyken,
2012), as well as among mediators themselves (Martinez et al., 2015).
Another
common problem is the belief that meditation is somewhat ineffective (Jain & Astin,
2001; Lederer, & Middlestadt, 2014). Moreover, there was a lack of scientific evidence
regarding the effectiveness of mind-body/psychosocial approaches, which was cited in
several studies (Jain & Astin, 2001; Astin, Goddard, & Forys, 2005; Mensah, &
Anderson, 2015; Blonski et al., 2014). Misconceptions toward meditation differ from
difficulties in understanding, and practicing it, to its ineffectiveness and lack of
knowledge. Pragmatic considerations serve as another barrier to meditation.
Pragmatic Concerns. In the Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory developed
by Williams et al. they address the respondent's practical and technical barrier to
practice meditation. Included, are items pertaining to the environment, time, and
priorities. Those are: “I prefer to be accomplishing something”, “There is no quiet place
where I can meditate”, ”There is never a time when I can be alone”, “I don't have time”
(2010). Indeed, having quiet space to meditate was found to be a positive predictor of
engagement in meditation ( Lederer & Middlestadt, 2014). However, the greatest
concern is struggling to find time for meditation. It was found in many studies
(Martinez et al., 2015; Astin, Goddard, & Forys, 2005; Lederer & Middlestadt, 2014;)
and in the eleven out of nineteen articles in systematic review done by Mensah and
Anderson (2015). To conclude, people tend to perceive meditation practice as a rather
complex one. They expect complication out of their misconceptions stemming from
popular beliefs about meditation. In addition, pragmatic concerns play an important role
19
in the acceptance of meditation. To meditate, a person has to find time and isolated
space that might not be easy for the majority of people in today’s world.
Stress
The perceived absence of time, discussed previously, is closely related to the concept of
stress. Stress is defined by Herbert Petri as “a high level of arousal occurring when the
body is forced to cope with or adapt to a changed situation “(1996, p.82); it is a “fight or
flight” response. Although the reaction of stress is an adaptive one with its main aim to
return an individual to more optimal condition, if prolonged, it becomes harmful to the
body (Everly & Lating, 2003). Stress caused long activation of sympathetic nervous
system. It might lead to such health complications as diseases of cardiovascular and
digestive systems (Everly & Lating, 2003). From psychological side, stressed people
live in a perceived permanent urgency to cope. The tension results in the feeling of been
overwhelmed, perceived shortage of time, prioritization of duties over relaxation.
Stressed people may feel exhausted, irritated, and unable to concentrate. In addition,
people are different in their reaction to stressors. Some people, when stressed, may
experience hyper arousal and increased effort to deal with perceived problems (Everly
& Lating, 2003). In other cases, distressed people may respond with passivity, the
perception of no control, and depressive hopelessness (Everly & Lating, 2003).
Although both response types result in the feeling of being overwhelmed, while people
in the first group suffer from the absence of time, the second group is lacking the
motivation to change.
20
These psychological consequences of stress may interfere with meditation practices and
perception of meditation as the right way to deal with the situation. The function of
stress is to call for an immediate activity to deal with stressors. Stressed people may see
meditation as unimportant activity that destructs them from dealing with their problems.
In addition, negative thinking that is also inherent to stress (Everly & Lating, 2003),
may also be influential on people appraisal of effectiveness of meditation, and thus
prevent them from participation in it.
Indeed, previous empirical studies seem to support the role of stress as an obstacle to
meditation. Participants’ perception of meditation intervention as an additional stressor
was reported in the number of research. For example in the systematic review done by
Mensah and Anderson, (2015) participants complained about difficulties that were
associated with managing to combine work and participation in MBSR. Researchers
reported: ”The intensity of this intervention is likely to be aversive to many individuals
who work and live under high levels of stress”(p.127). In other study, Lomas found that
even for experienced meditators, those that already developed a habit to meditate, stress
might become a barrier to continue the practices. For example, demanding university
course, death of a family member, stressful career were found to be negatively affecting
participants’ ability to practice. Other priorities, exhaustion, worries and preoccupation
by various issues were reported by the participants as the reasons they stopped to
meditate (2014).
The influence and impact of stress toward meditation is not specific for Western
participants. In Buddhism, from where meditation is originated, stress’ and its
21
associated negative effect toward meditation practices was known for centuries.
Buddhist psychology states that restlessness and fatigue, although been opposite,
equally spoil the practice (Didonna, 2009). Stress often resulted in over arousal, the
constant readiness for action that is related to flight or fight response (Everly & Lating,
2003). Lassitude, on the other hand, is a result of the long tension (Everly & Lating,
2003). Restlessness results in mind wondering and difficulty to concentrate during
meditation. Sluggishness leads to drowsiness and falling asleep. According to Buddhist
psychology (Didonna, 2009), the goal of meditation is for an individual to successfully
acquire a calm and alert mental state, which is the opposite feelings to stress.
From the both – theoretical and empirical perspectives it seems that stress itself is an
obstacle to meditation. Stressed people’s bodies tell them “Act immediately! Deal with
the problems! It is not the time for rest!”. In such state it seems hard to ignore the
body’s alarm system and relax instead of being active. In regards to stress researchers,
Olano and colleagues concluded: "Vulnerable population groups with worse health
outcomes were less likely to engage in mindfulness practices." ( 2015, p.26).
To summarize, in previous studies done in Western European countries and US
participants’ religiousness, socio cultural beliefs, gender, and stress level, as well as
perceived low relative advantage and complexity of meditation, misconceptions and
lack of knowledge about the practices, and pragmatic considerations were found to be
barriers to meditation. Participants’ religiousness was the most commonly cited barrier
from engaging in meditation. In addition, participants’ stress level was the most often
mentioned obstacle in the studies which considered people before starting meditating
22
and those that were already practicing it. Taking into account the two current tendencies
in modern Russia – growing religiousness and rather high stress levels amongst the
general population, it seems important to study their influence on meditation practices.
Participants’ attitudes to meditation practices, namely their perception of meditation as
an effective method for stress reduction is of valuable research importance, because in
conjunction to Attitudes – Behavior Consistency Theory, attitudes form a basis for the
future behavior (Petri, 1996). Participants’ meditation behavior or its absence is the
strait reflection of the popularity of the practices among different groups. In addition, it
is worth to learn about reasons that participants offer for not meditating. The list of
reasons covers all barriers described earlier in the current paper.
Considering meditation behavior and attitudes towards it, as well as understanding
reasons against meditation, in regards to participants’ religiousness and stress, it was
proposed:
H1. Level of religiousness negatively influences attitudes toward meditation.
H2. Level of religiousness negatively influences meditation behavior.
H3. As barriers to meditation, people, who see themselves as highly or moderately
religious list contradiction to religion beliefs items more often than people who consider
themselves as slightly, or not religious.
H4. Stress level negatively influences attitudes toward meditation.
H5. As barriers to meditation, people with high levels of stress will list time issues more
often
than
people
with
low
levels
of
stress.
23
Method
Participants
302 persons (62 male and 240 female) from 27 Russian cities participated in the study.
The people shared three characteristics: they were Internet users, they were Russian
speakers, and they were all residing within Russia, during the research. All participants
were over 20 years of age and under 69; people between the age of 30 to 50 accounted
to 82% of all participants.
Research design
The research is quantitative and exploratory. This type of study was chosen due to the
novelty of the study topic to the Russian population. In addition, the questionnaire for
the research used closed-ended questions, this method was the most common amongst
other similar studies (Williams, 2011).
Participants were questioned by means of
online social communities. Participants were asked to fill out a self-report questionnaire
that consisted of 10 questions with a Perceived Stress Scale -10
(Cochen &
Williamson, 1988). Participants were also asked one question about their perceived
helpfulness of meditation in terms of stress reduction, one question was about the
frequency or absence of meditation behavior, and one question was about their level of
religiousness. A list of barriers was presented to participants who indicated that they
did not meditate, or who have only meditated in the past. In addition, participants were
asked about their age and gender.
24
Instrumentation
1. Stress level was assessed on Perceived Stress Scale -10 developed by Cochen. The
English version of the scale has been demonstrated to possess adequate reliability (a =
.90, r = .80), and concurrent validity with anxiety and depression measures (Cochen &
Williamson, 1988). The questions are rather easy and understandable (Everly & Lating,
2003). The questions ask about stress-related feelings and thoughts during the last
month. Each question gives 5 options to answer: from "never" = 0 to "very often" = 4.
Higher scores on the PSS indicate greater perceived stress. The Russian translation of
the scale was validated by Vodopynova. The Russian version has shown good
psychometric properties (a = .84, r = .81) (Vodopynova, 2009).
2. Attitudes toward meditation will be measured by a question about self-reported
perception of usefulness of meditation in terms of stress reduction, Likert scale, 5
options, from positive (“meditation might be useful for stress reduction” = 1) to
negative (“it is definitely not useful for stress reduction” = 5). The higher scores are
associated with less perceived usefulness. The measure was developed by the author of
the current paper. A pilot study has shown that the question is understandable. The
answer distribution was normal.
3. Meditation behavior was measured by a question about self-reported frequency of
meditation sessions. The question presents 5 options, from “I meditate every day” = 1 to
“I have never been meditating” = 5. The measure was developed by the author of
current the paper. A pilot study has shown that the question is understandable. The
answer distribution was skewed, which resulted to more people not meditating.
25
4. Participants, who did not meditate, were asked to mark their main reasons (obstacle
to meditation). The people were asked to choose an item in Determinants of Meditation
Practice Inventory (Williams, Dixon, McCorkle & Van Ness, 2011). The 17 items cover
all barriers to meditation discussed in the literature review section, including the target
contradictions to religious beliefs and time issues options. The list of barriers was
developed in English. For the current study it was translated into Russian. However,
based on finding from a pilot study, the option “I see meditation as an alien to my
esoteric practice” was added to the list of reasons that was presented by the
Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory.
5. Participants' level of religiousness will be assessed with one self-ranking question
from Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (Fetzer Institute,
2003), overall self-ranking part. The participants will have 4 options – from ranking self
as "very religious" = 4 to "not religious at all" = 1.
6. To decrease negative priming by stress scale, participants will be asked to choose a
method that they usually use for stress reduction. A list of the methods, developed by
the author of the current paper will be presented. A pilot study has shown that the
question is understandable.
The distribution was approximately equal among all
options.
26
Procedure
People from a number of cities of the Russian Federation were addressed via online
social network services and forums in order to study the effects of stress and religiosity
toward meditation attitudes and behavior. A list of 27 cities and towns was created
using the map of the country to ensure the participation from different regions of
Russia. Local internet communities were found in the cities, and their users were invited
to take part in the study. The research was done in the Russian language and it was
assumed, that only people who speak Russian well, although they might be different
ethnically, answered. Because the study concerns cultural aspects of population in
Russia, it seemed important to study participants who live in Russia and exclude
Russians, who live in other countries, for example, due to migration, but continue to be
active members of their home cities’ online communities. For this purpose the virtual
research server (http://virtualexs.ru/), that was used for the study, restricted participation
to Russian internet protocols only. This means only people who were in the Russian
Federation on the moment of the research, could participate. With respect to other
participants' characteristics, subjects’ age was restricted. Only people who were aged 18
or over could take part in the research. An additional restriction excluded multiple
participation by the same individual. For this reason, participants’ IPs were blocked
after completing the questionnaire. Informed consent was obtained from each
participant in an on-line form. Subjects were asked to complete an on-line survey. No
compensation for the participation was offered.
27
Data Analysis
For the hypothesis 1 the Spearman's rank-order correlation was applied on the data in
order to find out if there are any relationships between the level of religiousness and
attitudes toward meditation.
For the hypothesis 2 the Spearman's rank-order correlation was run to the data in order
to find out if there were any relationships between the level of religiousness and
meditation behavior.
In regards to the hypothesis 3 no statistical procedure was applied due to low percentage
of participants (3.08) who chose the target item “I'm concerned meditation will conflict
with my religion” from the Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory.
For the hypothesis 4 Pearson’s correlation was applied on the data in order to find out if
there are any relationships between stress levels and attitudes toward meditation.
For the hypothesis 5 descriptive statistics was used in order to find out if participants
with higher scores on the stress scale tend to mention time issues from Determinants of
Meditation Practice Inventory more often, than participants with lower scores.
28
Results
In regards to the participants’ religiosity, 2 % of them described self as very religious,
35.4 % - as moderately religious, 34.4 % - as slightly religious, and 27.5 % – as
complete non-believers (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
Participants’ Religiosity
Religiosity
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
Religiosity
15%
10%
5%
0%
very
moderately
slightly
not at all
With respect to participants’ perception of meditation as a useful practice for stress
reduction, fewer people believe that it useful (9.2 % said “yes” and 20% said “possibly
yes”) in comparison with the participants who do not perceive meditation as useful (
23.3% said “possibly no” and 17% said “no”). However, the largest group was
29
composed of people, who do not know about usefulness of meditation (29.8 %) (see
Figure 2).
Figure 2
Attitudes toward Meditation
Attitudes to Meditation
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
Attitudes to Meditation
10%
5%
0%
"Yes"
"Possibly
yes"
"I don't
know"
"Possibly no"
"No"
In regards to Hypothesis 1 the Spearman's rank-order correlation was run to determine
the relationship between participants’ level of religiosity and their attitudes toward
meditation. No statistically significant correlation was found between variables rs(300)
= .050, p > .05, 2-tailed. Participants’ level of religiosity seems as not affecting
participants’ perception of utility of meditation as a stress reduction method (see Table
1).
30
Table 1
Correlation between Religiosity and Attitudes toward Meditation
Spearman's rho Attitude
meditation
religiosity
to Correlation
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Correlation
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Attitude
meditation
1,000
to
Religiosity
,050
.
302
,050
,388
302
1,000
,388
302
.
302
Most of the participants (80.7%) reported that they had never meditated. 13.8% of the
participants said that they had been meditating in the past. Only small part of the
participants reported regular meditation: 1.3% does it several times per month; 2.3%
meditate weekly; and 1% practices meditation daily (see Figure 3).
31
Figure 3
Meditation Behavior
Meditation Behavior
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
Meditation Behavior
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Never
In the past
Monthly
Weekly
Daily
In regards to Hypothesis 2 the Spearman's rank-order correlation was run to determine
the relationship between participants’ level of religiosity and their meditation behavior.
No statistically significant correlation was found between variables rs(300) = -.071, p >
.05, 2-tailed. Participants’ level of religiosity seems as not affecting their meditation
behavior (see Table 2).
Table 2
Correlation between Religiosity and Meditation Behavior
Spearman's rho religiosity
Meditation
behavior
Correlation
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Correlation
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Religiosity
1,000
Meditation behaviur
-,071
.
302
-,071
,216
302
1,000
,216
302
.
302
32
Scores on Perceived Stress Scale were transformed to five groups in accordance to
population norms (M = 12.8 , SD = 6.2) reported by Vodopynova (2009). Participants,
who were scored from 0 to 6, were assigned to low stress group. Participants, who were
scored from 7 to 19 were assigned to normal stress group. Participants, who were scored
from 20 to 25, were assigned to moderately high stress group. Participants, who were
scored from 26 to 31 were assigned to high stress group. Participants, who were scored
from 32 to 40 were assigned to very high stress group. The participants scores on
Perceived Stress Scale were higher than expected in accordance with the population
norm (M=19.17, SD = 7.46). More than a half of the participants (50.6 %) were scored
above a population norm +/- standard deviation (see Table 3).
Table 3
Stress Group Arrangement
Group
Group Name
Formula
Calculation
Number
Score
N
Range
1
Low Stress
< M +/- SD
<6
0 to 6
10
2
Normal Stress
M +/- SD
12.8+/- 6.2
7 to 19
139
3
Moderately
M+ 2 SD
12.8 + 12.4
20 to 25
87
M + 3 SD
12.8 +18.6
26 to 31
55
>31
32 to 40
11
High Stress
4
High Stress
5
Very
High > M + 3 SD
Stress
In regards to Hypothesis 4 the Spearman's rank-order correlation was run to determine
the relationship between participants’ stress group and their attitude toward meditation.
33
There was a low negative correlation between variables, which was statistically
significant rs (300) = -.153,
p < .01, 2-tailed. People with higher stress seem to
perceive meditation as less useful practice for stress reduction than people with lower
stress (see Table 4).
Table 4
Correlation between Stress Group and Attitude toward Meditation
Spearman's rho Stress groups
Attitude
meditation
Correlation
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
to Correlation
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Stress groups
1,000
Attitude to meditation
-,153
.
302
-,153
,008
302
1,000
,008
302
.
302
When the analysis was done for two genders separately, male group showed greater
negative statistically significant correlation between variables stress group and attitudes
toward meditation rs (60) = -.263, p < .05, 2-tailed, than female did rs (238) = -.133, p
< .05, 2-tailed (see Tables 5 and 6).
34
Table 5
Correlation between Stress Group and Attitude toward Meditation in Males
Spearman's rho Attitude
meditation
Stress
to Correlation
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Correlation
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Attitude to meditation
1,000
Stress
-,263
.
62
-,263
,039
62
1,000
,039
62
.
62
Table 6
Correlation between Stress Group and Attitude toward Meditation in Females
Spearman's rho Attitude
meditation
Stress
to Correlation
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Correlation
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Attitude to meditation
1,000
Stress
-,133
.
240
-,133
,039
240
1,000
,039
240
.
240
Participants, who did not practice meditation, were asked to choose items from
Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory that they see as reasons against
meditation. The most frequent reasons were: “ I don't know much about meditation “
(33.56%), “I see meditation as an alien to me esoteric practice” (23.29%), and “I can't
stop my thoughts” (18.49%). The least common reasons were: “I wonder if meditation
35
might harm me” (0.68%), “I'm concerned meditation will conflict with my religion”
(3.08%), and “Prayer is my form of meditation” (5.14%) (see Table 7).
Table 7
Reasons against Meditation
Item
Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory items
number
%
of participants
who chose the item
1
I can't stop my thoughts.
18.49
2
I can't sit still long enough to meditate.
15.75
3
I prefer to be accomplishing something.
14.31
4
Meditation might be boring.
13.70
5
It is a waste of time to sit and do nothing.
17.81
6
I don't know much about meditation.
33.56
7
Prayer is my form of meditation.
5.14
8
I don't have time.
14.38
9
There is never a time when I can be alone.
11.99
10
I'm concerned meditation will conflict with my religion
3.08
11
My family would think it was unusual.
6.16
12
I wonder if meditation might harm me.
0.68
13
I see meditation as an alien to me esoteric practice.
23.29
36
In regards to hypothesis 3 no statistical procedure was applied due to low percentage of
participants (3.08) who chose the target item “I'm concerned meditation will conflict
with my religion” from the Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory.
In regards to hypothesis 5 which predicted that people with higher stress will mention
time issues as the reason against meditation, 32.19 % of all participants mentioned time
issues. However, it was different percent of the participants inside the groups arranged
in accordance with stress level. In the group with low stress it was 20% of the
participants; in the group with normal stress level it was 24 % of the participants; in the
group with moderately high stress level it was 26.7% of the participants; in the group
with high stress level it was 34.5 % of the participants; and in the group with very high
stress level it was 36.4 % of the participants (see Table 8).
Table 8
Percentage of Participants from Different Stress Groups Who Mentioned Time Issues
Stress group
N
mentioned time issues, %
Low
10
20
Normal
139
24
Moderately high
87
26.7
High
55
34.5
Very High
11
36.4
Finally, the participants were asked about the method of stress control they used the
most often. Watching TV (33.92%), listening to music (27.43%), and doing hobbies
(26.44%) were the most popular options. Exercise (19.47%), praying (7.96%), and
relaxation techniques (7.96%) were the least popular options (see Table 9).
37
Table 9
Methods for stress reduction
Item
The method used most often to reduce stress
number
%
of participants
who chose the item
1
Watching TV
33.92
2
Listen to music
27.43
3
Hobby
26.44
4
Drink alcohol
25.37
5
Smoke cigarettes
24.75
6
Spend time with friends or family
23.19
7
Do exercise
19.47
8
Go to church or pray
7.96
9
Practice relaxation techniques
7.96
38
Discussion
Meditation-based interventions with the aim to reduce stress and improve overall
psychological well being are rather new for Western societies. Mindfulness Based
Stress Reduction program was developed in the United States about twenty five years
ago (McCown, & Reibel, 2010). Meditation is a core practice in the program. Since its
development hundreds of studies have been conducted in order to measure the
effectiveness of the MBSR and similar interventions. These studies often show
promising results and meditation-based interventions now are used in treatment of other
psychological disturbances (Baer, 2003). However, in order to be truly effective in
terms of lowering stress in society, the program should be defused among the
population. Few studies of barriers to implementation of meditation-based interventions
were done in the United States and European countries (Williams, 2011). Up to this
time, no study of barriers to meditation among the population of the Russian Federation
were found. The Diffusion of Innovation Theory was used as a base to understand
which aspects are influential on people's decision not to meditate.
In order to study the barriers to meditation among the population in Russia, 302 people
(62 males and 240 females) were asked to participate in the current research. The
subjects were asked to answer the questions of the Perceived Stress Scale and
Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory. In addition, they were asked about the
perceived usefulness of meditation as a method to control stress, their meditation
behavior, their level of religiousness, age and gender.
39
In accordance with Diffusion of Innovation Theory, there are five attributes of
innovation that determine its success. These qualities are: relative advantage,
compatibility with existing values and practices, simplicity and ease of use, trialability,
and observability (Rogers, 2003).
Relative advantage
In regard to the aspect of relative advantage, the perceived effectiveness of meditation
practice as a method of stress control was assessed. Almost 30 % of subjects admitted
they believe that meditation is useful for stress reduction, and 40 % of the participants
believe that it is not. The other 30% said that they do not know about meditation
effectiveness. These results were consistent with findings of other research about
perceived effectiveness of complementary and mind-body therapies, the branch that
includes meditation (Sobczak and West, 2013). As in the previous studies, the majority
of the participants see meditation either as an ineffective technique or demonstrates the
lack of knowledge on the issue. The absence of knowledge is easily understandable for
the Russian society due to few institutions offering teaching services, as well as the
paucity of literature related to the topic, and the seemingly absent scientific research.
Attitudes toward meditation effectiveness have shown to be closely related to
meditation behavior (Sobczak and West, 2013). Although the current research did not
focus on studying this particular issue among the Russian population, the findings show
that on the background of the 30 % of the subjects who saw meditation positively in
terms of stress reduction, only 20% of the participants actually practiced meditation, at
40
least in the past. However, the majority (80%) said they have never meditated, and less
than 5% of the subjects admitted practicing meditation on a regular basis.
Compatibility with existing values and practices
Religion. The previous study of barriers to meditation carried out in the US showed that
from the perspective of compatibility with existing values and practices religion and
culture in the wider sense might be important factors that prevent the practicing of
meditation (Baer, 2006). Although no similar study was found on the Russian
population, religious factors were also expected to be influential on the decision to
meditate. First, in Russia during the last few decades, practicing religion grew
dramatically, with more than half the population admitting themselves as believers
(Public Opinion Foundation, 2013). Indeed, in the current study, 72.5% of the
participants described themselves as religious people, and more than half of them - as
very to moderately religious. The second reason to expect religion to be influential on
meditation attitudes was that the authorities of the Russian Orthodox Church often
openly teach their followers to see meditation negatively (Mironova, 2009).
The Hypothesis I was that the level of religiousness negatively influences attitudes
toward meditation. However, the results of the study do not support the hypothesis. No
statistically significant correlation was found between variable levels of religiousness
and attitudes toward meditation. This means that people who see themselves as highly
religious and those who rated themselves as non believers might perceive meditation as
an effective practice for stress reduction as well as completely ineffective. These
findings were not consistent with results of previous studies done in Western countries.
41
In addition, the closely related Hypothesis II stated that the level of religiousness which
negatively influences meditation behavior was also not supported. No statistically
significant correlation was found between the variables of meditation behavior and level
of religiousness. It seems that participants engage or don't engage in meditation practice
regardless of their level of religiosity.
Furthermore, in the Hypothesis III it was expected that as barriers to meditation, people,
who see themselves as highly or moderately religious list contradiction to religious
beliefs items more often than people who consider themselves as slightly, or not
religious at all. However, no statistical procedure was applied to the results in regard to
the hypothesis due to a very small percentage of the participants (3.08%) choosing the
item “I'm concerned meditation will conflict with my religion” from the Determinants
of Meditation Practice Inventory. Moreover, this item, together with the option “Prayer
is my form of meditation” (5.14%) were among three of the least common reasons that
the subjects gave against meditating.
Participants’ religiosity seems to not play any
role neither on their perception of usefulness of meditation, nor on their involvement in
the practice, nor even on the reasons that non mediators see as barriers to meditation.
The findings are different to those in studies done the United States and European
countries.
In these previous studies participants often list the contradiction of
meditation to religious beliefs as the most important reasons against involvement into
meditation programs. In addition, several previous studies showed participants’
religiosity as the most common factor responsible for dropping out of such programs.
42
Several factors related to religiosity in the modern Russian society might be in charge of
such results. First, the high prevalence of religiosity is a rather new trend for the
population. According to Public Opinion Foundation (2013) religiousness of Russian
people has risen twice over the last twenty years, then only 29% of the population
described themselves as religious people. Moreover, during the times of the Soviet
Union, religion was actively discouraged, almost prohibited, and sometimes even
prosecuted by the authorities. In regard to the sample of the current study, people
between the ages of 30 to 50 accounted for 82% of all participants. It means that the
majority of the subjects were born before the religious boom and raised in non –
religious environments. This dynamic suggests that the novelty of religiosity for
Russian people, and, as a possible result, its relative weakness in regard to the influence
on participants’ meditation attitudes and behavior.
Another finding from the current study also points to the relative weakness of religious
influence on participants’ life, at least in the choice of methods to control stress. When
subjects were asked to chose a method they use to reduce stress the most often, praying
and going to church were the least popular options. Although more than 70 % of the
participants described themselves as religious people, less than 8% of them engage in
any form of religious practice to control stress.
Another possible reason for such findings is the form of religiousness that is widespread
in Russia. According to a nationwide study carried out recently 69% of population
described themselves as religious (Public Opinion Foundation, 2013). However, in the
43
same study a fourth of Russians said that they believe in God without personal
affiliation with any organized religious institution. As a result, these people are not
subjected to rules of any particular church and might not be affected by its negative
attitudes toward meditation.
Socio cultural beliefs. Although the population’s religiousness seems to be a weak
barrier to implementation of meditation-based interventions in Russia, another aspect
related to compatibility with existing values and practices emerged during the current
research. The Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory are a list of reasons that
participants who do not meditate give as barriers to the practice (Williams, 2011). The
measure was developed in the United States and was validated for the American
population. For the current study it was translated into Russian. During a pilot study
where 57 Russians participated, many of the subjects complained that there was no
option which fully represented their reasons against meditation. As they described in
their own words, meditation seemed for them as an alien practice, which is associated
with esoteric or non-traditional religious cults. The trend didn't seem to be related to the
participants’ religiosity. Both non-believers and people who rated themselves as very to
moderately religious pointed to this reason frequently during the pilot study. Based on
this finding, the option “I see meditation as an alien to my esoteric practice” was added
to the list of reasons that was presented by the Determinants of Meditation Practice
Inventory.
Indeed, the option “I see meditation as an alien to me an esoteric practice” was the
second most popular reason that the subjects gave
for not practicing meditation.
44
23.29% of the participants checked this option. The only trend that exceeded popularity
of this barrier to meditation was the option “ I don't know much about meditation “
(33.56%). As it was discussed in the literature review section, for Russians the idea of
meditation is closely connected with the idea of cult, occult, and esoteric. Meditation
was widely introduced to the Russian society by Transcendental Meditation Movement
during the nineties, straight after the collapse of the Soviet Union (Larson & Larson,
1989). Several religious scholars referred to the Movement as a sect (Bourdeaux,
2003). Taking in to account the Russians’ overall negative attitudes toward non –
traditional religions (Kozhevina, 2014), it is possible to expect that the association of
meditation with esoteric practices might be an influential barrier to the diffusion of
meditation-based interventions. In addition, as it was discussed earlier, Russian
psychological schools have a tendency to be suspicious towards foreign methods,
especially those developed in US; Russian psychologists usually prefer domestic
approaches or those which originated in European countries (Marcinkovskaya, 2004;
Tukaev & Kuznetsov, 2013). The long history of the Cold War, together with the
current political tension between the Russian Federation and the United States possibly
plays a negative role in the process of diffusion of modern psychological approaches
developed in the West. However, the participants demonstrate low concern about the
opinions of other people seeing them meditating. The item “My family would think it
was unusual” was among the least often cited as reasons against engagement in
meditation. Only 6.16% of the subjects chose this option.
Stress
Questions from the Perceived Stress Scale that were used for the current study asked the
participants how they feel in regard to different aspects of their life. For example, if they
45
were overwhelmed by problems to deal with or they felt themselves in control of the
most important life events.
Firstly, the overall participants’ scores demonstrate a considerable shift toward higher
stress if compared with previous studies. Originally, the scale was developed in English.
It was translated to Russian and validated by Vodopynova in the year 2009. At the time
of validation for the general population, the researcher got the mean at 12.8 with
standard deviation at 6.2. However, in the current study the mean was 19.17 with
standard deviation 7.46. Thus, the difference in means is more than one standard
deviation. The sequence of economical crisis and escalation of external as well as
internal political conflicts during the last years might be in charge of the populations’
stress rise. In addition to recent happenings, Russia is still in the state of cultural
transference, which began with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The shift in the values
and ideology, an emerged gap between socio-economic classes, individualization of the
society and constant economical hardships seem to influence stress among the
population. Nevertheless, there might be an alternative explanation for higher scores on
the Perceived Stress Scale. Subjects were invited via online communities to participate
in the study of stress and methods of it reduction. So, it might happen that more people
who have stress issues were willing to participate as the study which was relevant for
their problem.
It seems as though highly stressed people would be more in need for stress reduction.
However, the data shows that meditation, together with other relaxation techniques, is
definitely not the first choice for stress control among the participants. When asked
46
about the method used most often to reduce stress, less than 8% of the people said that
they practice relaxation techniques.
The Hypothesis IV was that stress level negatively influences attitudes toward
meditation. The analysis of the data shows a low negative correlation between variables
stress levels and attitude toward meditation as an effective method for stress control.
These relationships were statistically significant, thus the data supports the hypothesis.
As it was expected, people with higher stress levels perceive meditation less favorably
in terms of its usefulness.
The results were consistent with previous studies (Mensah and Anderson, 2015; Lomas,
2014) that point to stress itself as a barrier to meditation. According to these studies,
high stress might be responsible not only for low enrollment in meditation-based
programs, but also for high attrition from such programs. Even people who normally
practice meditation regularly demonstrated a tendency to stop meditating in times of life
hardships (Lomas, 2014). This trait was known centuries ago by Buddhist teachers and
scholars and was referred to by them as a third important obstacle to proper meditation
(Didonna, 2009).
The perceived permanent urgency to cope, which is typical for stressed people, often
results in prioritization of duties over relaxation (Everly & Lating, 2003). For the people
in such a psychological state, meditation might be seen as an additional burden that
distracts from the coping process. People suffering from high stress often feel
47
overwhelmed. The idea to append an additional activity in the form of meditation might
not be seen by the stressed persons as appropriate.
The urgency to “fight or flight”, evoked by the activation of the sympathetic nervous
system, demands an active dealing with acute problems (Everly & Lating, 2003). Stress
response is often characterized by high psychological arousal that provides additional
energy (Everly & Lating, 2003). People in stress often crave to do something to stress or
to change the situation in order to achieve a more optimal condition. Meditation might
be seen by stressed people as the complete opposite to what they want to do as an
activity. The idea that instead of acting out of urgency to sit, relax, and do nothing
visible might be seen as aversive. Indeed, when the participants were asked why
meditation is not appropriate for them, the second common reason was “I prefer to be
accomplishing something” (28.66%). This position was also supported by the reason
“It is a waste of time to sit and do nothing” mentioned by 17.81% of the participants.
Another problem is restlessness that is created by stress. In such a psychological state
meditation might be seen as the rather unnatural thing to do. About 35 % of the subjects
pointed to this problem. 18.49% of the people said that it could not stop their thoughts,
and 15.75 % admitted that they could not sit still long enough to meditate.
While some stressed people may feel exhausted, irritated, and unable to concentrate,
other people may respond with passivity, the perception of no control, and even
depressive hopelessness (Everly & Lating, 2003). To meditate is an attempt to change
one’s psychological condition. However, the depressive aspect of stress might lead to a
lack of motivation for changes.
48
In addition, people suffering from stress are often prone to negative thinking (Everly &
Lating, 2003).
In general, highly stressed people tend to be less optimistic. This
tendency might influence their appraisal of effectiveness of meditation as a stress
reduction method. On the other hand, for people with low stress levels, meditation
might appear as a more natural activity because happier people tend to perceive
everything in more positive light (Boyer & Paharia, 2008).
Gender. Gender difference in the relationship between stress and attitudes toward
meditation was also assessed. Results show that although a negative correlation exists
for both genders, in the males’ group it is more pronounced rs (60) = -.263, p < .05, 2tailed, than in females’ rs (238) = -.133,
p < .05, 2-tailed. In other words, for males
stress is a more powerful obstacle to meditation in comparison to females on whose
attitudes to meditation stress seems to be less influential. There are two possible
explanations for such results.
Firstly, in accordance with previous findings, women have a tendency to perceive
meditation, complementary therapy, and mind-body medicine in a more favorable light
than men do (Sierpina, Levine, Astin, & Tan, 2007; Lyssenko, at el., 2015). For
example, female participants were twice more likely than male participants to meditate
or to engage in other mindfulness practices such as yoga, tai chi, or qigong (Olano, at
el., 2015). Women's general positive attitude toward meditation might be in charge of
the resistance of positivity in times of stress. The second factor that is potentially
influential on gender difference is a role prescribed for males by modern society. Men
49
are supposed to deal with stressors more actively than women. Previous studies show
that meditation is seen by men as not fully masculine behavior (Lomas, 2014). It seems
that the more stressed males are the more they are willing to solve problems, instead of
working on normalizing their psychological state.
Time issues. Closely related to the concept of stress Hypothesis V predicted that as
barriers to meditation, people with high levels of stress will list time issues more often
than people with low levels of stress. The results seem to support the hypothesis.
Participants from the low stress group were almost twice less likely to mention time
issues (20%) than participants from the very high stress group (36.4%). The tendency is
visible among all groups, the higher stress scores for a group, the bigger percentage of
people mentioned time issues. As it was discussed earlier, stress is often characterized
by perceived absence of time. The fact that meditation practices need time might play a
role in the negative relationship between stress levels and participants' willingness to
meditate.
Complexity
In accordance with the Diffusion of Innovation theory, complexity is the degree to
which an innovation is perceived as relatively difficult to understand and use (Rogers,
2003). The more complex the new idea appears to the population, the harder it will be to
diffuse the innovation. For meditation-based intervention, complexity comprises of
misconceptions about the practices, lack of knowledge about it, and pragmatic concerns.
50
Misconceptions about the practices. Previous research demonstrated the most often
mentioned barriers related to misconceptions about meditation (Williams et al 2010).
One of the most influential misconceptions is that meditation is ineffective. In the
current study 23.3% of participants saw meditation as “possibly ineffective” and also
17% were absolutely sure about it. In other studies people said they believe that there is
no scientific evidence about the effectiveness of meditation (Jain & Astin, 2001; Astin,
Goddard, & Forys, 2005; Mensah, & Anderson, 2015; Blonski et al., 2014). However,
very few of the participants see meditation as a health-damaging activity. The item “I
wonder if meditation might harm me” was chosen by 0.68 % of the subjects. It was the
least popular reason against meditation from the list of Determinants of Meditation
Practice Inventory.
Lack of knowledge.
Participants demonstrate that they do not know much about
meditation. In regard to the question of the perceived effectiveness of meditation as a
stress reduction method, the most common answer was “I do not know” (28.3%). While
choosing items for not meditating from the Determinants of Meditation Practice
Inventory the reason “I don't know much about meditation” was the most popular
(33.56%). Interestingly, none of the found studies demonstrated lack of knowledge as
the main reason for not participating in meditation programs. One of the possible
explanations of this discrepancy between the current and previous studies is in the
different levels of popularity of the concept of meditation in Russia and Western
countries. All found studies were done in the United States and Europe, where
meditation and mindfulness are discussed publicly, for example in the media, more
often (Baer, 2006), than in Russia.
51
Pragmatic concerns. 10. 27 % of the participants complained that “There is no quiet
place where I can meditate”, and almost 12 % said “There is never a time when I can be
alone” as their reasons for not practicing meditation. Although these complications were
reported by relatively small number of the subjects, they still might be important
obstacles to meditation. For example, Lederer and Middlestadt (2014) reported, that one
of positive predictors of maintenance of meditation behavior is availability of a quiet
space to meditate. Nevertheless, the main pragmatic concern was absence of time. As
was mentioned already, the participants pointed to time issues more often than to any
other pragmatic reason (32.19 %). These findings are in consistency with the research
done before. Almost all found studies that were devoted to obstacles of implementation
of meditation-based interventions (Martinez et al., 2015; Astin, Goddard, & Forys,
2005; Lederer & Middlestadt, 2014;) discussed the problem of struggling to find time
for meditation as the most significant. During a systematic review done by Mensah and
Anderson (2015) time deficiency as a barrier to meditation engagement was mentioned
in eleven out of nineteen studies.
Methods to control stress
In addition, the participants were asked about methods they use more often to deal with
everyday stress. Watching TV (33.92%), listening to music (27.43%), and doing
hobbies (26.44%) were the most popular options. However, alcohol consumption
(25.37%) and tobacco smoking (24.75%) follow the list. Although these last two
methods of stress reduction were not extremely popular, they still were quite common.
According to a set of studies (Everly & Lating, 2003), males significantly more often
52
engage themselves in drinking alcohol and cigarette smoking . Taking into account that
80% of the participants were females, the prevalence of alcohol and cigarette use in the
whole population had been estimated to be higher.
Socialization as a method of
harmonization of one’s psychological state was chosen by 23.19% of the participants.
Exercise (19.47%), praying (7.96%), and relaxation techniques (7.96%) were the least
popular options. This tendency, from the perspective of Diffusion of Innovation Theory
might be challenging for the implementation of MBSR and other meditation-based
interventions. For example, in MBSR one of the important elements is yoga exercises,
and the other is relaxation during meditation.
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research
There are some limitations to the current study. Firstly, the study was carried out via an
online form, so the portion of the population that does not participate in social media
was not accounted for. Possibly they have different views on the topic as the internet
has its own culture and its active users are regularly exposed to specific information.
Although the participants were invited from different cities, the number of people who
actually participated in the study was not equal among the cities. For example, about a
third of the participants were from one particular town located in the European part of
Russia. In addition, as recruitment was done on local forums of cities, so it is possible to
assume that people from villages did not participate. Due to the fact that the current
research focuses on cultural issues, it might be an influential bias for the data.
Secondly, in regard to participants’ religiosity, the measure that was used for the study
was based on self perception. This might be a source of inconsistency in the results of
53
the current study with previous research. One potential problem is that it is hard to rate
one’s self in terms of level of religiosity. For the future research, it seems as more
appropriate to use a validated scale to measure religiousness. In addition, very few
people in the study actually described themselves as very religious. To conclude that
religion in Russia does not play a role of a barrier to meditation, it seems to be
appropriate to recruit participants from religious and atheist communities in order to
compare results.
Thirdly, it was assumed that participants have a need to manage their stress. However, it
might be the case that people with a rather high level of stress live happily. In regard to
the participants who had a low stress level, it might be rather peculiar to ask them about
methods of stress reduction. In relation to the same problem, the item “I do not need to
reduce my stress” should be among the list of the Determinants of Meditation Practice
Inventory. In addition, in the pilot study a completely new item emerged. It appeared as
the most popular option, although has not been originally in the Determinants of
Meditation Practice Inventory. For the future research open-ended question about
obstacles to meditation might give fruits similar to that which has just been described. If
subjects will be allowed to give their own reasons, some new barriers that have not been
accounted yet, may emerge.
Fourthly, in regard to scores on Perceived Stress Scale, there can be two potential
problems. It is not admired by society to not be in control of one’s’ life events, or be
nervous, or irritated. Thus, the participants might be engaging in self – deception or
impression – management behavior while completing the scale. They might have shown
54
less stress than they actually had been suffering from. However, the overall stress score
was rather high; this means that the bias was not present. Another potential problem that
was connected with the scale is negative priming for other questions that the
participants needed to answer. The suggestion for further research is to place the scale at
the end of the questionnaire to avoid the priming.
Summary and Conclusion
Exposure to prolonged stress creates complications for psychological and physiological
health. Mindfulness-based interventions show promising results in terms of stress
management. However, the interventions are underused, especially in Russia. Without
diffusion among the population, the interventions will not achieve the potential of its
usefulness. In order to promote the programs, barriers to meditation as a core practice of
the program should be studied. This acquired knowledge of the barriers will help to
overcome them.
The study shed some light on the issue of obstacles to implementation of meditationbased interventions in Russia. Results suggest that religiousness does not influence
attitudes toward meditation as well as meditative behavior. In addition, the contradiction
of meditation to religious beliefs is a weak obstacle to meditative practices. So, if
supported by further research, in Russia adaptors might not care to deal with the
problem so much as in other countries where religiousness is a more powerful predictor
of attrition.
55
However, results showed the cultural perception of meditation as an alien esoteric
practice to be an important barrier. For disassociating of meditation-based interventions
from esoteric practices adopters might use facilities of academic or clinical institutions
for teaching sessions. In addition, they can completely omit the usage of features
associated with foreign religions, for example bell and music, and practice meditation
sitting on chairs instead of sitting in a lotus pose. Naming is also important in this sense.
Some authors completely avoid the use of the word “meditation” (Baer, 2003). Instead,
they call it mindfulness practices. That also seems to be appropriate to avoid unwanted
associations.
High stress levels seem to be an obstacle to engaging in and maintaining meditation
practices. Based on these findings, adopters might inform learners about this tendency,
so people will be more prepared, and potentially more resistance to the trait. Results
suggest that insufficient time is one of the main obstacles for practicing meditation.
Actually, MBSR has effective solutions to help with the problem as it teaches
meditation in everyday life, where no special time or place is needed. Adopters might
point to this fact to encourage participation.
By identifying and addressing the barriers, meditation-based intervention might be
diffused among different groups of the population and promote solutions for stress
control
where
it
is
needed.
56
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