Mindfulness works for women, but not for men?..new research

The "one size fits all" meditation programs/apps operate on the premise that their program works for everyone...every gender, age, nationality, religion, etc.  IME, that isn't the reality, as everyone unfolds in their own unique way and process, but there is little good research to prove it.

Willoughby Britton
Brown University

A recent article "Mindfulness may not work as well for men" begins with "Mindfulness courses have less effect on the attitudes and emotions of men than on those of women, new research suggests." This research, "Women Benefit More Than Men in Response to College-Based Meditation Training" by Rojiani, R. et al., was co-led by Willougby Britton.

Willoughby's work was featured in "Dark Night of the Soul - who/why/what to do" as she is a leading researcher on difficulties arising from mindfulness meditation, and is a serious meditator, clinical psychologist, and has "been there" in DNoS.

As the research points out, there has been "virtually no research investigating whether effects differ across genders - despite the fact that men and women differ in clinically significant ways".

Research demonstrates great differences between men and women, beginning in early adolescence, with girls being twice as likely by age 13 - 14 to suffer from depression and anxiety, and boys more likely to have "conduct disorder and substance use disorder".   This continues through adulthood and is found in many cultures.

There are also differences in how each gender copes with psychological distress.  Men tend to direct actions "outward"/externalizing with sports, video games, TV, etc.  Women tend to "internalize" by ruminating or writing.   (Many references.)

This study's initial population of 114 was reduced by 37 due to inadequate participation, follow-up, or incomplete questionnaires, leaving 36 women and 41 men, aged 20.5 (+/- 3 yrs), who were volunteers.   Data is from those who attended at least 50% (all italics mine) of the meditation labs and completed testing.  There was no apparent consideration of previous meditation experience.

Eleven students included in the study reported suicidal ideation during the study, some at the beginning and not at the end, others at the end but not the beginning.

A confound pointed out by the authors is that this is not a typical population.  They are Brown University undergraduates and consequently have well above-average intelligence, socioeconomic background and previous education.

This is a concern, given that mindfulness research studies (see "mindfulness meditation...does it work?") were found in a Journal of the American Medical Association study to be biased 79% of the time.  Also, 61% of social science research was not reproducible in a study published in Nature, a top tier journal.  Problems arise from limited resources, the demand for faculty publications, and personal bias.

Harold Roth
Brown University

Courses were 12 weeks long, on Brown's campus, for 1 hr, 3 times/wk, with 30 minutes of "contemplative practice from Buddhist or Daoist traditions" led by Harold Roth.  These were "primarily focused attention and open monitoring forms of practice" and "emphasized attention allocation rather than the non-judgmental acceptance that is common in more modern Western styles of mindfulness..".

IMHO, this is also a confound as it may well have improved results over those possible from "modern" mindfulness practices.

There were great differences in "intervention adherence" (how much folk meditated) ranging from 810 to 6,591 minutes.  IMHO, this is a confound as it really does matter how much you meditate.


The self-reported assessment measures were:

Negative Affect by Gender

         a) "Affect" which describes the degree to which one experiences:
       positive states like
           -interested
           -excited
           -enthusiastic
vs negative states like
          -ashamed
          -irritable
          -distressed


The Pre/Post figure shows that the negative affect decreased significantly in women, but increased in men.  Neither gender showed positive affect.
       

Mindfulness and Self-compassion by Gender

        b)  "Mindfulness" addressed:
             1. acting with awareness
             2. describing
             3. accepting w/o judgment
             4.  non-reactivity to inner experience
             5. observing
           
      c)  "Self-compassion" addressed:
              1. common humanity
              2. isolation
              3. mindfulness                                        
              4. over-identification                            
              5. self-judgment
              6. self-kindness

Women did better than men in all of these.


One confound the authors cited was limiting "gender" to two categories, when it is a continuum.

Old what's his name
in "Yoga for Wellness" by
Gary Kraftsow

The important conclusion was that men require "more active" mindfulness approaches such as yoga or Tai Chi to "better accommodate the external coping strategy more typical of men".   Also, some mindfulness approaches may be "contra-indicated"/harmful for some folk.

Using different approaches for different capabilities and temperaments has been recognized for millennia.  For example, the Bhagavad Gita provides three approaches...

                 a )  Karma Yoga, the path of action and surrendering any attachment to the outcome of one's work

                b)   Jnana Yoga, the path of wisdom, knowledge and direct experience of the One/Infinite Consciousness/"God" while renouncing both actions and desires

               c)  Bhakti Yoga, the path of devotion involving unceasing remembrance of, and surrender to a chosen "God"

Eido Roshi

i was drawn to Rinzai Zen which uses koans/questions to engage and confound the intellect's "conceptual thinking".  Soto Zen focuses on "shikan taza", or "nothing but precisely sitting" or "sitting to hit" w/great intensity.  When i co-led our regional zendo, both types were practiced.

i studied with a man and a woman.  One, a traditional, strict Japanese master - the now "controversial" Roshi Eido Tai Shimano, the other - the late iconoclastic Toni Packer.

Toni rose to be Philip Kapleau's successor at the Rochester Zen Center (RZC).  After encountering J. Krishnamurti's teaching and rebelling against organized religion, Toni was excommunicated from RZC and formed a no robes, no titles, no rituals, voluntary-sitting center - the Springwater Center.

The RZC and Eido practices represent traditional Rinzai Zen, and Toni's Springwater practices represent a "modern" meditative inquiry.

Springwater Center

The traditional Rinzai  koans, translated from Japanese and Chinese, did not "work" for me, and i suspect many others who had no context, history or deep understanding of the Japanese or Chinese languages or traditions in which they were framed.

In their stead, both Toni and Eido approved my using the "natural" self-inquiry koans of Bassui ("Dharma Talk on One Mind"), which was expounded fully in Ramana Maharshi's teachings.  Also, i did a "more active" approach with lots of various yogas.   After much work, Toni and Eido both passed me and Toni said i could teach.

It is important to find your own path, tailored to your temperament and capability, the essence of the Brown study on gender in mindfulness.   That is why i work so much 1/1.

Mother Goddess
of Catalhayouk
6000 B.C.E.

On the subject of gender bias, whether you are a man or a woman, i strongly recommend streaming the BBC video "The Ascent of Woman".  The earliest organized societies were egalitarian, and the first writer and "Gods" were women, which continued for millennia, until it didn't.  The Ancient Greeks, for all their supposed sophistication, were some of the worst misogynists.   An eye-opening, and illuminating series.