The moderating and mediating roles of mindfulness and rumination on COVID-19 stress and depression: A longitudinal study of young adults.

= 3.62). The participants completed measures of COVID-19 stress, rumination, mindfulness, and depressive symptoms at four time points spanning 1 month. Cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis of the data showed that COVID-related stress predicted rumination, which in turn, predicted depressive symptoms. In addition, mindfulness buffered the relationship between COVID-related stress and rumination. Later, we ran exploratory analyses to examine the robustness of the main models at each wave, linear mixed-effects models to investigate change over time, and conducted a cross-lagged model to test for directional effects. Notably, the longitudinal findings suggested that COVID-related stress and rumination tended to decrease over time and mindfulness remained temporally stable. Additionally, increases in rumination predicted increases in depression. Some longitudinal findings did not consistently congrue with cross-sectional results. Overall, the findings highlight the diverse ways in which individuals cope with stress and the promise of mindfulness as a protective factor against the negative effects of pandemic-related stressors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).