The chain mediation effect of rumination and worry between the intentionality and content dimensions of mind wandering and internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety

Guan, Siqing; Takahashi, Toru; Tomita, Nozomi; Kumano, Hiroaki · 2025 · DOAJ

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-99249-5

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Summary

This study investigates the cognitive mechanisms linking dysfunctional mind wandering (MW) to internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety. While MW is a common mental activity, its association with negative affect remains poorly understood, particularly regarding how specific dimensions of MW—intentionality and content—contribute to emotion dysregulation. The authors aimed to clarify whether trait rumination and worry, conceptualized as distinct maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, mediate the relationship between unintentional MW and internalizing symptoms. By distinguishing MW from rumination and worry at the trait level, the study sought to identify specific dysfunctional MW types that perpetuate depression and anxiety through sequential mediation pathways. The researchers analyzed data from 55 undergraduate and graduate students in Japan. Participants completed self-report questionnaires measuring depressive symptoms (CES-D), anxiety symptoms (GAD-7), trait worry (PSWQ), and trait rumination (RRQ). To assess MW tendencies, participants performed a Sequential Sustained Attention to Response Task (Sequential SART) with multi-category thought sampling. During the task, participants responded to 20 random probes indicating whether their thoughts were on-task, intentional MW, or unintentional MW, and further categorized unintentional thoughts by temporal orientation (past/future), emotional valence (positive/neutral/negative), and specificity (specific/vague). Statistical analysis used principal component analysis to create a composite internalizing symptom score and the SPSS PROCESS macro to test chain mediation models with bias-corrected bootstrap estimates. The results demonstrated that unintentional MW, particularly when characterized by future-oriented, vague, or negative content, was positively correlated with internalizing symptoms, rumination, and worry. Crucially, the study found significant chain mediation effects where unintentional MW indirectly predicted internalizing symptoms through a sequential pathway: unintentional MW increased trait rumination, which in turn increased trait worry, ultimately leading to higher internalizing symptoms. This chain mediation was significant for general unintentional MW, unintentional future-oriented MW, and unintentional vague MW. For unintentional negative MW, both single mediation (via worry alone) and chain mediation (rumination followed by worry) were significant. Conversely, intentional MW showed weak or negligible associations with internalizing symptoms. The reverse mediation order (worry preceding rumination) was not statistically supported for most models, confirming the specific directional pathway from rumination to worry. These findings provide novel insight into the distinct roles of rumination and worry in maintaining internalizing symptoms. The study establishes that dysfunctional, unintentional mind wandering contributes to depression and anxiety not directly, but by amplifying maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in a specific sequence. By identifying unintentional MW as a precursor to rumination and subsequently worry, the research highlights the importance of distinguishing MW intentionality and content in clinical assessments. This understanding offers a foundation for targeted interventions that address the automatic cognitive mechanisms of executive control failure and the resulting emotion dysregulation pathways.

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Topics

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• mind wandering
• anxiety depression driving