Trait mindfulness, overall adjustment, and physical well-being perceptions of college students

The current study explored some of the fundamental relationships between trait mindfulness, global adjustment, and physical well-being. Data were collected for two mindfulness measures, (the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills, KIMS, and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, MAAS), two global adjustment measures (Core Self-Evaluations Scale, CSES, and the Temporal Satisfaction with Life Scale, TSWLS), and two measures of physical well-being (Health Concerns Questionnaire, HCQ, and the CDC Health-related Quality of Life-4, CDC HRQOL-4). Participants were undergraduate students (n = 108). Based upon numerous empirical studies that suggest that mindfulness-based interventions provide various benefits to well being and health, it was, in turn, hypothesized that a higher level of trait mindfulness would be associated with higher levels of global adjustment and a greater overall health and health-related quality of life. Correlational analyses demonstrated significant relationships between mindfulness and adjustment as well as between adjustment and physical well-being. Only one mindfulness measure was found to share a significant relationship with health, and this correlation was weak in magnitude. The relatively weak relationship between mindfulness and health-related quality of life does not support the claims of mindfulness proponents who have suggested a clear causal relationship between training to promote mindfulness and improved health. These findings suggest that further research is necessary to better understand whether mindfulness training does indeed have a causal relationship to the health gains documented in the literature given the relatively weak correlational support.