Mindfulness and Subjective Well-being Among Chinese Adolescents: A Longitudinal Study and a Weekly Diary Investigation

Liping Ma and Yanhui Xiang ()
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Liping Ma: Hunan Normal University
Yanhui Xiang: Nanjing Xiaozhuang University

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2023, vol. 24, issue 6, No 1, 1881 pages

Abstract: Abstract Enhancing subjective well-being is essential for enlightening individual pursuit of a better life in positive psychology. Although numerous research projects have preliminarily investigated the effect of mindfulness (MD) on subjective well-being (SWB) and its potential mechanisms, few longitudinal studies have investigated the bidirectional association between MD and SWB at both trait and state levels. On this basis, this study aimed to comprehensively explain the temporary and longitudinal relationships between MD and SWB [positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), life satisfaction (LS)] at both trait and state levels using the longitudinal and weekly diary methods. A two-wave longitudinal survey with a time interval of eight months from a sample of 504 adolescents (N = 504; M = 15.11; 56.2% female) and a seven-week weekly diary survey from a sample of 117 adolescents (N = 117; M = 15.64; 65.81% female) were designed in studies 1 and 2, respectively. In study 1, first, the confirmatory factor analysis was performed on SWB as a hierarchical construct to confirm that the global subjective well-being (gSWB) could explain the covariance among its first-order factors (PA, NA LS, Model 1). Then, two cross-lagged models (Model 2: MD - PA, NA, LS; Model 3: MD - gSWB) were constructed to explore the bidirectional relationship between trait mindfulness and SWB (PA, NA, LS, and gSWB) through Mplus 8.3. In study 2, the hierarchical linear models were initially constructed to explore the correlation between state mindfulness and SWB. Furthermore, the longitudinal hierarchical linear models were conducted to examine the cross-lagged relationship between state mindfulness and SWB. Overall, the results of the longitudinal study revealed that (1) trait mindfulness positively predicted PA and LS and negatively predicted NA; (2) trait mindfulness showed a reciprocal prediction with NA; (3) gSWB positively predicted trait mindfulness. In addition, the results of the weekly diary study indicated that (1) state mindfulness of the current week positively predicted PA and LS in the following week and negatively predicted NA in the following week. (2) PA and LS of the current week positively predicted state mindfulness in the following week. Findings suggest that, to some extent, there is a reciprocal relationship between MD and SWB, which not only contributes to our understanding of mindfulness at both trait and state levels, but also provides an empirical foundation for improving adolescents’ subjective well-being.

Keywords: Mindfulness; Subjective well-being; Longitudinal; Weekly diary method; Adolescent (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s10902-023-00662-2

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