Age and sex-specific differences of mindfulness traits with measurement invariance controlled in Chinese adult population: A pilot study.

Objectives: To examine the relationships of age and sex with mindfulness traits among Chinese adults with controlling for measurement invariance. Methods: A total of 1777 participants completing the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire were included for analysis. Their age and sex information were also collected. Descriptive analysis, Pearson's Chi-Square test and analysis of variance were performed to test the age- and sex-specific differences, measurement invariance was examined by confirmatory factor analysis. Results: Excellent data fit to the model indicated configural, metric, and scalar invariance across age and sex. Participants aged 60 or above scored significantly higher in dimensions of acting with awareness, nonjudging of inner experience, nonreactivity to inner experience, and the total scores than younger individuals, who had higher scores in the observing domain. In addition, females scored higher in describing and observing than males, while the latter had higher score in nonreactivity to inner experience. Conclusions: The Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Mindfulness showed acceptable measurement invariance across age and sex in Chinese adult population. The old and the young differs in the traits of awareness, observing, nonjudging of inner experience, nonreactivity to inner experience and the total mindfulness level, while males and females varied in describing, observing and nonreactivity to inner experience. Individual differences should be considered and well addressed in future studies on mindfulness.

Mindfulness and burnout among Chinese college students: mediation through sleep quality and perceived stress.

College students often face challenges and obstacles which leads them vulnerable to burnout. Though numerous studies have supported an association between mindfulness and burnout, yet little is known about the potential mediating role of mindfulness exerts its effect in this link. This study aimed to explore the relationship between mindfulness and burnout among Chinese college students and investigated the sleep quality and perceived stress as two potential mediators of that relationship. A total of 536 college students (mean age = 21.93, 66.2% female) were investigated and completed the Five Facet of Mindfulness Questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Perceived Stress Scale and Academic Burnout Scale of College Students. Path analyses were employed to examine the mediating effect. Results indicated that mindfulness had significant negative correlation with burnout (r=-.584, p < 0.001). Sleep quality and perceived stress were significant mediators of the observed relationship between mindfulness and burnout. These findings shed light upon the mediating role of sleep quality and perceived stress, and suggest that college students' mindfulness may facilitate their sleep quality and decrease perceived stress, which, in turn, may help prevent and reduce burnout.

The effects of body scan meditation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Standardized mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been proved to be effective across many populations while the time commitment for the standardized intervention leads to high attrition rate. To address the problem, there has been a growing interest in conducting a single component of MBSR such as body scan. However, the impact of a sole mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of body scan meditation. A search of databases, including PubMed, Embase, EBSCO, Cochrance, Proquest Dissertations, and Theses, was conducted for randomized controlled trials with no population restriction. Fourteen independent articles were identified and outcomes were divided into seven categories. A meta-analysis with robust variance estimation was conducted separately for different outcome categories. Body scan only had small effect on mindfulness when compared with passive control (Hedge's g = .268, 95% CI = [0.032, 0.504], p < .05). The attrition rate of long-term interventions was low. The quality of these studies was low. There was high heterogeneity across studies. A sole body scan meditation is not effective enough to improve health-related outcomes.