The mindful adolescent: Developmental changes in nonreactivity to inner experiences and its association with...

Little is known about the naturalistic development of mindfulness in adolescence and how it relates to changes in emotional well-being. The current longitudinal study examined the development of one dimension of mindfulness, nonreactivity to difficult inner experience (or in more colloquial terms, being able to notice, but "take a step back" from distressing thoughts), in a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample (N = 1,657) during the transition from middle school to high school. Students participated in up to four assessment waves, from fall of 8th grade through spring of 9th grade, in which they completed self-report measures assessing nonreactivity, perceived stress, and positive and negative affect. Latent growth curve models indicated that levels of nonreactivity increased during the 2-year study period. Developmental change in nonreactivity varied minimally by gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and race/ethnicity. Parallel process latent growth curve models showed that changes in nonreactivity were associated with concomitant reductions in perceived stress and negative affect, and increases in positive affect. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models showed that within-person nonreactivity prospectively predicted changes in perceived stress and positive affect, but not negative affect. This study is among the first to track the naturalistic development of mindfulness during adolescence. Results suggest that the nonreactivity dimension of mindfulness is associated with aspects of emotional well-being during the transition from middle school to high school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).