Relating dispositional mindfulness and long-term mindfulness training with executive functioning, emotion regulation, and well-being in pre-adolescents

<p>The present study examined whether both dispositional mindfulness without mindfulness training and mindfulness resulting from longer-term mindfulness training are positively associated with pre-adolescents’ well-being, via enhanced executive functioning (EF) and emotion regulation. EF was assessed in a GoNoGo task via behavioral performance and event-related potentials. Study 1 (<i>N</i> = 62) investigated associations of dispositional mindfulness without mindfulness training with EF, well-being and emotion regulation; longitudinal Study 2 with an active control group compared the effects of long-term mindfulness training (<i>N</i> = 28) with a positive psychology intervention (<i>N</i> = 15). Dispositional mindfulness without training was associated with lower EF, unrelated to emotion regulation and the relationship with well-being was mixed. Long-term mindfulness training was positively related to EF and well-being (reduced negative affect), but was uncorrelated with emotion regulation and mindfulness scores. Taken together, long-term mindfulness training was found to have mixed effects. Further research is required in this area.</p>