At the University of Maine, a group of researchers determined that among older adults, higher levels of trait mindfulness was associated with enhanced well-being and psychological health.
The findings were published online in Aging & Mental Health.
121 adult participants (aged 55 to 87) took part in the study. Their level of trait mindfulness was measured using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale.
During the study, the participants were assigned a number of psychological tasks to stimulate their executive function and other mental skills or tasks.
The participants were also tested for their levels of psychological resilience and emotional response to stressful yet unexpected stimuli.
According to researchers, a higher measurement of trait mindfulness among the participants was associated with older and more educated adults, typically of lesser stress and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
“In this cross-sectional study, 121 adults completed neuropsychological measures of working memory, mental set-shifting, and inhibition, as well as a battery of well-validated psychological self-report measures,” first author Rebecca MacAulay and her colleagues stated in their journal article.
“Trait mindfulness was associated with measures of greater well-being and mental health,” their findings confirmed.
“Our results also indicate that trait mindfulness may provide psychological resilience by attenuating perceived stress and enhancing the capacity to intentionally suppress irrelevant information and automatic responses.”
