Mindfulness in everyday life: between- and within-person relationships to motivational conflicts

Abstract

Mindfulness has shown beneficial relationships with well-being and self-regulation. We aim to improve the understanding of the effects of between- and within-person differences in mindfulness when dealing with situations of motivational conflict. For this purpose, we conducted an experience sampling study with 56 university students who replied to a total of N = 1889 short questionnaires, which they received via their smartphones over a period of eight consecutive days. In addition to a state mindfulness questionnaire with the facets presence and non-judgment (focusing attention on the experience of the current action and a momentary non-judgmental stance towards these, respectively), the participants received questions about their current affective well-being and perceived intensity of want or should conflict experiences. Multi-level analyses revealed that want conflicts were predicted by both state mindfulness facets, even after momentary affect was controlled. In addition, to be non-judgmental (as a trait), and having momentary presence (as a state), related to lower intensity of should conflicts. The results suggest that being mindful might be a particularly beneficial way of dealing with daily motivational conflicts, which is an essential and frequent task of self-regulation.