Predictors of Mindfulness Among Jordanian University Students

Objectives: This study aims to explore the levels and nature of relationships between mindfulness, psychological resilience, and psychological hardiness among Jordanian university students. Furthermore, it investigates the predictors of mindfulness, using psychological resilience, psychological hardiness, and sociodemographic variables including gender, marital status, age, grade point average, type of university, type of specialty, and academic year among Jordanian university students. Methods: The study sample consisted of four universities (two public and two private), selected through a convenience procedure. A total of 1219 students from different specialties, including medical, scientific, and humanity schools, participated in this study. We used validated Arabic psychological scales namely, mindfulness scale, psychological hardiness scale, and Connor-Davidson psychological resilience scale after being checked by validity, reliability, and suitability for the local environment. Results: Results indicated that the percentage of 32.7% of students had low levels of mindfulness, 7.3% had low levels of psychological hardiness, and 16.3% had low levels of psychological resilience. Positive relationships were found between the three selected psychological variables. Moreover, there were significant differences attributed to marital status for married and divorce, and type of specialty for medical and humanistic schools in mindfulness levels. Results showed that psychological resilience, psychological hardiness, and marital status were the most significant predictors of mindfulness among Jordanian university students, with 26.1% of variance. Conclusions: Levels of mindfulness and psychological hardiness were relatively found to be low, thus the study recommends developing special counseling programs to enhance mindfulness, improve psychological resilience, and psychological hardiness among Jordanian university students.