Dispositional mindfulness in climbers with different levels of experience

This cross-sectional study investigated whether climbing experience is associated with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness and its related key mechanisms. A total of N = 203 climbers-comprising 33 leisure and novice climbers, 85 moderately experienced climbers, and 85 experienced climbers-primarily from Germany (113 women, 86 men, and three non-binary individuals, aged between 20 and 61 years) completed five self-report questionnaires to test the hypotheses concerning mindfulness (measured with the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire), attention regulation (measured with the Attention Control Scale), and emotion regulation (measured with the Brief Version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale) across varying levels of climbing experience. In addition, the study examined the relationship between climbing experience and body awareness (measured with the Embodied Mindfulness Questionnaire), and non-attachment (measured with the Short Form of the Non-Attachment Scale). Experienced climbers scored higher than moderately experienced climbers on the non-judging facet of dispositional mindfulness. In contrast, moderately experienced climbers reported significantly higher overall values of emotion regulation in the sub-scales of clarity, strategies, and non-acceptance compared to experienced climbers. Furthermore, the climbing and meditation experience was associated with attention to and awareness of bodily sensations. To conclude, the experience of climbing is only related to the non-objective facet of dispositional mindfulness. The observed advantages in emotion regulation among experienced climbers suggest that sustained engagement in climbing is associated with an agentic emotional experience.