Self-compassion and mindfulness in relation to mind wandering: indirect associations mediated by negative affect

Previous studies using mindfulness training interventions have shown that such training can reduce mind wandering, and this has often been attributed to improvements in executive functions. Instead of focusing on executive functions, the present cross-sectional study examined how affect is involved in the associations of self-compassion and dispositional mindfulness with mind wandering. We used multiple mediation analyses to investigate how self-compassion and dispositional mindfulness are related to mind wandering through positive and negative affect. A web-based survey was conducted with 168 Japanese university and graduate students (105 women; mean age = 21.3 years, SD = 2.9). Self-compassion and dispositional mindfulness were both negatively associated with negative affect and mind wandering. Multiple mediation analyses indicated that negative affect, but not positive affect, statistically mediated the associations of self-compassion and dispositional mindfulness with mind wandering. Descriptively, the indirect association via negative affect appeared somewhat larger for self-compassion than for dispositional mindfulness, although we did not formally test the difference between these indirect paths. These preliminary correlational findings suggest that higher self-compassion and higher dispositional mindfulness may be related to less mind wandering, partly through lower negative affect. In addition, the present results provide preliminary groundwork for future intervention studies that directly compare the effects of self-compassion training and mindfulness training on mind wandering via reductions in negative affect.