Racial and Gender Differences in Mindfulness, Engaged Living, and Psychological Inflexibility Within a Hawaiʻi-Based College Sample

Objective: Extending prior psychometric work with a Hawaiʻi-based college sample, this secondary cross-sectional study examined racial and gender group differences in mindfulness, engaged living, and psychological inflexibility within that same Hawaiʻi-based sample. Methods: Consistent with the grouping strategy used in that previous psychometric work, participants were categorized into 402 Asian American (263 women, 139 men), 260 White American (199 women, 61 men), and 406 combined All Others (301 women, 105 men) students, all recruited from a four-year public university in Hawaiʻi. After informed consent, participants voluntarily and anonymously completed an online survey containing self-report measures of interest. Results: Asian American students reported lower scores on measures of observing, describing, and non-judging facets of mindfulness than White American students. Men reported higher describing, non-distractibility, non-judging, and non-reacting scores than women, and White American men showed higher non-autopiloting than White American women. For engaged living and psychological inflexibility, White American students reported greater life fulfillment and lower psychological inflexibility than Asian American and All Others groups. Asian American women reported lower recognizing-values scores than White American women, and women overall endorsed greater psychological inflexibility than men. These differences, although statistically significant, were generally small and did not appear to be clinically meaningful. Associations among study variables as well as their roles in psychological distress were also examined within each racial group. Conclusions: Keeping several notable limitations in mind, this secondary cross-sectional investigation provided a preliminary examination of mindfulness, engaged living, and psychological inflexibility across racial and gender group categories, using methodological and psychometric decisions tailored to the present Hawaiʻi-based sample. We hope that our preliminary findings encourage further investigation in this domain.