The Examination of the Relationship Between University Students' Levels of Mindfulness, Rumination and Depressive Symptoms

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between Mindfulness and rumination and depressive symptoms among university students. The sample of this study was collected from 300 university students who are 18 years old and over, and studying in North Cyprus. The data collection tools of the research are Sociodemographic Form, Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Ruminative Thought Style Questionaire. It was used Mann-Whitney U for pairwise comparisons, Kruskal Wallis for more than two independent variables, and Spearman method for correlational analysis because there is no distribution of normality. Correlational analyses revealed that individuals with psychological or neurological disorders have lower Mindfulness scores. In addition, it was observed that those individuals who have low-income levels have lower Mindfulness scores than other groups. It was analyzed that individuals who are 18-23 years old have higher rumination and depression scores than individuals who are 24 years old and more. It was observed that individuals with psychological or neurological disorders have higher Depression scores. It was analyzed that there is a weak negative relationship between Mindfulness and rumination. It was observed that individuals who have lower depression scores have the ones that have lower Mindfulness scores, there is a weak negative relationship between Mindfulness and depression. It was found that individuals who suffer from depression have lower rumination scores; there is a weak positive relationship between depression and rumination. In future studies, it is recommended to conduct experimental studies with larger samples in this area.