Exploring the Relationship between Mindfulness and Life Satisfaction in Adolescents: The Role of Social Competence and Self-Esteem

Although previous research demonstrated that greater mindfulness may contribute to life satisfaction, less is unclosed about such an association and the mechanisms potentially explaining it during adolescence. The present study aimed to explore the role of self-esteem and social competence in the mindfulness-life satisfaction relationship in a sample of Turkish adolescents. The sample consisted of 406 adolescents aged 14–18 years (Mage = 16.01, SD = 1.15; 62.32% girls). We collected the data using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale-Adolescent (MAAS-A), the Perceived Competence Scale (PCS-S), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). The findings revealed significant positive correlations between mindfulness, social competence, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Our findings support two ways of explaining this relationship: the mediating role of self-esteem (indirect effect = 0.04; 95% CI: 0.03—0.06), accounting for a total effect of 0.06 and a ratio of 66.67%, and the serial mediating role of social competence and self-esteem (indirect effect = 0.02; 95% CI: 0.01—0.03), accounting for a total effect of 0.06 and a ratio of 33.33%. In addition, the results of the multi-group analysis showed no significant difference between boys and girls in a model where mindfulness predicts life satisfaction. Overall, our study may shed light on a possible process in which mindfulness boosts life satisfaction among adolescents.