Linking Trait Mindfulness to Life Satisfaction in Adolescents: the Mediating Role of Resilience and Self-Esteem

This paper’s objective was to explore the relationships among mindfulness, resilience, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in two independent samples of Chinese adolescents. Study 1 surveyed 467 adolescents (154 boys; mean age: 16.12 ± .86 years) through self-administered questionnaires comprising the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MASS), The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC), and Satisfaction with Life Scale(SWLS). The correlation analysis demonstrated that mindfulness, self-esteem, resilience and life satisfaction positively correlated with each other. Results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) showed that mindfulness predicted life satisfaction through two pathways. On the one hand, mindfulness predicted life satisfaction through the mediating effect of self-esteem (indirect effect = .04; 95% CI: .02–.07). On the other hand, mindfulness predicted life satisfaction through the chain mediating effect of resilience and self-esteem (indirect effect = .03; 95% CI: .02–.05). In addition, none of the mediated effects differed by gender. To test whether the results reported here are stable and replicable, we further conducted a validation study in sample 2 (N = 630; 270 boys; mean age: 15.22 ± .59 years) and found all the results remained significant. Together, these findings explain a possible process by which mindfulness enhances life satisfaction.