In plain language
Nonattachment is a flexible, non-clinging way of relating to ideas and feelings: being able to enjoy pleasant experiences without needing them to last forever, and to hold beliefs about how life should go without rigidly insisting on them. Earlier research had linked nonattachment to lower depression, anxiety, and stress, but those studies were snapshots of adults at a single moment, so nobody knew whether nonattachment actually comes before better mental health, or whether it is simply a by-product of feeling well. Nothing was known about nonattachment in teenagers, even though adolescence is when mental disorders most often first appear.
This study followed 2,348 students (1,162 males, 1,186 females) from 16 Australian high schools across three years, measuring nonattachment and mental health each year in Grades 10, 11, and 12. Using structural equation modeling, the researchers tested whether nonattachment predicted future changes in mental health (the antecedent model), whether mental health predicted future nonattachment (the consequence model), or both.
The antecedent model was clearly supported: teenagers higher in nonattachment showed reliable improvements in mental health from Grade 10 to 11 and again from Grade 11 to 12, with nonattachment explaining about 4.5% of the variance in mental health a year later. The reverse pathway appeared only in the earlier transition. The findings suggest nonattachment protects against developing poor mental health, and that schools could promote it without harming engagement, for example by encouraging students to focus on the learning journey rather than clinging to grades.
Key findings
- Nonattachment predicted approximately 4.5% of the variance in adolescent mental health measured one year later, and about 3% at a two-year lag.
- Supporting an antecedent model, nonattachment reliably predicted reductions in poor mental health from Grades 10 to 11 (β = −.091, p = .006) and Grades 11 to 12 (β = −.121, p < .001).
- The consequence model (poor mental health leading to lower nonattachment) was supported only from Grades 10 to 11 (β = −.127), indicating reciprocal effects early but not later in high school.
- Effects were similar for males and females, though females reported substantially worse mental health than males at every grade.
- Nonattachment was measured reliably in adolescents (NAS-7, α ≈ .81-.82) with a consistent measurement structure across time; it rose in Grade 12 while average mental health worsened from Grades 10 to 12.
- Results held in sensitivity analyses, including a random intercept cross-lagged panel model separating within-person from between-person variance.
How to cite
APA
Ciarrochi, J., Sahdra, B. K., Yap, K., & Dicke, T. (2020). The role of nonattachment in the development of adolescent mental health: A three-year longitudinal study. Mindfulness. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01421-7
BibTeX
@article{ciarrochi2020role,
title = {The Role of Nonattachment in the Development of Adolescent Mental Health: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study},
author = {Ciarrochi, Joseph and Sahdra, Baljinder K. and Yap, Keong and Dicke, Theresa},
journal = {Mindfulness},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.1007/s12671-020-01421-7}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
- Nonattachment research & practices (non-attachment.com)
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.