In plain language
Mindfulness and acceptance had been studied extensively in adults, but at the time of this study almost nothing was known about whether these skills actually benefit teenagers. This study asked whether different facets of awareness — acting with awareness (engaging fully in what you are doing), observing (noticing sights, sounds, and sensations), emotional awareness (being able to identify your feelings), and experiential acceptance (willingness to have unpleasant thoughts and feelings rather than pushing them away) — would predict improvements in adolescents' emotional well-being over time.
A total of 776 Grade 10 students (50% female) completed measures of mindfulness, emotional awareness, experiential acceptance, and major personality traits, and their emotional well-being (fear, sadness, hostility, and positive emotion) was assessed again one year later. This longitudinal design made it possible to test whether awareness and acceptance skills predicted genuine change in well-being, rather than just correlating with it.
The results distinguished the helpful facets from the neutral ones. Acting with awareness, emotional awareness, and experiential acceptance were all linked to prosocial tendencies and each uniquely predicted increases in well-being across the year. In contrast, merely observing experience was correlated with both positive and negative aspects of personality and did not predict any change in well-being. The findings suggest that teaching young people to engage fully in their activities, identify their emotions, and accept difficult inner experiences may pay measurable dividends for their emotional health.
Key findings
- In 776 Grade 10 students followed over one year, acting with awareness, emotional awareness, and experiential acceptance each uniquely predicted increases in emotional well-being.
- Acting with awareness predicted decreasing sadness and hostility over the year.
- Emotional awareness predicted decreasing sadness, hostility, and fear.
- Experiential acceptance predicted increasing positive affect as well as decreasing sadness and fear.
- The observing facet of mindfulness (noticing and attending to a variety of stimuli) correlated with both positive and negative aspects of personality, was weakly associated with higher fear and sadness a year later, and did not predict changes in well-being.
- Controlling only for baseline affect, the awareness and acceptance variables individually explained between 2% and 5% of the variance in changes in well-being, and all three helpful facets were linked to prosocial tendencies.
How to cite
APA
Ciarrochi, J., Kashdan, T. B., Leeson, P., Heaven, P., & Jordan, C. (2011). On being aware and accepting: A one-year longitudinal study into adolescent well-being. Journal of Adolescence, 34(4), 695–703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2010.09.003
BibTeX
@article{ciarrochi2011being,
author = {Ciarrochi, Joseph and Kashdan, Todd B. and Leeson, Peter and Heaven, Patrick and Jordan, Carlie},
title = {On being aware and accepting: A one-year longitudinal study into adolescent well-being},
journal = {Journal of Adolescence},
year = {2011},
volume = {34},
number = {4},
pages = {695--703},
doi = {10.1016/j.adolescence.2010.09.003}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
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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.