| The use of mindfulness meditation, which encourages nonjudgmental present-moment awareness, has become increasingly popular in psychological and medical health care settings over the past three decades (Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Labbe, 2011). Mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to effectively improve psychosocial functioning for individuals with varied disorders and diagnoses (Baer, 2003; Didonna, 2009; Labbe, 2011). Exploration of the mechanisms which contribute to positive change and development of psychometrically-sound assessment tools to measure such changes have become areas of import for those utilizing and researching mindfulness meditation (Baer, 2003; Baer, Walsh, & Lykins, 2009; Coffey, Hartman, & Fredrickson, 2010). The current study evaluated both trait- and state-level mindfulness as measured by current scales, and compared a mindfulness meditation exercise to a traditional relaxation exercise to determine if the interventions differentially influenced state mindfulness. In a sample of one hundred and ten undergraduate college students, trait-level mindfulness was not significantly related to state-level mindfulness either before or after intervention, and trait-level mindfulness did not significantly account for change in state-level mindfulness. The traditional body scan exercise from mindfulness-based interventions did not significantly change state-level mindfulness in comparison to progressive muscle relaxation and a control condition, although state-level mindfulness did increase significantly from pre-to post-intervention for the entire sample. Individuals' levels of reported relaxation following the intervention were significantly related to post-intervention state-mindfulness scores, with those individuals endorsing greater feelings of relaxation scoring significantly higher on the measure of state-level mindfulness. |
