Relationship between mindfulness and emotional competence in adolescents

Sa？etak Over the last decade, mindfulness programs targeted at adolescents have been intensively developed, implemented and researched around the world. Studies indicate the potential of these programmes to prevent various behavioural problems as well as promote mental health. In order to better understand how mindfulness works, there is a growing interest in researching the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and emotional intelligence of an individual. The present study examines the correlation between different dimensions of mindfulness (observing, describing, acting with awareness, nonjudging of experience, and nonreactivity to inner experiences) and emotional competence, and it explores the relative contribution of the particular dimensions of mindfulness to emotional competence in adolescents. The survey was conducted on a sample of 220 students (65.9% male) from Zagreb high schools with an average age of 16. The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (Baer et al., 2006) and the UEC-15 Emotional Competence Questionnaire (Tak？i？, 1998) were applied. Analysis showed the presence of significant correlations between the particular dimensions of mindfulness (describing, nonreactivity to inner experiences, acting with awareness, and observing) and emotional competence of adolescents. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that these particular aspects of mindfulness (describing, acting with awareness, and observing) significantly contribute to explaining emotional competence in adolescents. The results of this study can contribute to the quality of creating interventions to develop emotional competence in adolescents