Mindfulness predicts positive academic outcomes. But can we enhance people's mindfulness?

I'll admit that I haven't paid a lot of attention to the mindfulness literature. But maybe I should. Mindfulness involves the ability to focus attention, be aware of the present moment, and accept oneself. These skills all rely on executive functions, and in turn, the skills predict mental health, well-being, and academic performance. But are these skills malleable, or are they more trait-based, like executive functions? Turns out you can intervene upon mindfulness skills, and they might serve as a mediator between executive functions and performance. To be an useful mediator, however, people have to believe they can become more mindful. And that leads us to mindset interventions.

A series of seven studies by Orosz and colleagues (2024) suggests people do have a mindset toward mindfulness (i.e., mindfulness is either fixed at birth or can grow), it can be measured with decent reliability and validity evidence, mindfulness mindset is different than intelligence mindset and other related phenomena, it does predict academic performance, and a mindfulness mindset intervention can produce small changes in beliefs. Now, all the familiar caveats and concerns about mindsets work also apply to mindfulness mindsets work. And the effect sizes in this study were small, but they didn't target those who most needed the intervention, either. And I like how mindfulness work targets malleable manifestations of executive functions. So, all in all, I consider this work promising, and, in the future, I plan to change how mindful I am of mindfulness research.