Trait hostility and aggression as a partial function of lower dispositional mindfulness

Introduction: Dispositional mindfulness has yet to be examined in relation to maladjustment indicators. Materials and Methods: This study established associations between dispositional mindfulness, trait hostility, lifetime aggression, and additional maladjustment indicators in a college (N= 945) and a national (N= 239) sample. We assessed the samples through an electronic survey. The college sample was collected through the Psychology Department extra credit participant pool at North Dakota State University. An abbreviated survey was administered in the national sample using a financial incentive for participation. Results: Significant differences were found between the least (below 20th percentile) mindful and remaining respondents on 19 of 31 maladjustment indices. Significant group effect sizes (d) averaged 0.49 with a high of 0.94 (prior psychiatric treatment in national sample) (P 0.001). Conclusion: Mindfulness was associated with propensities toward physical aggression, as indicated by multiple indicators. These results suggested that a primary concern posed by low dispositional mindfulness was hostile attitudes toward others that extended to violent acts among a smaller subset of this high-risk cohort.