Understanding Mindfulness in Racially Diverse Adults Through a Person-Oriented Approach: A Latent Profile Analysis with a Hawaiʻi-Based Sample

Objectives  Previous research adopted a person-oriented approach to investigate how the configuration of mindfulness facets manifests across individuals. However, these mindfulness profiles have not been fully explored among underrepresented racially diverse samples in the USA. Additionally, the associations between the mindfulness profiles and key emotion regulation processes as well as mental health outcomes have yet to be fully clarified.
Method  Using the 39-item Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the current cross-sectional study conducted latent profile analysis to explore the underlying groups within a Hawaiʻi-based racially diverse sample of college students (n = 807). Subsequently, we examined the relationship between the identified mindfulness profiles and the facets of difficulties in emotion regulation and psychological distress.
Results  The results suggested five distinct profiles within the present sample; high mindfulness, average mindfulness, low mindfulness, non-judgmentally aware, and judgmentally observing groups. The first three profiles (i.e., individuals consistently displaying high, average, or low mindfulness levels across different facets) showed corresponding levels of difficulties in emotion regulation (low, average, high) and psychological distress (low, average, high). Interestingly, the non-judgmentally aware group showed a salutary relationship with psychological distress, while the judgmentally observing group showed a detrimental one. However, these associations were less clear regarding difficulty in emotion regulation. This may suggest that different configurations of mindfulness traits play distinct roles in the affective domain.
Conclusions  These findings can inform ideographic treatment development based on mindfulness profiles, thus helping individuals in managing psychological distress by identifying and applying the most effective coping strategies.
Preregistration  This study is not preregistered.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.