Which comes first? Modeling the longitudinal association between mindfulness and neuroticism

Abstract

Mindfulness-based interventions have been found to mitigate neuroticism. However, the temporal order of these relationships in non-clinical individuals without mindfulness training remains unclear. This four-wave longitudinal study examined whether within-person changes in mindfulness precede or follow changes in neuroticism in a large sample of Chinese college students (Wave 1: Mage = 21.12 ± 1.45, 60.7% female, N = 1074). Using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model, we found a reciprocal association between mindfulness and neuroticism at the within-person level, which corroborated the dynamic personality theories. Changes in mindfulness were negatively correlated with subsequent changes in neuroticism (B = −0.11, p < .001, β = −0.11 to −0.09); and changes in neuroticism were also negatively correlated with subsequent changes in mindfulness (B = −0.14, p < .001, β = −0.15 to −0.11). At the between-person level, higher neuroticism was correlated with lower mindfulness (r = −0.51, SE = 0.04, p < .001). These findings suggest that RI-CLPM modeling techniques are suitable for interpreting mindfulness and neuroticism associations both at the between- and within-person level.