Relationship Between Mindfulness and Physical Activity in College Students: The Mediating Effect of Eudaimonic Well-Being

Abstract

Previous research has shown many benefits of mindfulness for physical and psychological health, including its link to such health behaviors as increased physical activity (PA). We re-examined the association between mindfulness and PA to better understand a possible mediating role of eudaimonic well-being in this association, while controlling for participants’ age, gender, and affect. We had 738 undergraduate student participants (45.0% females; M age = 19.58 years) complete measures of trait mindfulness, eudaimonic well-being, and PA, and we used age, gender, and affect as covariates in a single-wave assessment. We conducted this mediation analysis with a bootstrapping technique to produce 10,000 resamples. We replicated findings of a significant relationship between mindfulness and enhanced eudaimonic well-being (β = 0.474, p < 0.001), which in turn contributed to increased PA (β = 0.193, p < 0.001). The bootstrapping method indicated a significant indirect effect of eudaimonic well-being (β = 0.092, 95% CI = [0.043, 0.142]) in the relationship between mindfulness and PA through eudaimonic well-being. Thus, eudaimonic well-being may mediate the connection between mindfulness and PA. College administrators should consider incorporating mindfulness into health promotion programs as a means of enhancing college students’ well-being and health behaviors.