The concept of mindfulness is centuries old. Originally stemming from Buddhist tradition, it has only more recently come into prominence within Western society (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). Mindfulness has been defined as, “intentionally paying attention to present-moment experience (physical sensations, perceptions, affective states, thoughts, and imagery) in a nonjudgmental way, thereby cultivating a stable and nonreactive awareness” (Carmody, Reed, Kristeller, & Merriam, 2008 p. 394). Mindfulness is a unique state of consciousness from that of typical cognitive processing because a person allows sensory input and simply notices it rather than comparing, evaluating, or ruminating about it (Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007). The mindfulness term has been used to refer to a variety of related constructs and practices. Following the lead of Glomb, Duffy, Bono, and Yang (2011) we use the term mindfulness treatment to refer to mindfulness-based therapeutic programs (e.g., MSBR) and trait mindfulness to refer to dispositional individual differences in mindfulness.
To date, much of the research regarding mindfulness has focused on mindfulness-based treatment interventions (e.g., Brown et al., 2007). Research shows that mindfulness treatment influences the immune system, stress hormones and health behaviors in salutary ways (Greeson, 2009). A more recent line of research has investigated mindfulness as a psychological state. Although mindfulness may vary from moment to moment within a person, there is considerable evidence of individual differences in mindfulness, suggesting that it is a state-level construct that can also be assessed at the trait level (Brown et al., 2009, Dane, 2011 and Ryan and Deci, 2008). Trait mindfulness has been negatively associated with psychological distress, rumination, and social anxiety while positively correlated with clarity of emotional states, mood repair, and relationship satisfaction (e.g., Carmody et al., 2008, Chambers et al., 2008 and Dekeyser et al., 2008). Mindfulness-based treatment interventions have been shown to improve mean scores in reports of trait mindfulness therefore demonstrating that mindfulness is amenable to change through training (Carmody et al., 2008 and Chambers et al., 2008).
Perhaps due to mounting evidence documenting the positive effects of mindfulness on a wide variety of outcomes in other disciplines, the study of mindfulness is beginning to garner attention among industrial–organizational psychology/organizational behavior scholars (Dane, 2011 and Glomb et al., 2011). Both Dane and Glomb et al. provide a thorough review of mindfulness as well as an introduction to the potential value of examining mindfulness and its contributions to work-related outcomes such as task performance. The purpose of the current study is to extend both the study of mindfulness and that of work–family balance. Specifically, we test the potential benefits of trait mindfulness among a sample of employed parents within a mediated framework. The outcomes we investigate are, work–family balance, sleep quality, and vitality. We propose that the latter two variables serve as mediating mechanisms by which trait mindfulness relates to work–family balance.
Our study makes several unique contributions to the literature. First, as mentioned earlier, mindfulness can be trained and therefore become a part of an individual's life, incorporated into daily chores, activities, and role performance (Dane, 2011 and Kostanski and Hassed, 2008). By investigating an individual difference variable that is amenable to training and change, we bring to light a new tool that may help working parents achieve good health and work–family balance. Second, the work–family literature has been dominated by research that has focused on work–family conflict or more recently on work–family enrichment (see Hammer & Zimmerman, 2011 for a review). The construct of work–family balance has emerged as a unique and useful addition to the work–family literature (Greenhaus & Allen, 2010). We contribute to this growing focus of research inquiry. Third, it has been suggested that parenting may be the most physically and mentally demanding role that individuals encounter during the lifespan (Janisse, Barnett, & Nies, 2009). By focusing on working parents, we address a population that is at high risk for energy drain and poor sleep quality. Fourth, by investigating vitality and sleep quality, we incorporate two mediating mechanisms that have received limited attention within the work–family literature.
