Publication Date

2019

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Ogg, Julia A.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

Mindfulness is everywhere. Smartphone applications, self-help books, manualized interventions, and non-profit organizations are but some of the avenues used to illuminate the singular power mindfulness can bestow. Curiously, some of the leading mindfulness researchers, despite their shared agreement of the conferrable benefits once practiced and applied, have professed fundamental disagreements about the nature and development of mindfulness, its measurability as a scientific construct, and whether it can ever be properly dissociated from Buddhist conceptualizations for use in secular contexts. In the case of mindfulness in children, for whom classroom-based manualized interventions have been produced, even less is known than is for adults. To help fill the lacuna, the current study first investigated the factor structure of the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale adapted for Children (MAAS-C; Lawlor, Schonert-Reichl, Gadermann, & Zumbo, 2013) with a sample of students in fifth- and sixth grade (N = 411). Second, relations between two tasks of attention control, dispositional mindfulness, and academic achievement were explored for the students in sixth grade (N = 354). Results indicated a unidimensional model provided an adequate fit to the MAAS-C data; The Stroop task statistically significantly predicted dispositional mindfulness; dispositional mindfulness only statistically significantly predicted PARCC Math scores; the Stroop task statistically significantly predicted Performance Series Reading and Math scores in the negative direction; and the MAAS-C statistically significantly moderated the relationship between the Stroop task and the Performance Series Reading assessment, but it did not statistically significantly moderate the relationship between the flanker task and Performance Series Reading scores. Findings support evidence for the value of attention control in academic performance, raise questions about the conceptualization of mindfulness in children and its underlying link with attention control, and offer productive areas for future research.

Extent

147 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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