Mindfulness and hope: distinct yet complementary relationships with psychological well-being

Mindfulness and hope are both associated with well-being, yet their orientations—present-focused awareness versus future-directed striving—are seemingly at odds. Moreover, limited research addresses them simultaneously. We investigated the relationship between mindfulness and hope, assessing their associations with psychological well-being. A cross-sectional survey of 145 undergraduates (Mage = 18.83; 112 women, 32 men, 1 unreported) tested the degree to which each construct was associated with measures of depression, anxiety, stress, life satisfaction, optimism, sense of control, and executive functioning. Mindfulness was assessed using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, hope using the State Hope Scale, and well-being using various validated self-report measures. Mindfulness and hope, although not correlated with each other (r = .05, p = .56), were independently associated with many of these measures. Additionally, mindfulness was uniquely associated with anxiety (β = − 0.48), disinhibition (β = − 0.41), and negative-assertive control (β = − 0.39), whereas hope was uniquely associated with life satisfaction (β = 0.25) and positive-assertive control (β = 0.39). The shared variance jointly associated with both mindfulness and hope across all well-being measures was minimal (≤ 1.8%). Mindfulness and hope appear to be distinct constructs that independently relate to psychological well-being. Their unique associations suggest complementary, rather than conflicting or redundant, roles.