Big Five of Mindfulness and Personality: Cross-Cultural Network Analysis

Objectives Research on personality seeks to understand what makes people similar or distinct from another. However, there is still a limited understanding of processes that underpin an individual’s personality, such as interactions with other psychological dispositions such as trait mindfulness. Elucidating the unique relationships between mindfulness and personality traits with network analysis can lead to a better understanding of how dispositional traits may interact with one another and thus contribute to new insights into human behaviour. Method Large multinational samples completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and the Big Five Personality Inventory, with a total sample size of 3,736. Exploratory network analysis was conducted with a random half of the US sample ( n = 977). Distinct network patterns were then tested in a confirmatory way in the other half of the US sample ( n = 978) and samples from England ( n = 216), Canada ( n = 781), Spain ( n = 466) and Argentina ( n = 318). Results In all countries, Conscientiousness was more strongly related to Acting with Awareness compared to all other mindfulness facets. Extraversion was strongly related to Describing while Openness was strongly related to Observing in all countries, except in Canada and Argentina. Emotional Stability was related to Nonreacting, Nonjudging, and Acting with Awareness in all countries except Argentina where these links were weaker. Conclusions This study showed remarkable cross-national consistencies in the associations between personality factors and mindfulness facets, which could inform future research and intervention studies. Preregistration This study is not preregistered.