The Role of Mindfulness in Emotional Intelligence and Stress

Mindfulness is an inherent state of consciousness which involves consciously attending to one's moment-to-moment experience (Brown & Ryan, 2003). Mindfulness may be useful in identifying emotions and assessing them at deeper level of awareness (Goleman, 1998) leading to improvements in affective processes, stress and emotion regulation (Nielsen & Kaszniak, 2006). This study aimed at exploring the role of mindfulness in relation to emotional intelligence and stress. The initial sample comprised of 200 males and 200 females in the age range of 15 to 19 yrs. (mean age=16.51 yrs. for males and 16.42 yrs. for females) drawn from various Government Model Senior Secondary Schools of Chandigarh, India. Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale by Brown and Ryan (2003), Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test by Schutte et al. (1998) and Adolescent Stress Questionnaire by Byrne et al. (2007), were used for the study. Results highlighted interesting trends in relation to emotional intelligence and stress scores across various groups of mindfulness. Also, significant gender differences were seen on mindfulness, emotional intelligence and stress.