(PS7-68) The Unique Effects of Hope and Mindfulness on Mental Health in Asian American Adults

Abstract Text: Hope and mindfulness have been recognized as protective factors and contributors to well-being. However, past studies have predominantly focused on Western samples, with few studies on Asian/Asian American samples. This study aimed to examine how hope and mindfulness relate to anxiety, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction in Asian/Asian American adults. We anticipated that hope and mindfulness would correlate moderately negatively with anxiety and positively with psychological well-being and life satisfaction. We also hypothesized that mindfulness and hope will be equally strong predictors for life satisfaction, psychological well-being and anxiety when examined simultaneously.

The sample consists of 1754 Asian/Asian American college students, mostly female (73.2%), with ages between 18 and 46 (Mage=20.32, SD=2.445). A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate bidirectional associations amongst all variables. Structural equation modeling through Mplus Version 8 was also conducted to quantify the unique effects of hope and mindfulness on anxiety, psychological well-being and life satisfaction. The model fit was good (χ²(df=242)=1463.53, p<.001, RMSEA=.05, TLI=.92, CFI=.93, SRMR=.05). Hope and mindfulness were strongly positively correlated (β=.57, p<.001). Accounting for each other, mindfulness (β=-.38, p<.001, 95% CI [-.45,-.30]) uniquely and inversely predicted anxiety while hope did not (β=-.01, p=.772, 95% CI [-.08,.06]). Hope and mindfulness both had similarly moderate positive associations with life satisfaction while controlling for each other (β=.35, p= <.001, 95% CI [.28,.41]) (β=.32, p= <.001, 95% CI [.25,.39]), respectively. Hope had a stronger unique positive relationship with psychological well-being (β=.44, p= <.001, 95% CI [.38,.50]) than mindfulness (β=.38, p<.001, 95% CI [.30,.45]), when accounting for both predictors. Hope and mindfulness together predicted 15% of the variance in anxiety, 52% of the variance in psychological well-being and 35% of the variance in life satisfaction.

Findings demonstrated that hope and mindfulness were similarly moderate predictors of life satisfaction, as hypothesized. While accounting for each other, hope was found to be a stronger predictor of psychological well-being than mindfulness, though both hope and mindfulness maintained their associations with psychological well-being. Unexpectedly, results showed that mindfulness was a unique predictor of anxiety while hope was no longer a meaningful predictor of anxiety when accounting for mindfulness. Results suggest that hope and mindfulness are both important predictors that differ depending on the type of mental health outcome. For anxiety, mindfulness appears to be the more robust predictor. For well-being, both are impactful, with hope being slightly more robust. These findings extend our understanding that the benefits of these protective factors for well-being in Asian/Asian American samples align with existing literature, though the relationships with anxiety surprisingly differ, with hope potentially being less relevant for anxiety.