Dispositional mindfulness as a positive predictor of psychological well-being and the role of the private self-consciousness insight factor

•Mindfulness and insight have significant overlapping variance.•Mindfulness and insight each positively predict psychological well-being.•Insight serves as a partial mediator for mindfulness–psychological well-being.

The current study explored relationships among dispositional mindfulness, the private self-consciousness (PrSC) insight factor, and psychological well-being. Several mindfulness studies indicate that dispositional mindfulness is a positive predictor of psychological well-being. In a distinctly different area of consciousness research, Grant, Franklin, and Langford’s (2002) PrSC insight factor shows similar predictive results. Here it is hypothesized that these two seemingly independent dispositional consciousness constructs have overlapping variance and that insight can serve as a partial mediator for dispositional mindfulness when it predicts psychological well-being. Participants were 184 university students who were administered a self-report measure of dispositional mindfulness, insight, and psychological well-being. Correlational analyses revealed that mindfulness and insight were significantly and positively correlated with each other and with psychological well-being. Bootstrap regression analyses supported the model of insight as a partial mediator of the mindfulness–psychological well-being predictive relationship.