Assessing "Western" Mindfulness Among Thai Theravāda Buddhist Monks

Mindfulness has its roots in Eastern contemplative traditions and is rapidly gaining popularity in Western psychology. However, questions remain regarding the validity of Western operationalizations of mindfulness. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the applicability of several Weste...

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VerfasserInnen: Christopher, Michael S. (VerfasserIn) ; Christopher, Varinthorn (VerfasserIn) ; Charoensuk, Sukjai (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: Taylor & Francis 2009
In: Mental health, religion & culture
Jahr: 2009, Band: 12, Heft: 3, Seiten: 303-314
weitere Schlagwörter:B cultural validity
B Thai Buddhist monks
B Mindfulness
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Mindfulness has its roots in Eastern contemplative traditions and is rapidly gaining popularity in Western psychology. However, questions remain regarding the validity of Western operationalizations of mindfulness. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the applicability of several Western mindfulness measures among a sample of Thai Theravāda Buddhist monks. Twenty-four monks recruited from Buddhist temples in Thailand participated in the study. The monks evinced similar associations between mindfulness and related variables as American validation study samples did, and on two facets of mindfulness the monks’ mean scores were greater than an American college student sample. However, the American sample endorsed significantly higher scores on three other facets of mindfulness. These results raise concerns about whether these scales are measuring mindfulness as it is conceptualized in a Buddhist context. Future research with larger samples is needed to further assess the cultural validity and measurement equivalence of Western mindfulness measures across cultural groups.
ISSN:1469-9737
Enthält:Enthalten in: Mental health, religion & culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13674670802651487