Meditative practices predict spirituality but mindfulness does not predict alcohol use in African-American college students

Abstract

This study examines the relationships between mindfulness, alcohol use, social desirability, daily spiritual experiences, and religion in African-American college students at an Historically Black College or University. Significant positive correlations were found between mindfulness and religion as well as between spirituality and meditative practices. Results suggest that participants who reported being religious were more likely to have higher emotional intelligence and better verbal expressive abilities compared to participants who reported being nonreligious. Participants who endorsed practicing some form of meditation also were found to have a higher degree of reported spirituality compared to those who reported not practicing meditation. Findings suggest that those participants who reported being mindfully nonjudgmental also reported being more likely to be negatively reactive to their own thoughts. Findings do not suggest that mindfulness, social desirability, and religion predict alcohol use in African-American college students.

Keywords:

• African-American
• alcohol
• college students
• meditation
• mindfulness
• spirituality

Acknowledgement

The authors thank Amy Johnson for her assistance with the data collection and entry on this project.