Book of Abstracts [Unofficial – Accepted Presentation, Abstract Submission Ongoing]

Declining mental health, partially owing to the increasingly fast-paced lifestyle of individuals in the current globalised consumerist world, highlights the need for more accessible, easily implementable strategies to improve psychological well-being. Mindfulness is often linked to increased psychological well-being. However, the Socio-cognitive framework of mindfulness (SCM) is under-represented in the existing mindfulness literature. Further, there is a sparsity of research in understanding the process by which SCM increases psychological well-being despite its relevance in aiding the development of relevant interventions. Hence, this study aimed to examine SCM as a predictor of psychological well-being and to investigate cognitive reappraisal (CR) as a mediator in this process. The study employed a quantitative, questionnaire-based, non-experimental, within-subjects design, with SCM as the predictor variable, psychological well-being as the criterion variable and CR as the mediator variable. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling and consisted of a majority of UAE residents of South Asian ethnicity, aged 18 and above (N=503). The data was analysed using a mediation analysis. Results were significant for all hypotheses. Findings indicate that higher levels of trait SCM were likely to have higher psychological well-being. Further, CR as a mediator partially explained this relationship. Future directions and the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.