Mindfulness in Orphan and Parentless Adolescents as a Factor of Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

The article presents a study of mindfulness as a feature of consciousness in orphan and parentless adolescents. The adolescents’ mindfulness is analysed through their awareness of the ability to achieve positive psychological effects, including psychological well-being and resilience. The study employed the following 9 techniques: the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM); the Resilience Scale; the Self-Compassion Scale; the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire; the Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale; the Gratitude Questionnaire; the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire; the scales for measuring readiness to help and aggression in the classroom; the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).The sample included 20 orphan and parentless adolescents. The study revealed that mindfulness is indeed a factor of psychological well-being. The educators of twenty organizations for orphans and children without parental care assessed the adolescents’ strengths and difficulties in order to evaluate their cognitive emotion regulation abilities.Сorrelation analysis allowed us to identify the relationship of mindfulness, psychological well-being indicators and emotional regulation with a number of social psychological characteristics of personality in the adolescents: indicators of positive psychological effects of mindfulness, in particular, humanity, resilience, competence (environmental management), and decrease of cognitive and emotional reactivity.