Trait Mindfulness and Inhibitory Control in Young Adults: Moderation by Sex and Mediation by Resting EEG

a. Objective b. To determine the relationship between facet-level trait mindfulness (TM) and inhibitory control (IC), and whether the relationship is moderated by sex and mediated by resting cortical activity. c. Methods d. 283 young adults (149 women; 18–30 years old) completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and a flanker task involving congruent and incongruent trials to induce varying IC demands. A sub-sample (n = 174) completed resting-state electroencephalogram (rsEEG) to quantify power in theta, alpha, and beta bands using individualized alpha-peak frequency. Linear mixed-effects models tested the associations of TM facets with IC, and the moderation by sex. The sub-sample tested the mediation effect of rsEEG on associations between TM facets and IC. e. Results f. Acting with Awareness (AA) was positively associated with accuracy, selectively for incongruent trials. Among women, observing was positively related to response time, whereas higher nonjudging was related to shorter response time variability. Mediation analysis showed an indirect effect of AA on incongruent accuracy via eyes-open upper alpha: while the negative association of AA with upper alpha was not significant (a-path), higher upper alpha predicted better incongruent accuracy (b-path) and partially suppressed AA’s otherwise beneficial association with incongruent accuracy. g. Conclusions h. The relationship between TM and IC varied across facets and differed between men and women. Upper alpha was positively related to IC but suppressed the beneficial association of AA with IC. These findings highlight the importance of facet-level analysis on TM when characterizing its associations with IC in a sex-specific manner and underlying neural mechanisms.