Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Playing it safe: Dispositional mindfulness partially accounts for age differences in health and safety risk-taking propensity

  • Published:
Current Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Older adults consistently report a lower likelihood of engaging in health and safety risks (e.g., substance use, not wearing seatbelts) than younger adults. However, the mechanisms that explain this age difference are not clear. Greater dispositional mindfulness is associated with lower engagement in health risk behaviors, and older adults tend to score higher in dispositional mindfulness than younger adults. Thus, we tested whether older adults’ greater dispositional mindfulness helped to explain their lesser health and safety risk-taking propensity. Two community-dwelling samples of younger (25–36 years) and older (60+ years) adults completed self-report measures of dispositional mindfulness and health and safety risk-taking propensity. In Study 1, older adults reported greater dispositional mindfulness and a lower likelihood to engage in health and safety risk behaviors than younger adults. Greater dispositional mindfulness was associated with lesser health and safety risk-taking propensity. Importantly, older adults’ greater dispositional mindfulness partially accounted for their lesser health and safety risk-taking propensity. These findings were replicated in Study 2, and an alternative mechanism (i.e., perceived health) was ruled out. The results suggest that age-related decreases in health and safety risk behaviors may be statistically explained, in part, by dispositional mindfulness. The current research has implications for behavioral interventions intended to increase preventative health behaviors and decrease health risk behaviors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Shook et al. (2017) reported associations among age, positive affect, negative affect, and mindfulness using data that included five younger adults who reported ages outside of the 25–35 year inclusion criteria.

  2. For the current studies, we were only interested in, and had hypotheses regarding, the health and safety subscale, given the large literature linking mindfulness with health benefits. However, we did explore whether dispositional mindfulness accounted for age differences in any of the other domains of the DOSPERT. For both Studies 1 and 2, dispositional mindfulness did not explain any other age differences, except for in the domain of ethics.

  3. The pattern of results did not change if age was entered as a continuous variable in the mediation analyses.

  4. If the outliers are included in the primary analyses, the age difference in mindfulness becomes non-significant (p = .07) and the indirect effect is consequently no longer significant.

  5. The pattern of results did not change if age was entered as a continuous variable in the mediation analyses.

  6. The indirect effect was also significant when not controlling for perceived health.

References

  • Baer, R. A., Hopkins, J., Krietemeyer, J., Smith, G. T., & Toney, L. (2006). Using self-report assessment methods to explore facets of mindfulness. Assessment, 13, 27–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191105283504.

  • Best, R., & Charness, N. (2015). Age differences in the effect of framing on risky choice: A meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 30, 688–698.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bishop, S. R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N. D., Carmody, J. , … Devins, G. (2004). Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11, 230–241.

  • Blais, A. R., & Weber, E. U. (2006). A domain-specific risk-taking (DOSPERT) scale for adult populations. Judgment and Decision making, 1, 33–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonem, E. M., Ellsworth, P. C., & Gonzalez, R. (2015). Age differences in risk: Perceptions, intentions and domains. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 28, 317–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, S., & Enkema, M. C. (2014). Relationship between dispositional mindfulness and substance use: Findings from a clinical sample. Addictive Behaviors, 39, 532–537.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, S., & Marlatt, A. (2009). Surfing the urge: Brief mindfulness-based intervention for college student smokers. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 23, 666–671.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, J. A., Mallik, S., Babuscio, T. A., Nich, C., Johnson, H. E., Deleone, C. M., et al. (2011). Mindfulness training for smoking cessation: Results from a randomized controlled trial. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 119, 72–80.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822–848.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bruine de Bruin, W., Strough, J., & Parker, A. M. (2014). Getting older isn’t all that bad: Better decisions and coping when facing ‘sunk costs. Psychology and Aging, 29, 642–647.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carstensen, L. L. (2006). The influence of a sense of time on human development. Science, 312, 1913–195. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1127488.

  • CDC Vital Signs. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/pdf/2011-01-vitalsigns.pdf. Accessed 19 Jan 2018.

  • Chen, H., Cohen, P., & Kasen, S. (2007). Cohort differences in self-rated health: Evidence from a three-decade, community-based, longitudinal study of women. American Journal of Epidemiology, 166, 439–446.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crowe, M., Jordan, J., Burrell, B., Jones, V., Gillon, D., & Harris, S. (2016). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for long-term physical conditions: A systematic review. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 50, 21–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeSalvo, K. B., Bloser, N., Reynolds, K., He, J., & Muntner, P. (2006). Mortality prediction with a single general self-rated health question. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21, 267–275.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Eigenbrodt, M. L., Mosley, T. H., Jr., Hutchinson, R. G., Watson, R. L., Chambless, L. E., & Szklo, M. (2001). Alcohol consumption with age: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study of the atherosclerosis risk in communities (ARIC) study, 1987–1995. American Journal of Epidemiology, 153, 1102–1111.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez, A. C., Wood, M. D., Stein, L. A. R., & Rossi, J. S. (2010). Measuring mindfulness and examining its relationship with alcohol use and negative consequences. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 24, 608–616.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Figner, B., & Weber, E. U. (2011). Who takes risks when and why? Determinants of risk taking. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 211–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E., & McHugh, P. R. (1975). “Mini-mental state”: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189–198.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fritz, M. S., & MacKinnon, D. P. (2007). Required sample size to detect the mediated effect. Psychological Science, 18, 233–239.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fylkesnes, K., & Førde, O. H. (1991). The Tromsø study: Predictors of self-evaluated health—has society adopted the expanded health concept? Social Science & Medicine, 32, 141–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, D., & Waltz, J. (2010). Mindfulness and health behaviors. Mindfulness, 1, 227–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, C. R., Kreitzer, M. J., Reilly-Spong, M., Wall, M., Winbush, N. Y., Patterson, R., Mahowald, M., & Cramer-Bornemann, M. (2011). Mindfulness-based stress reduction versus pharmacotherapy for chronic primary insomnia: A randomized controlled clinical trial. Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, 7, 76–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grühn, D., Sharifian, N., & Chu, Q. (2016). The limits of a limited future time perspective in explaining age differences in emotional functioning. Psychology and Aging, 31, 583–593.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Methodology in the social sciences. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York: Guilford Press.

  • Heppner, W. L., Spears, C. A., Correa-Fernández, V., Castro, Y., Li, Y., Guo, B., et al. (2016). Dispositional mindfulness predicts enhanced smoking cessation and smoking lapse recovery. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 50, 337–347.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hohaus, L. C., & Spark, J. (2013). 2672–getting better with age: Do mindfulness & psychological well-being improve in old age? European Psychiatry, 28, 1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Idler, E. L., & Benyamini, Y. (1997). Self-rated health and mortality: A review of twenty-seven community studies. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38, 21–37.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, I., Wollny, A., Sim, C. W., & Horsch, A. (2016). Mindfulness facets, trait emotional intelligence, emotional distress, and multiple health behaviors: A serial two-mediator model. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 57, 207–214.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Josef, A. K., Richter, D., Samanez-Larkin, G. R., Wagner, G. G., Hertwig, R., & Mata, R. (2016). Stability and change in risk-taking propensity across the adult life span. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 430–450.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Jylhä, M. (2009). What is self-rated health and why does it predict mortality? Towards a unified conceptual model. Social Science & Medicine, 69, 307–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. New York: Hyperion.

  • Kiken, L. G., & Shook, N. J. (2012). Mindfulness and emotional distress: The role of negatively biased cognition. Personality and Individual Differences, 52, 329–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiken, L. G., Garland, E. L., Bluth, K., Palsson, O. S., & Gaylord, S. A. (2015). From a state to a trait: Trajectories of state mindfulness in meditation during intervention predict changes in trait mindfulness. Personality and Individual Differences, 81, 41–46.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lawton, M. P., Moss, M., Fulcomer, M., & Kleban, M. H. (1982). A research and service oriented multilevel assessment instrument. Journal of Gerontology, 37, 91–99.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lazovich, D., Isaksson Vogel, R., Berwick, M., Weinstock, M. A., Warshaw, E. M., & Anderson, K. E. (2011). Melanoma risk in relation to use of sunscreen or other sun protection methods. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 20, 2583–2593.

  • Lee, R. (2000). The Lee-Carter method for forecasting mortality, with various extensions and applications. North American Actuarial Journal, 4, 80–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindenberger, U., Von Oertzen, T., Ghisletta, P., & Hertzog, C. (2011). Cross-sectional age variance extraction: What's change got to do with it? Psychology and Aging, 26, 34–47.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mahoney, C. T., Segal, D. L., & Coolidge, F. L. (2015). Anxiety sensitivity, experiential avoidance, and mindfulness among younger and older adults: Age differences in risk factors for anxiety symptoms. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 81, 217–240.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mata, R., Josef, A. K., Samanez-Larkin, G. R., & Hertwig, R. (2011). Age differences in risky choice: A meta-analysis. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1235, 18–29.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, S. E., & Cole, D. A. (2007). Bias in cross-sectional analyses of longitudinal mediation. Psychological Methods, 12, 23–44.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, M. J., Mermelstein, L. C., Edwards, K. M., & Gidycz, C. A. (2012). The benefits of dispositional mindfulness in physical health: A longitudinal study of female college students. Journal of American College Health, 60, 341–348.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pachur, T., Mata, R., & Hertwig, R. (2017). Who dares, who errs? Disentangling cognitive and motivational roots of age differences in decisions under risk. Psychological Science, 28, 504–518.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Prakash, R. S., Hussain, M. A., & Schirda, B. (2015). The role of emotion regulation and cognitive control in the association between mindfulness disposition and stress. Psychology and Aging, 30, 160–171.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Quaglia, J. T., Braun, S. E., Freeman, S. P., McDaniel, M. A., & Brown, K. W. (2016). Meta-analytic evidence for effects of mindfulness training on dimensions of self-reported dispositional mindfulness. Psychological Assessment, 28, 803–818.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raes, A. K., Bruyneel, L., Loeys, T., Moerkerke, B., & De Raedt, R. (2013). Mindful attention and awareness mediate the association between age and negative affect. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 70, 179–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reibel, D. K., Greeson, J. M., Brainard, G. C., & Rosenzweig, S. (2001). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health-related quality of life in a heterogeneous patient population. General Hospital Psychiatry, 23, 183–192.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reilly, M. P., Greenwald, M. K., & Johanson, C. E. (2006). The stoplight task: A procedure for assessing risk taking in humans. The Psychological Record, 56, 191–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, K. C., & Danoff-Burg, S. (2010). Mindfulness and health behaviors: Is paying attention good for you? Journal of American College Health, 59, 165–173.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rolison, J. J., Hanoch, Y., Wood, S., & Liu, P. J. (2013). Risk-taking differences across the adult life span: A question of age and domain. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 69, 870–880.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salmoirago-Blotcher, E., Hunsinger, M., Morgan, L., Fischer, D., & Carmody, J. (2013). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and change in health-related behaviors. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine, 18, 243–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaie, K. W. (Ed.). (1983). Longitudinal studies of adult psychological development. New York: Guilford press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Segal, Z. V., Teasdale, J. D., Williams, J. M., & Gemar, M. C. (2002). The mindfulness-based cognitive therapy adherence scale: Inter-rater reliability, adherence to protocol and treatment distinctiveness. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 9, 131–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shook, N. J., Ford, C., Strough, J., Delaney, R., & Barker, D. (2017). In the moment and feeling good: Age differences in mindfulness and positive affect. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 3, 338–347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tang, Y. Y., Tang, R., & Posner, M. I. (2013). Brief meditation training induces smoking reduction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110, 13971–13975.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tomlinson, E. R., Yousaf, O., Vittersø, A. D., & Jones, L. (2017). Dispositional mindfulness and psychological health: A systematic review. Mindfulness, 9, 23–43.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ussher, M., Cropley, M., Playle, S., Mohidin, R., & West, R. (2009). Effect of isometric exercise and body scanning on cigarette cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Addiction, 104, 1251–1257.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, E. U., Blais, A. R., & Betz, N. E. (2002). A domain-specific risk-attitude scale: Measuring risk perceptions and risk behaviors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 15, 263–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead, B. R. (2017). Health behaviors in older adults: Considering age, affect, and attitudes. Journal of Health Psychology, 22, 1652–1657.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zernicke, K. A., Campbell, T. S., Blustein, P. K., Fung, T. S., Johnson, J. A., Bacon, S. L., & Carlson, L. E. (2013). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome symptoms: A randomized wait-list controlled trial. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 20, 385–396.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was made possible by support from the National Science Foundation (Award Number 1459021) and a West Virginia University Senate Research Grant. The funding organizations were not involved in designing the study, collecting and analyzing the data, or preparing the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, PO Box 6040, Morgantown, WV, 26506-6040, USA

    Natalie J. Shook, JoNell Strough, Jenna M. Wilson, Barış Sevi & Nathan Altman

  2. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Rebecca K. Delaney

Authors
  1. Natalie J. Shook
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rebecca K. Delaney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. JoNell Strough
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jenna M. Wilson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Barış Sevi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Nathan Altman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Natalie J. Shook.

Ethics declarations

Data Policy

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Conflict of Interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the studies.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 14 kb)

Appendix

Appendix

Health and Safety Risk Taking Measures

Domain Specific Risk Taking Scale, Health and Safety Sub-Scale (Weber et al. 2002)

For each of the following statements, please indicate your likelihood of engaging in each activity or behavior. Provide a rating from 1 to 5, using the following scale:

  1. 1

    (very unlikely)

  2. 2

    (unlikely)

  3. 3

    (not sure)

  4. 4

    (likely)

  5. 5

    (very likely)

  6. 1.

    Buying an illegal drug for your own use.

  7. 2.

    Consuming five or more servings of alcohol in a single evening.

  8. 3.

    Engaging in unprotected sex.

  9. 4.

    Not wearing a seatbelt when being a passenger in the front seat.

  10. 5.

    Not wearing a helmet when riding a motorcycle

  11. 6.

    Exposing yourself to the sun without using sunscreen.

  12. 7.

    Walking home alone at night in a somewhat unsafe area of town.

  13. 8.

    Regularly eating high cholesterol foods.

Revised Domain Specific Risk Taking Scale, Health and Safety Sub-Scale (Blais and Weber 2006)

For each of the following statements, please indicate the likelihood that you would engage in the described activity or behavior if you were to find yourself in that situation. Provide a rating from Extremely Unlikely to Extremely Likely, using the following scale:

  1. 1

    (Extremely Unlikely)

  2. 2

    (Moderately Unlikely)

  3. 3

    (Somewhat Unlikely)

  4. 4

    (Not Sure)

  5. 5

    (Somewhat Likely)

  6. 6

    (Moderately Likely)

  7. 7

    (Extremely Likely)

  8. 1.

    Drinking heavily at a social function.

  9. 2.

    Engaging in unprotected sex.

  10. 3.

    Driving a car without wearing a seat belt.

  11. 4.

    Riding a motorcycle without a helmet.

  12. 5.

    Sunbathing without sunscreen.

  13. 6.

    Walking home alone at night in an unsafe area of town.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shook, N.J., Delaney, R.K., Strough, J. et al. Playing it safe: Dispositional mindfulness partially accounts for age differences in health and safety risk-taking propensity. Curr Psychol 40, 2142–2152 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-0137-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-0137-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation