The relationship between mindfulness and resilience among Mersin University employees

According to the World Health Organization report (2001); while depression will be the most common disease in the world after cardiovascular diseases in 2020, it is predicted that depression will be the first disease in the world in 2030. In this context, increasing the resilience levels of people, defined as the power to cope with psychological distress, reduces the risk of any psychological discomfort. When the literature is examined; it is stated that the concepts of mindfulness and resilience are positively related to each other and resilience can be increased by developing mindfulness. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between mindfulness and resilience among Mersin employees. The sample of the study is determined as 744 (331 female, 413 male) by simple random sampling method. "Mindful Attention Awareness Scale", "Resilience Scale for Adults" and socio-demographic information form prepared by the researcher were used as data collection tools in the study. Pearson correlation analysis for normal distributed variables, Spearman correlation analysis for abnormal distributed variables, regression analysis for modelling the relations, one-way ANOVA, Welch and independent samples T-test for the relations between caregorical and continuous variables were used for the data analysis. Pearson correlation analysis between resilience and mindfulness result showed that there was a significant, positive and high level correlation (r=0.60). Regression analysis between resilience and midnfulness result built a model that mindfulness by itself explains %36 of resilience. According to Spearman correlation analysis for socio demographic variables; there was a significant, positive and low relationship between age and resilience (r=0.13); however, there was no significant relationship between income and resilience, and between seniority and resilience. Besides, there was a significat relationship on resilience according to variables of marital status, that married employees have higher resilience level than single ones.. However, there was no significant relationship on resilience according to variables of gender, section, title and educational status. According to Spearman correlation analysis between mindfulness and income, there was a significant, positive and very low relationship (r=0.09); however, there was no significant relationship between mindfulness and age or seniority. According to section, mindfulness levels differ significantly, that academic employees have higher mindfulness level than administrative ones. For educational status, mindfulness levels differ significantly, that employees with university degree have lower mindfulness level than employees with doctorate degree. For title variable, mindfulness levels also differ significantly, that professor/ associate professor/ doctor lecturers have higher mindfulness levels than administrative employees. However, there was no significant relationship on mindfulness according to variables of gender and marital status. With the overall findings, multiple regression analysis was made and %36 of total variance on resilience explained by mindfulness, %1 of total variance on resilience explained by age; in total, %37 of total variance was explained by the regression model. In the light of the research findings; it can be interpreted that resilience levels can be increased by improving mindfulness levels of university employees, and thus, it is important for people to continue their lives in a psychologically healthy and functional way within the stressful life and trauma that is the natural return of life. Keywords: Mindfulness, resilience, positive psychology, correlation