Mindfulness Practice and Mental Health Among Buddhist Followers in Hue, Vietnam: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between mindfulness practice and mental health among Buddhist followers in Hue City, Vietnam. It addressed two related gaps: Vietnamese mental-health research has focused largely on students, workers, and general community samples, while much international mindfulness research has examined mindfulness apart from the Buddhist ethical and contemplative contexts in which it is traditionally cultivated. The article drew on Buddhist textual and interpretive sources, psychological literature on mindfulness and well-being, and survey data from 250 Buddhist followers aged 13–29 years in Hue City. The sample comprised 126 males and 124 females; 155 participants were students, 75 were employed, and 20 were unemployed. The present analysis focused on the cross-sectional survey data. Descriptive statistics, descriptive group comparisons, Pearson correlations, and simple linear regression were conducted using SPSS version 22.0. Participants reported moderate mindfulness scores (M = 3.05, SD = 1.06), relatively high applied mindfulness/nonattachment (M = 3.60, SD = 1.03), a mixed profile of positive and negative emotional experiences (M = 3.50, SD = 1.06), and relatively high life satisfaction (M = 7.63, SD = 1.23). Mindfulness was positively associated with perceived mental health (r = .642, p < .01) and life satisfaction (r = .261, p < .01), while perceived mental health was positively associated with life satisfaction (r = .284, p < .01). In a simple regression model, mindfulness accounted for 41.2% of the variance in perceived mental health (R² = .412, β = .642, t = 13.444, p < .001). The findings suggest that mindfulness may function as a meaningful internal resource in this Buddhist lay population. However, the cross-sectional design precludes causal inference. The study contributes to Buddhist psychology, cross-cultural psychology, and religion-informed community mental-health research by presenting mindfulness as both a psychological variable and a lived Buddhist practice embedded in ethics, communal learning, ritual participation, and contemplative cultivation.