Relation Between Personality Traits and Mindfulness Following Mindfulness-Based Training: A Study of Incarcerated Individuals with Drug Abuse Disorders in Taiwan Kun-Hua Lee & Sarah Bowen # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014 Abstract We examined the relationship between the “Big-Five” personality factors and levels of mindfulness at baseline, and the predictive value of these personality factors on changes in mindfulness after eight weeks of mindfulness-based training. All participants were followed- up for eight weeks. Sixty-three incarcerated adult males with drug abuse disorders completed self-report assessments of mindfulness, depression, and personality. Four of the five person- ality factors (Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) were signif- icantly associated with Decentering of mindfulness at baseline. Neuroticism and OPENNESS to Experience were significantly related to Curiosity. There was a significant baseline-to-post- course difference on the Decentering subscale; however, the results unexpectedly contradicted our hypothesis. There were no significant baseline-to-post-course differences on the Curiosity subscale. After controlling for post-course depression, none of the Big-Five personality factor traits significantly predicted post-course Curiosity and Decentering. The effects of the Big- Five personality factors on outcomes of mindfulness-based intervention for drug abusers were preliminarily confirmed, but a randomized longitudinal study is required to reconfirm our findings. Keywords Five-factor model . Personality . Mindfulness . TMS . Negative affect . Decentering Mindfulness-based therapies are receiving increasing attention in the literature, including studies on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for chronic disease or pain (Goldin, and Gross 2010), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for depression (MBCT) (Piet, and Hougaard 2011), Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT) for Int J Ment Health Addiction DOI 10.1007/s11469-014-9533-y K.<H. Lee (*) Clinical Psychology Department, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Yu-Li Hospital, No. 448, Chunghua Rd., Yuli Township, Hualien County, Taiwan e-mail: kunhualee627@gmail.com S. Bowen Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA e-mail: swbowen@u.washington.edu