An Exploratory Study: Profiles of Trait Mindfulness and Associations with Intrinsic Motivation and Affective Exercise Experiences

Objectives Trait mindfulness refers to the general ability to be mindful across contexts and times. Affective exercise experience represents the summary affective valence of individuals’ past exercise experiences. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between trait mindfulness and affective exercise experience in a person-centered research approach (latent profiles analysis) and to explore the mediation effect of intrinsic motivation in this relationship. Method Participants were 663 college students (58.6% female; M age = 20.40; SD = 3.13) who completed measures of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the Affective Exercise Experiences (AFFEXX) questionnaire, and Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ-II) and exercise level (IPAQ). Results Four profiles emerged: non-judgmentally aware, moderately mindful, non-reactively observing, and highly mindful. The highly mindful profile demonstrated significantly more positive exercise experiences as well as higher level of intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, the mediation analysis suggested that intrinsic motivation partially mediated the relationship between highly mindful and affective exercise experience, and fully mediated the relationship between non-reactively observing and affective exercise experience, controlling for exercise level. Conclusions This research revealed that trait mindfulness is highly associated with individuals’ exercise experience and intrinsic motivation, indicating that mindfulness would be a promising strategy to increase individuals’ positive exercise experiences through improving intrinsic exercise motivation. Preregistration This study is not pre-registered.