Megan B. Rutledge

There is research showing that mindfulness has a positive relationship with empathy; this means that mindfulness affects an individual’s empathy levels, effectively increasing them. Previous research has looked at how mindfulness can be achieved through meditation and changes to daily life. However, there is little research examining mindfulness and its effect on COVID-19 guideline adherence. We hypothesized that there would be a positive relationship between mindfulness and empathy on COVID-19 guideline adherence. We looked at mindfulness and empathy separately regarding their relationship to COVID-19 guideline adherence. The participants consisted of 41 females and 19 males. The current study was an online survey that contained three questionnaires. The results showed that there was no positive relationship between mindfulness and COVID-19 guideline adherence. There was no positive relationship shown between empathy and COVID-19 guideline adherence. Like past research findings, there was a positive relationship between mindfulness and empathy. Concerning the sex of the participants, male and female, there was no positive relationship concerning their ability to follow COVID-19 guidelines. Based on the results, the central hypothesis was not supported and showed no correlation between mindfulness and its effect on an individual’s ability to follow COVID-19 guidelines. This is one study that may indicate that mindfulness has no effect on an individual’s guideline adherence.
Keywords: mindfulness, empathy, COVID-19, adherence, guideline