Metacognition, Mindfulness, and Spiritual Well-being in Gifted High School Students

Background and Objectives: Gifted students are more sensitive to interpersonal conflicts and experience more self-alienation and mental pressure due to their cognitive abilities. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship among meta-cognition, mindfulness, and spiritual well-being in gifted high school students. Methods: This study was conducted on 144 gifted high school students in Tabriz. The study population was selected through systematic random sampling method. Data collection was performed using the meta-cognition questionnaire developed by Wells, Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, and spiritual well-being questionnaire by Ellison and Paloutzian. Results: According to the results, mindfulness had a significant and positive relationship with spiritual well-being (r=0.31). However, no significant relationship was observed between meta-cognition and spiritual well-being. The results of the stepwise regression analyses showed that non-judgement determined about 6% (R2=0.06) of spiritual well-being variance, and positive beliefs about worry predicted 4% (R2=0.04) of the mindfulness variance. Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that out of the meta-cognition components, the positive beliefs about worry were influential in the determination of mindfulness. Furthermore, non-judgment was found to play a fundamental role in determining spiritual well-being among the components of mindfulness.