Hey there,

I have collected data to answer the question “Does Neuroticism Mediate the effect of a Mindfulness Intervention?” I Have collected pre-intervention Mindfulness Score and a post intervention measure (both scale). I also took a neuroticism score before the intervention to estimate the level of trait neuroticism (also scale). There was no control group.

So far I have managed to demonstrate with a paired-samples t-test that there is a significant difference between pre and post-mindfulness scores, I have used Pearson correlation to show that mindfulness and neuroticism are negatively correlated at baseline (both of these are a replication of the existing findings).

For the mediator part, I intended initially to use the model from another study which divided the neuroticism score into low, low/medium, medium high and high as a quasi-independent variable. However, the scores in my data were too clustered together without much of a range in the group (there was a high attrition rate ~45%) so these 4 groups are not possible. I have tried running a repeated measures ANOVA, where I dichotomize neuroticism into low/high, which I know is not the best idea as I will artificially restrict the variance in my data. This does however produce quite a sensible looking plot and desirable output for my study but I know it's not sound practice.

I have also tried doing what I think is a repeated measures ANCOVA, with time at 2 levels as a within subjects factor (pre and post-intervention score) and neuroticism as a covariate but I have nothing to put into the between subjects factor so I’m not sure if it’s accurate. It is giving neuroticism a value of 3.45 in the model but I have no idea what that number means or how to interpret it. It also produces a sensible looking plot showing the increase in mindfulness pre to post-intervention. I have also tried is computing a mindfulness score difference and correlating that with the level of mindfulness which also gives me a medium size positive correlation