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In this profile, Bass Connections student research awardees Kiana Sabugo (Ph.D. in Psychology & Neuroscience ’30), Noella Baron (Psychology and Linguistics ’26) and Joshua Wagner (Neuroscience ’25) reflect on their unique perspectives as members of a collaborative research team investigating who chooses to participate in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and who does not. Building on an earlier Bass Connections project team, Creating a Contemplative Community (2024-2025), their project explored the psychological factors that influence interest in mindfulness and identified potential barriers that prevent some individuals from engaging with these widely used mental health interventions. Through this experience, the students gained valuable experience conducting independent research, collaborating as a team and presenting their findings to the broader scientific community.
Kiana, Noella and Joshua’s collaborative project was one of 14 student-directed, faculty-mentored research projects funded by Bass Connections in 2025-2026. Read more about these projects and propose your own project for next year.
“The response we got from this community was highly encouraging. Clinicians and researchers engaged with the findings with interest and enthusiasm.... I am extremely proud of our work as a team, and that were able to make a unique contribution to the scientific understanding of mindfulness-based interventions.”
By: Kiana Sabugo
These profiles have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
It’s 2026 and pop culture is awash in “therapy speak” — content about mental/emotional health and mindfulness practices in everyday life. Nearly every young adult in the Western world has heard some recommendation of mindfulness meditation as a practice. In the empirical world, mindfulness is just as ubiquitous: a Google Scholar search for “mindfulness-based interventions” results in a staggering 900,000 peer-reviewed articles. Millions of self-selected individuals participate as subjects in such studies, but to our knowledge no work has aimed to explicitly assess just how narrow the initial funnel of self-selection is.
Joshua Wagner and Noella Baron were undergraduate researchers in the 2024-2025 Bass Connections team, Creating a Contemplative Community. I served as a graduate student team member, and Dr. Moria Smoski was our faculty advisor. For our Bass Connections student research award project, our group moved from studying the multifaceted outcomes of MBIs, of which there are many, to the much less well understood antecedents of MBIs — what characteristics predict interest in participating in mindfulness practices in the first place?
This necessary step has important implications for the field of contemplative studies and psychology at large. Our work aimed to (1) assess the generalizability of the purported outcomes of MBIs and (2) identify the psychological barriers that prevent certain individuals from engaging with these practices from the outset.
To create a psychological profile of individuals interested in MBIs, we collected data from over 300 young adults. Participants completed a robust set of surveys assessing potential predictors: current levels of psychological distress, personality traits and facets of mindfulness. Finally, they reported both general interest in wellness interventions as well as specific preference for mindfulness-based approaches.
Our sample included a range of individual and interest level differences. Regression analyses, a statistical method used to estimate the relationship between variables, revealed that the trait characteristic of attentional awareness, a prominent factor of the Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), was uniquely related to interest in participation in an MBI. Consequentially, we found that individuals who self-reported weak or poor levels of the attentional awareness trait were significantly less likely to express interest in an MBI. It seems that perhaps the individuals who would benefit most from partaking in an MBI are precisely the people who opt out. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that participant responses on a trait measure such as the FFMQ may conflate low assessment of one’s own abilities with low endorsement of the desirability of the trait being assessed.
Joshua, Noella, Dr. Smoski and I got to share our work at the International Society of Contemplative Research conference in Chapel Hill, N.C. The response we got from this community was highly encouraging. Clinicians and researchers engaged with our research with interest and were enthusiastic about the future publication of our findings (a process currently in progress). I am extremely proud of our work as a team, and that we were able to make a unique contribution to the scientific understanding of mindfulness-based interventions. We are especially grateful to Bass Connections for supporting our research and our continued development as scientists.
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“When our [Bass Connections] project officially ended, I was thrilled to be able to continue our work on a smaller student-led team as we investigated psychological outcomes in relation to mindfulness interventions through surveying a broader young adult population.”
By: Noella Baron
I am incredibly grateful to Bass Connections for supporting me as I pursue my research interests. My first research experience was with a structured Bass Connections team investigating various mental health outcomes associated with stress reduction interventions in college students. When our project officially ended, I was thrilled to be able to continue our work on a smaller student-led team as we investigated psychological outcomes in relation to mindfulness interventions through surveying a broader young adult population.
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This research is near and dear to my heart because of my own experiences, as well as those of my loved ones. I am passionate about improving mental wellbeing, especially in people on the cusp of massive life changes (starting college, joining the workforce, etc.). This Bass Connections Student Research Award allowed me to explore predictors of positive outcomes from mindfulness interventions, which provides important insight into targeting individuals who might especially benefit from mindfulness protocols and designing the most effective interventions.
This research resulted in fruitful collaboration that taught me about the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process, survey design and dissemination, and how to conduct independent research. This experience was particularly rewarding because we were navigating some tight deadlines, but it was well worth the challenges. I was able to present alongside my fellow students at the International Society for Contemplative Research annual conference in Chapel Hill. This was my second time attending a conference, and it was such a blast. I met one of my research idols and we had an amazing conversation about EEG microstates (the technique I used as part of my senior thesis). I never imagined that I would be in a position to speak with someone so famous within my field, and it was a daunting yet incredible experience. I will forever be grateful for the opportunities, mentorship and skills that I have gained as a result of the generosity of Bass Connections during my time at Duke.
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“This experience differed from other learning experiences on campus because it required full ownership of the research process. Rather than working within structured assignments, we were responsible for developing the question, refining the design, interpreting results and communicating our findings.”
By: Joshua Wagner
This project emerged from a collaborative effort between Dr. Moria Smoski, Kiana Sabugo, Noella Barron and me, centered on a question that felt both scientifically and clinically important: “Who actually chooses to engage in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and who does not?”
While MBIs are widely supported as effective tools for improving well-being, they often rely on self-selected participants. We were interested not just in whether these interventions work, but in understanding the psychological characteristics that shape who is drawn to them. This question connects closely to our broader interest in mental health and the gap between available treatments and the people who ultimately access them.
Our primary goal was to characterize the psychological profile of individuals interested in MBIs compared to general wellness programs. To do this, we conducted a study with 300 young adults, examining how psychological distress, personality traits and facets of trait mindfulness predicted both general interest in wellness interventions and specific preference for mindfulness-based approaches. Using survey-based measures and regression analyses, we aimed to identify not only who is motivated to seek out support, but how that motivation varies depending on the type of intervention. One of the most surprising findings was that individuals with lower attentional awareness, who might benefit most from mindfulness training, were actually less likely to prefer MBIs. This challenged our initial assumptions and highlighted a potential barrier to engagement.
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This experience differed from other learning experiences on campus because it required full ownership of the research process. Rather than working within structured assignments, we were responsible for developing the question, refining the design, interpreting results and communicating our findings. The project was highly collaborative, with ideas constantly evolving through discussion and feedback. Working closely with Dr. Smoski and my teammates helped me learn how I best contribute to a group setting. I found that I tend to synthesize across perspectives and focus on connecting results to broader conceptual questions.
We also faced challenges, particularly when our findings did not align neatly with our hypotheses. Instead of forcing a clear narrative, we had to step back and reconsider what the data was actually showing. This required flexibility and a willingness to revise our assumptions. It ultimately strengthened both our analysis and our understanding of the problem.
One of the most rewarding aspects of the project was presenting our work at the International Society for Contemplative Research conference. Sharing our poster and discussing our findings with researchers and clinicians made the work tangible and relevant beyond the classroom. It was also challenging to communicate statistical results in a way that was clear and meaningful to a broad audience, but this experience significantly improved my ability to do so.
Overall, this project shifted my perspective from asking whether an intervention works to asking for whom it works and who it reaches. It also reinforced my interest in pursuing a career that integrates research with clinical practice, while remaining attentive to the psychological and motivational factors that shape how individuals seek care.
May 2026