Editorial Perspective: Mindfulness: how do I describe thee? Let me synthesise the ways.

Mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) are now common practice with children, ranging from universal programs in educational settings to more targeted clinical approaches. Building on promising findings in adult populations, it is suggested thatmindfulness interventions can benefit children’s learning via reducing difficulties related to attention and selfregulation in the classroom (Maynard, Solis, Miller & Brendel, 2017). However, the lack of consistent findings may reflect the limited conceptual clarity, a gap highlighted by Van Dam et al. (2017), who found that many studies of MBIs fail to adequately define or conceptualisemindfulness at the outset.Mindfulness is commonly defined as present moment awareness with an attitude of openness and acceptance (KabatZinn, 2013) with its purist origins beginning in Buddhist philosophy. Nonetheless, many disparate models, definitions and measures have been put forward in the literature. Discrepancies also exist ‘within’ interventions, whereby the conceptual notion of mindfulness underpinning some interventions does not align with the activities and practices contained within the intervention. By establishing theparameters ofmindfulness, theproposed theoryof change towards outcomes can be clarified guiding the intervention itself and the measurement of intervention outcomes. Definitions of mindfulness can differ in the composition of the underlying factors describing the construct. Descriptions of mindfulness cite a range of psychological, philosophical, and attitudinal factors with attention, awareness, openness and selfcompassion commonly cited. Nuanced differences between definitions in the literature reflect the position of the practitioner as well as the context in which it is being applied. For example, clinically based applications of mindfulness in adolescents regularly emphasise being aware in an open and nonjudgmental way (Kabat-Zinn, 2013). In contrast, characterisations of mindfulness in nonclinical environments, such as education, focus on the capacity to perceive novel distinction or consider previously experienced information in new ways and to process this information in a cognitively flexible way by considering new alternatives or solutions (Langer, 1989), for example solving an intellectual problem. Therefore, mindfulness is a construct originating from several theoretical viewpoints hence ‘one definition to rule them all’ may not be a realistic goal initially. Nonetheless, it remains problematic to have differing conceptions of mindfulness from both a research and practice point of view. Amongst other things, a lack of consensus can result in complexities with respect to measurement and establishing construct validity, a heterogeneous set of practices that may not represent a common understanding of mindfulness and difficulty in interpreting and aggregating findings from studies involving mindfulness. Instead, we proposed a solution to the what is mindfulness? problem, not by trying to capture it, but by providing a broader framework to accommodate a range of perspectives and theoretical underpinnings. This approach of an overarching framework housing theories is gaining popularity in implementation science as a tool to guide intervention development and outcomes measurement.