Mindfulness and music performance anxiety among early- and mid-career musicians in transition: the mediating roles of emotional intelligence and perfectionism

Introduction: Music performance anxiety is prevalent among professional musicians and can undermine both wellbeing and performance. Musicians navigating the transition from advanced training to professional careers may be particularly vulnerable due to sustained evaluative exposure and career uncertainty. This study examines whether dispositional mindfulness is associated with music performance anxiety and whether this association operates through emotional intelligence and perfectionism, guided by Emotion Regulation Theory.

Methods: Participants were 283 early-career and pre-professional musicians (including advanced conservatory students and working musicians in professional transition) recruited using purposive convenience and snowball sampling. Data were collected via an anonymous online questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS v23 was used to test the hypothesized dual-pathway mediation model. Indirect effects were estimated using bias-corrected bootstrapping (5,000 resamples; 95% confidence intervals).

Results: Dispositional mindfulness was negatively associated with music performance anxiety. Mindfulness was positively associated with emotional intelligence and negatively associated with perfectionism. In turn, emotional intelligence was negatively associated with music performance anxiety, whereas perfectionism was positively associated with music performance anxiety. Bias-corrected bootstrapped confidence intervals indicated a statistically significant indirect association between mindfulness and music performance anxiety through emotional intelligence and perfectionism.

Discussion: The findings are consistent with Emotion Regulation Theory and indicate that mindfulness is statistically associated with lower music performance anxiety via both resource-related (emotional intelligence) and risk-related (perfectionism) pathways. Practically, these results highlight potentially modifiable psychological targets for supporting musicians in early professional development stages, with implications for resilience-building approaches in high-pressure performance communities.