Journal of occupational health psychology
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J Occup Health Psychol · Feb 2019
Meta AnalysisA systematic review and meta-analysis of workplace mindfulness training randomized controlled trials.
This meta-analytic review responds to promises in the research literature and public domain about the benefits of workplace mindfulness training. It synthesizes randomized controlled trial evidence from workplace-delivered training for changes in mindfulness, stress, mental health, well-being, and work performance outcomes. Going beyond extant reviews, this article explores the influence of variability in workforce and intervention characteristics for reducing perceived stress. ⋯ No conclusions could be drawn from pooled data for burnout due to ambivalence in results, for depression due to publication bias, or for work performance due to insufficient data. The potential for integrating the construct of mindfulness within job demands-resources, coping, and prevention theories of work stress is considered in relation to the results. Limitations to study designs and reporting are addressed, and recommendations to advance research in this field are made. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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J Occup Health Psychol · Feb 2019
Randomized Controlled TrialMindfulness training improves employee well-being: A randomized controlled trial.
Organizations are turning toward behavioral interventions with the aim of improving employee well-being and job performance. Mindfulness training has been suggested as one type of intervention that can achieve these goals, but few active treatment randomized controlled trials have been conducted. ⋯ Although both groups improved comparably on job productivity, the 6-week mindfulness training group had significantly greater improvement in attentional focus at work and decreases in work-life conflict, as well as a marginal improvement in job satisfaction compared with the half-day seminar comparison group. These findings suggest that although small doses of mindfulness training may be sufficient to foster increased perceptions of job productivity, longer term mindfulness training programs are needed to improve focus, job satisfaction, and a positive relationship to work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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J Occup Health Psychol · Feb 2019
Randomized Controlled TrialFusing character strengths and mindfulness interventions: Benefits for job satisfaction and performance.
In recent years, both mindfulness and character strengths have started to garner interest in industrial and organizational psychology. The growing research interest in their effects on employee well-being and performance, individually, has strong practical implications for organizations. Given the interconnection of mindfulness and character strengths, the present study examined the effectiveness of training that combined the two practices regarding well-being and work-related outcomes, and it tested the potential mediators of the effects at work. ⋯ Potential mediators for the intervention effect of MBSP at work were tested using four criteria adapted from a previous study. Results showed the MBSR was effective for increasing well-being, reducing perceived stress, and increasing job satisfaction, whereas the MBSP was effective for increasing well-being, job satisfaction, and task performance. These findings suggest that mindfulness alone seems to function better when regarding well-being at work, while fusing character strengths on top of it seems to influence the participants, on a motivational level, and thus bolsters task performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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The set of studies in this issue focus on applied interventions in occupational health psychology (OHP), that is, interventions that are intended to treat employee health and well-being problems or prevent these problems from occurring in the first place. An issue regarding many past evaluations of the effectiveness of these treatments was the relatively weak research methods, especially in regard to obtaining comparable groups to study so that internal validity is enhanced. Many of the studies presented here used the classically recommended approach of random assignment to alleviate this potential problem. ⋯ These outcomes include reductions of work-nonwork conflict and stigma of mental illness potentially present in the organization, its supervisors, or employees' coworkers. We note that there are probably moderators of the effectiveness of the interventions, so that a treatment may work better in some people, some situations, and some times than others. Finally, it is interesting to note that the interventions and their studies may be geographically concentrated rather than distributed equally around the globe. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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J Occup Health Psychol · Feb 2019
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyMindfulness on-the-go: Effects of a mindfulness meditation app on work stress and well-being.
We investigated whether a mindfulness meditation program delivered via a smartphone application could improve psychological well-being, reduce job strain, and reduce ambulatory blood pressure during the workday. Participants were 238 healthy employees from two large United Kingdom companies that were randomized to a mindfulness meditation practice app or a wait-list control condition. The app offered 45 prerecorded 10- to 20-min guided audio meditations. ⋯ In addition, the intervention group had a marginally significant decrease in self-measured workday systolic blood pressure from pre- to post-intervention. Sustained positive effects in the intervention group were found for well-being and job strain at the 16-week follow-up assessment. This trial suggests that short guided mindfulness meditations delivered via smartphone and practiced multiple times per week can improve outcomes related to work stress and well-being, with potentially lasting effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).