The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Police Officers’ Stress Reduction: a Systematic Review
Tadas Vadvilavičius, Erika Varnagirytė, G. Jarašiūnaitė-Fedosejeva, L. Gustainienė
Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology January 30, 2023 DOI: 10.1007/s11896-022-09570-2 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractA systematic review of eight experimental studies found that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) reduce stress, sleep problems, PTSD symptoms, negative affect, and burnout among police officers. The profession carries high stress that harms officers' personal lives, the police organization, and society. The review included only studies with pre- and post-intervention measures and quantitative stress results. MBIs were consistently effective across the included studies.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Systematic review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Police officers |
| Intervention | mindfulness-based intervention |
| Keywords | Medicine Psychology |
| Key finding | Mindfulness-based interventions reduced police officers' stress and stress-related outcomes including sleep problems, PTSD, negative affect, and burnout. |
Abstract
The profession of a police officer is associated with high levels of stress, which can have harmful consequences for officers’ personal lives, the police organisation, and society. This systematic review aims to synthesise recent literature on the effectiveness of mindfulness-based intervention related to stress reduction (MBIs) in a sample of police officers. The search of relevant articles was applied in four databases (SpringerLink, Web of Science, Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO), and PubMed), using the following inclusion criteria: (1) study involved police officers; (2) study used (quasi)experimental research design; (3) mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention was applied as the main intervention; and (4) study presented pre- and post-intervention measures and quantitative results of stress. The systematic review of eight articles included in the analysis revealed that MBIs were effective in reducing police officers’ stress and other stress-related outcomes (sleep problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), negative affect, burnout).