Digital Mindfulness and Employee Wellness: A Systematic Literature Review
R. D. Weerasinghe, M.P.N. Janadari
International Journal of Contemporary Business Research October 12, 2026 DOI: 10.4038/ijcbr.v5i1.62 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Systematic review Longitudinal Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | digital mindfulness interventions |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | The review reports that all 281 included publications found links between digital mindfulness interventions and improvements in employee psychological well-being, stress management, emotional regulation, resilience, and work engagement, with variation explained by intervention design, outcome measures, and organizational context. The authors identify gaps in theoretical integration, conceptual definitions, and longitudinal and organizational-level research. |
Abstract
The widespread adoption of digital technologies in today’s workplaces has sparked academic interest in digital mindfulness as a potential solution to improve employee well-being and mitigate the negative psychological effects of technology use. However, the existing evidence is dispersed across multiple disciplines and therefore fragmented, preventing a full understanding of how digital mindfulness contributes to employee well-being in organisational settings, despite a growing body of literature. Therefore, the present study systematically reviews the existing literature to explore the pace of digital mindfulness research, identify the dominant research trends, synthesize the reported effects of digital mindfulness on employee well-being, and point out emerging directions for future research. A systematic literature review was carried out according to the PRISMA reporting framework. Scopus was selected as the major database because of its wide multidisciplinary coverage and extensive indexing of peer-reviewed journals. After the application of predefined eligibility criteria and screening, 281 publications between 2015 and 2025 were included in the final review. Bibliometric analysis was conducted using Biblioshiny and VOSviewer to explore publication patterns, influential authors, countries, collabouration networks, keyword co-occurrence and thematic evolution. A narrative synthesis was then performed to synthesize evidence on digital mindfulness interventions, theoretical perspectives, employee well-being outcomes, and research gaps. The results reveal significant growth in academic attention to digital mindfulness in recent years, especially in the post-COVID-19 period. All of the studies reviewed found evidence of links between digital mindfulness interventions and improvements in psychological well-being, stress management, emotional regulation, resilience, and work engagement. Variations in the findings were explained by differences in the design of the interventions, the measures of the outcomes, and the organisational context. In addition, the review points to several gaps in existing literature, such as limited theoretical integration, inconsistent conceptual definitions, and a lack of longitudinal and organisational-level investigations. This review adds to the literature by providing an integrated synthesis of digital mindfulness research within the framework of employee well-being, clarifying conceptual distinctions between digital mindfulness and related constructs, and identifying future research priorities to guide evidence-based organisational interventions and sustainable workplace well-being.
Comparable studies
Other systematic reviews and meta-analyses on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being Diverse adult clinical populations | 2014 | Meta-analysis | n = 3,515 |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis Healthy subjects | 2009 | Systematic review and meta-analysis | |
| The psychological effects of meditation: A meta-analysis. Nonclinical groups of adult meditators | 2012 | Meta-analysis | n = 163 |
| Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse Adults with recurrent depression in full or partial remission | 2016 | Meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomized controlled trials | n = 1,258 |
| Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness‐Based Cognitive Therapy – a systematic review of randomized controlled trials | 2011 | Systematic review |