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Improving Emotion Regulation, Well-being, and Neuro-cognitive Functioning in Teachers: a Matched Controlled Study Comparing the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Health Enhancement Programs

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Abstract

Objectives

This study assessed the effectiveness of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR) compared to an active control intervention, the Health Enhancement Program (HEP) in reducing stress and burnout, and enhancing emotion regulation, well-being, and cognitive function in a group of Australian teachers experiencing work-related stress. The programs were evaluated across subjective and objective testing modalities including (1) teachers’ self-reported stress, burnout, psychological distress, emotion regulation, well-being, and mindfulness; (2) behavioural performance on cognitive tasks assessing attention, memory, emotion recognition, and cognitive control; and (3) the neural correlates of emotion regulation as identified using an emotion Stroop task administered during fMRI.

Methods

Utilising an independent groups, matched sample longitudinal design, a completer sample of 75 teachers participated in questionnaires and cognitive tasks at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 5-month follow-up. A subsample of 47 teachers also completed fMRI scans pre- and post-intervention.

Results

Both programs resulted in equivalent significant, and sustained improvements for teachers on self-report measures of well-being, mindfulness, perceived stress, and intention to leave the profession, and in the cognitive domains of cognitive control and memory. Between group differences were found on the sustained attention task, with MBSR showing greater improvements than HEP. The fMRI analysis revealed that neural reactivity to generally negative stimuli on the emotional Stroop task was significantly reduced for MBSR participants after the intervention.

Conclusions

Although important subtle differences were found between the programs, results overwhelmingly suggest that both the MBSR and HEP programs are similarly and highly beneficial to teachers experiencing work-related stress.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative, Science of Learning Research Centre (Project number: SR120300015). We would like to sincerely thank the teachers, principals, and students who participated in this study as well as the radiographers from the Centre for Advanced Imaging, Nicole Atcheson and Aiman Al-Najjar, for their support.

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council—Special Research Initiative, Science of Learning Research Centre (Project number: SR120300015).

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

AC conceptualised and designed the study, contributed to writing and editing, and provided critical feedback on and revisions to the manuscript. ESO’C was involved in the conceptualisation of the project, recruitment of participants, organisation of the intervention, overseeing fMRI assessments, and self- and behavioural testing and was a major contributor to the writing and revisions of this manuscript. KF made substantial contribution to the conception and design, recruitment of participants, and facilitation of interventions and behavioural testing and was a contributor to the writing of this manuscript. SFC was involved in the conception and design, analysis of data, and interpretation of research findings and was contributor to writing and manuscript revisions. AY collaborated with the design, analysis of data, and writing of results. MZ was involved in the collection of fMRI data and contributed to data analysis and revisions of the manuscript. LF contributed to conception and design of HEP intervention and was a contributor to writing and critical feedback on the manuscript. JB was involved in all aspects of project design and contributed to analysis of survey results. DR contributed to the conceptualisation of this work and supervised postdoctoral fellows. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Annemaree Carroll.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Statement

Approval for this study was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee of The University of Queensland, which was the administering organisation. Gatekeeper approval to contact schools was also provided from the Queensland Department of Education, Brisbane Catholic Education, and Independent Schools Queensland in the large metropolitan city of Brisbane in which the study was conducted.

Informed Consent Statement

All teachers provided written informed consent to participate in all aspects of the study.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Information

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Carroll, A., Sanders-O’Connor, E., Forrest, K. et al. Improving Emotion Regulation, Well-being, and Neuro-cognitive Functioning in Teachers: a Matched Controlled Study Comparing the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Health Enhancement Programs. Mindfulness 13, 123–144 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01777-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01777-4

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