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Crawford PhD Conference 2014
Citation preview
Do mindfulness skills help people
deal with failure at work?
James Donald
Australian National University
Overview
• The context: stress in the Australian workplace
• Our research questions
• Our key findings
• Implications for the workplace
Impact of stress in the workplace
• According to a study by Safe Work Australia (2006), workers
with a job-related mental disorder take an average of 2.5
months’ leave per year.
• Mental stress payouts in Commonwealth agencies currently
average around $250,000 (Comcare, 2011).
• The costs of stress-related absenteeism and presenteeism is
around $11.6 billion annually (Medibank Private, 2006).
• That’s around 1.5% of Australia’s GDP!
Exercise
• Think of your most stressful experience or biggest set-
back over the past month (either at home or at work).
Stress and coping
• A large body of research (over 30,000 studies) has
explored the different ways individuals cope with stress,
and how effective these are.
• The emphasis is on a person’s behavioural response to
stress, rather than just how a person feels.
Why does coping matter?
• Evidence suggests that over the long-term, certain forms
of coping predict adverse well-being outcomes, including
anxiety and depression (eg, Penley et al., 2002;
Duangdao & Roesch, 2008; Roesch et al., 2005).
• What people do in response to a stressful event is
generally predictive of well-being.
Approach vs. avoidance coping
• Approach = activity that is oriented toward a threat (eg,
acceptance, problem-solving, planning a response, eliciting ideas from
others, etc).
• Avoidance = activity that is oriented away from a threat (eg, denial, distraction, mental disengagement, substance use. etc).
• Approach coping predicts greater well-being; avoidance
coping predicts less well-being.
Mindfulness and coping with stress
• Little research has explored whether mindfulness
interventions facilitate more adaptive ways of coping
with stress.
• Mindfulness training might offer a credible alternative to
pharmaceuticals and other forms of coping for people
suffering from acute or chronic stress.
8
Mindfulness?
“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally."
Mindfulness?
“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally."
Mindfulness
Intention(on purpose)
Mindfulness?
“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally."
Mindfulness
Intention(on purpose)
Attention(present moment)
Mindfulness?
“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally."
Mindfulness
Intention(on purpose)
Attention(present moment)
Attitude(non-judgemental)
Our question
• Does a mindfulness intervention facilitate more adaptive
coping behaviour?
Our model
Mindfulness
intervention
Approach /
avoidance
coping
Perceived
stress
This?
Or this?
Method
• Three randomised controlled studies.
• All participants were university students.
• Behavioural as well as self-report measures of approach
and avoidance coping.
Summary of findings
• Correlational evidence that among individuals reporting moderate-
to-high levels of stress, dispositional mindfulness predicted:
– less avoidance coping (Study 1); and
– greater approach and less avoidance coping (Study 2).
• Experimental evidence that among individuals reporting high (but
not low) levels of stress:
– a brief mindfulness induction predicted less avoidance coping, relative to
active controls (Study 2);
– a brief mindful acceptance induction predicted greater approach coping,
relative to active controls (Study 3).
Conclusions
• Stress moderates the effect of mindfulness on coping:
– For people with low levels of stress, mindfulness didn’t change
the way they coped.
– But… for individuals reporting high and even very high levels of
stress, we found significant effects.
Implications for the workplace
• In high-stress workplaces, mindfulness interventions
may offer a credible alternative to other approaches (e.g.
prescription drugs) in coping with set-backs and stress.
• Even among individuals reporting extreme levels of
stress, mindfulness may help.
– We think this is because mindfulness helps people de-couple
their feelings (i.e., threat) from their behaviour (i.e., coping
response).
Thank you!
21
22
23
Anti-anxiety drugs are on the rise
• More than 7.5 million benzodiazepine prescriptions were
dispensed across Australia in 2010, commonly
prescribed for anxiety, distress and insomnia.
• That’s 1 benzo prescription for every third person in
Australia per annum!
Study 1 - Method
• An exploratory study.
• 60 undergraduate management students.
• 3 conditions: mindfulness; relaxation; dialogue
• Tutorial exercise involving negative performance feedback on a test of cultural intelligence.
• Did students report their poor performance to peers or fabricate (inflate) it?
• Power (f = .25; p = .05) = .35; (f = .4; p = .05) = .80
Correlational effects
26
Acceptance
(AAQ-II)Approach coping
Perceived
stress
b = .13 (p = .004)
Study 2 - Method
• 204 undergraduate students at a Dutch university.
• 3 conditions: mindfulness; relaxation; filler task.
• Intervening problem-solving task, followed by self-report
measures coping.
• Power (f = .25; p = .05) = .90
Experimental effects
28
Mindfulness
vs Relaxation
induction
Avoidance coping
(self-report)
Perceived stress
(90th %)
b = -.038 (p = .048)
Correlational effects
29
Dispositional
mindfulnessApproach &
avoidance coping
(self-report)
Perceived stress
(25th%)
b = .134; b = -.024 (p = .023)
Study 3 - Method
• 202 undergraduate management students in 12 tutorial groups –clustered randomised design.
• Four conditions: acceptance; relaxation; self-affirmation; defusion.
• Behavioural measures of coping: 1. Did students inflate their (poor) performance on an IQ test when reporting it
to peers? (Avoidance coping)
2. Did students indicate an interest in receiving remedial help following poor performance? (Approach coping)
• Power (f = .25; p = .05) = .80
Experimental effects
31
Acceptance vs
defusion inductionApproach coping
(remedial interest)
Perceived stress (50th%)
b = .17; p = .03
Experimental effects cont’d
32
Acceptance vs
self-affirmation
induction
Approach coping
(remedial interest)
Perceived stress (75th%)
b = .24; p = .012
No upper threshold
33
Adaptive
coping
behaviours
Baseline (no
mindfulness)
Scenario 1
Perceived stress
Scenario 2
Questions?
• Why might mindfulness influence coping even among
people experiencing very high levels of stress?
• Why are acceptance-focused interventions more likely
than defusion-focused interventions to impact coping
behaviour?
• How might CBS add value to future coping research?
Study 1 - Results
• No significant differences between conditions on coping.
• Correlational evidence: Acceptance (AAQ-II):
- almost predicted behavioural coping
- predicted self-report avoidance coping
(7% of variance)
- AAQ and perceived stress interacted to
predict self-report approach coping
(accounting for 13% of variance).
• MAAS: no main or interaction effects.
Study 2 - Results
• Experimental: Significant difference between the mindfulness and relaxation conditions on avoidance coping (but only among individuals reporting high to very high levels of perceived stress).
• Correlational: Mindful awareness accounted for:
- 7% of variance approach coping;
- 11% of variance in avoidance coping.
• Perceived stress moderated the relationship between mindful awareness and approach & avoidance coping.
Study 3 - Results
• No significant differences between conditions on either of the 2 DVs.
• Among individuals experiencing moderate to high levels of perceived stress, those in the acceptance condition were:
- sig more likely to take the remedial tutorial;
- almost sig less likely to inflate their test score than those
in the defusion condition;
- almost sig more likely to take the remedial tutorial than
those in the self-affirmation condition.
• However, no sig differences between the acceptance and relaxation conditions were found.
A lower stress threshold?
38
Adaptive
coping
behaviours
Baseline (no
mindfulness)
Scenario 1
Perceived stress
An upper threshold?
39
Adaptive
coping
behaviours
Baseline (no
mindfulness)
Scenario 1
Perceived stress
Scenario 2
Operationalizing mindfulness
Mindfulness & coping
• We are aware of 4 intervention studies of the effects of mindfulness on coping with stress.
• Two reported significant effects, while two did not.
• Significant effects were found among:– stressed sales employees (Walach et al, 2007)
– women with heart disease (Tacon et al, 2007)
• None of these studies explicitly measured perceived stress.