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Mindfulness Meditation Training Reduces Aggression and Improves Well-Being in Highly Stressed Law Enforcement Officers

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Abstract

Law enforcement officers are at risk of decreased mental and physical health due to the high demands and stressful nature of police work. Self-regulatory cognitive training may be particularly efficacious for law enforcement officers. The present study examined the feasibility and efficacy of three standardized, 8-week mindfulness-based interventions: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Resilience Training (MBRT), and Mindful Performance Enhancement, Awareness, and Knowledge (mPEAK) to foster psychological well-being for law enforcement officers. We expected no between group differences in outcomes. Further, we hypothesized that increases in dispositional mindfulness would mediate reductions in aggression and improvements in well-being. Eighty-four law enforcement officers were recruited. All procedures were performed online. Participants completed measures of aggression, stress, depression, emotion dysregulation, anxiety, and mindfulness. Seventy-nine officers were then randomized into one of three interventions: MBSR, MBRT, or mPEAK. Participants completed study assessments, again, after 4 and 8 weeks of mindfulness training. Fifty officers (median age = 44; 34 male) completed their assigned training. At baseline, 92% of police officers reported moderate to high levels of stress. The mPEAK program exhibited a 24% attrition rate, while MBSR and MBRT showed attrition rates of 44% and 41% respectively. There were no significant outcome differences between groups. Participants reported significant decreases in aggression and stress after training. Depression, difficulties in emotion regulation, and anxiety scores also decreased significantly. Importantly, increases in dispositional mindfulness mediated the relationship between aggression and stress and depression. These data indicate that mindfulness training may produce improvements in well-being in a sample of highly stressed police officers.

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Data Availability

All data corresponding to this study and SPSS syntax code will be made available on our laboratory’s website (http://www.zeidanlab.com).

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Funding

This work was supported by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (IGP-FY18/19–060) and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (R01-AT009693, R21-AT010352, R00-AT008238).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive | MC 0719, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Lora Khatib, Joseph Glaser-Reich, Dwayne Mosbey, Valeria Oliva, Gabriel Riegner, Jon G. Dean & Fadel Zeidan

  2. Center for Mindfulness, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Noriko M. Harth

Authors
  1. Lora Khatib
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  2. Joseph Glaser-Reich
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  3. Dwayne Mosbey
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  4. Valeria Oliva
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  5. Gabriel Riegner
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  6. Jon G. Dean
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  7. Noriko M. Harth
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  8. Fadel Zeidan
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Contributions

LK, JGR, DM, VO, GR, and JGD: designed the study, collected data, and wrote the manuscript, NMH: helped schedule participants, FZ: designed and supervised the study, analyzed the data, wrote and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fadel Zeidan.

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Ethics Approval

The study was approved by the University of California San Diego Institutional Review Board (IRB#192007).

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Khatib, L., Glaser-Reich, J., Mosbey, D. et al. Mindfulness Meditation Training Reduces Aggression and Improves Well-Being in Highly Stressed Law Enforcement Officers. J Police Crim Psych 37, 972–983 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-022-09554-2

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