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

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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

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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

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Acceptance vs

self-affirmation

induction

Approach coping

(remedial interest)

Perceived stress (75th%)

b = .24; p = .012

No upper threshold

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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.