The interplay between mindfulness and caring for bliss on later student burnout

Abstract

Objectives: While there are good reasons to assume that mindfulness protects against burnout in students, nothing is known about the role of caring for bliss. This study examined whether caring for bliss moderated the relationship between mindfulness at baseline and aspects of burnout approximately 12 weeks later. Participants: Students (n = 92) from a university in the United States. Methods: Online surveys were administered in 2018. Results: Moderated regression analyses, controlling for depressive symptoms and burnout at baseline, revealed that caring for bliss moderated the relationship between earlier mindfulness and two aspects of later student burnout, namely emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Specifically, exhaustion and cynicism were low when students reported either low or high scores on both mindfulness and caring for bliss. No moderating effect was found for academic efficacy. Conclusions: Mindfulness and caring for bliss appear to work synergistically to reduce aspects of student burnout over time.

Keywords:

• Burnout
• caring for bliss
• depression
• mindfulness
• moderation

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants in this study.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the [Institutional Review Board of Florida State University].

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.