A Sense of Fellowship: Mindfulness Improves Experienced Interpersonal Benefits and Prosociality in A Military Aviation Unit

ABSTRACT

Objective: Explore how personnel in a military aviation unit experienced personal as well as interpersonal aspects concerning their participation in a group-based four-month MBT programme.

Background: mindfulness-based training (MBT) have been used as a personal stress management tool in stressful working environments, including military aviation. There is little knowledge about the interpersonal mechanisms involved when engaging in MBT.

Method: Adhering to Grounded Theory (GT), we conducted post-intervention interviews with 42 programme participants. We selected 30 interviews with evidence of interpersonal effects for in-depth analyses to build a theoretical model of the pathways through which interpersonal effects might develop.

Results: The majority of the interviewees (30/42 = 71%) experienced significant interpersonal effects from MBT. The in-depth analyses revealed an increase in the common theme “Sense of Fellowship” (SOF). SOF comprised three primary change processes: “Attention to others,” “Self-observation” and “Reflection.” In addition, five behavioral changes emerged: “Direct communication,” “Increased patience,” “Decreased anger expression,” “Calmness,” and “Acceptance.” Finally, four contextual factors appeared to have particular importance for the development of SOF: “Plenary sessions,” “Sharing experiences,” “Doing something new together,” and “Sitting in silence.”

Conclusion: These findings indicate that MBT has prosocial effects in a military aviation setting, and the constructed model contributes theoretically by suggesting how these psychosocial effects may arise and develop.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Norwegian Air Force and the members of the 339 helicopter squadron for their cooperation and participation in the study. We also thank Ivar Vehler for assisting in MBT instruction.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Due to space restrictions, the body scan had to be done sitting on chairs and not lying down.

Additional information

Funding

This research was financially supported by the Norwegian Air Force Flight Safety Inspectorate, Norwegian Armed Forces Medical Service, Institute of Aviation Medicine, and the Norwegian Olympic Training Centre.