A randomized controlled trial of the effects of mindfulness practice on doctoral candidate psychological status

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the impact of guided mindfulness practice on psychological distress and psychological capital (hope, optimism, resilience, and efficacy) in doctoral candidates. Participants: Recruitment of a convenience sample of doctoral candidates occurred in July 2015 and participants were randomly allocated to the control or intervention group (38 and 34 participants completed the trial, respectively). Methods: A single-blinded, randomized controlled trial with intention-to-treat analysis was conducted. The intervention consisted of a daily guided mindfulness practice, using an audio CD. Indicators of psychological distress and psychological capital were measured pre- and post-trial with validated questionnaires. Results: Compared to the control group, the intervention group reported a statistically significantly reduction in depression (p = .045) and increased self-efficacy (p = .004), hope (p = .000), and resilience (p = .011). Conclusions: These results highlight the effectiveness of self-administered mindfulness practice on the psychological health of doctoral candidates, and the positive effect on psychological capital is reported as a key finding.

Keywords:

• Anxiety
• depression
• mindfulness meditation
• postgraduate students
• psychological capital
• research candidates

Acknowledgments

We thank Alieta Eyles for research assistance and Foad Fatehi for preliminary data analysis.

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 Australia and received approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee (H14833) of the University of Tasmania.

Additional information

Funding

This research was conducted with funding from the authors’ university.