Mindfulness training for law enforcement to reduce occupational impact: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Law enforcement officers are frequently subjected to highly stressful and traumatic situations with increased negative physical and mental health outcomes. Mindfulness is proposed as a means of improving self-reported physical or mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, burnout, and sleep disturbances. This meta-analysis aims to pool the results from studies evaluating mindfulness for police officers, providing an overall effect size for each outcome of interest. Through systematic review, four studies were identified for meta-analysis. Fixed and random inverse variance effects were used. Results indicate that mindfulness-based intervention programs likely decrease depression and may result in reductions of anxiety and burnout.