A randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness-based intervention in social workers working during the COVID-19 crisis.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Hosseinzadeh Asl, Navid R.
Abstract	As one of the frontline professionals during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, social workers can face tremendous pressure, which can lead to mental health problems. The objective of this study was to investigate whether a brief mindfulness-based intervention had short- and middle-term effects on social workers working during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a randomized controlled trial, 49 social workers were assigned to an experimental group (n = 28) or a waitlist control group (n = 21). The intervention was a four-week mindfulness-based program. The outcome variables were measured at pre- and post-test, and at one-month follow-up test. At post-test and follow-up, the workers in the experimental group reported higher mean scores in psychological flexibility and self-compassion and lower mean scores in depression compared to the workers in the waitlist control group. Although the experimental group also showed lower mean scores than the waitlist control group in anxiety and stress at both post-test and follow, the differences were not statistically significant. The findings suggest that a brief mindfulness-based intervention can improve psychological flexibility, self-compassion, and depression in social workers working during the COVID-19 crisis, leading to protected mental health, adding support to continuing development of such efficient mindfulness-based programs. Future studies should use larger samples and examine brief interventions’ working mechanisms.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02150-3.
ISSN	10461310
Journal	Current Psychology (New Brunswick, N.j.)
Volume Number	41
PubMed Central reference number	PMC8352152
Issue Number	11
PubMed reference number	34393464
e-ISSN	19364733
DOI	10.1007/s12144-021-02150-3
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2021-08-09
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021
Subject Keyword	COVID-19 Psychological health Brief mindfulness-based intervention Online intervention Social workers
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Psychology