The Evaluation of a Mind-Body Intervention (MBT-T) for Stress Reduction in Academic Settings: A Pilot Study

The emotionally exhausted treating the mentally unwell? A systematic review of burnout and stress interventions for psychologists

Healthcare providers are at high risk of occupational burnout, which has negative implications on the individual, their profession, the organisation and their patients. Psychologists are particularly susceptible to the repercussions of burnout due to the emotionally draining nature and content of their work. However, research has failed to outline and evaluate effective interventions for burnout within the profession. This study aimed to investigate the treatment effectiveness of burnout through a systematic literature review. Systematic searches of four databases using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were conducted. A total of 4832 articles were identified, and 15 were included in the final analysis. The search was limited to scholarly and peer-reviewed journals published in the English language, which measured and utilised a form of intervention for the treatment of burnout or stress and included participants within the psychology profession. Interventions identified included mindfulness, training courses, self-care and other therapy-based forms of interventions. Approximately 60% of study participants reported moderate to high levels of stress. Interventions were largely variable in modality, frequency and duration of sessions and follow-up period. Of the 15 studies included within the review, only four measured burnout as an outcome variable, while the others measured stress. Findings of this systematic review indicate that mindfulness-based interventions may be a starting point for reducing stress; however, the most effective intervention for psychologists who have reached burnout is largely unclear. It is recommended that future studies focus on the identification and measurement of burnout, are more rigorously designed and reported and consider peer-based online support approaches.

Mental Health Risk and Protective Factors of Nigerian Male Asylum Seekers Hosted in Southern Italy: a Culturally Sensitive Quantitative Investigation

This study provides a culturally sensitive quantitative investigation aimed at assessing the post-traumatic symptomatology, post-migratory difficulties, and resilience of 36 Nigerian male asylum seekers hosted in the province of Caserta, South Italy. A survey composed by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-Revised (HTQ-R), the Post-Migratory Checklist (PLMD), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) was administered to participants. Descriptive and correlation analyses were made in order to describe the mental health risk and protective factors and understand the relation between these. A linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the influence of post-migratory difficulties and resilience on PTSD. Stratified bivariate analyses were also computed to detect PTSD group and no-PTSD group differences about post-migration difficulties and resilience levels. Regression analysis showed that PMLD numbers significantly increased the risk of having PTSD. No significant effect emerged for the level of resilience. Statistically significant differences between the PTSD group and non-PTSD group in relation to post-migratory difficulties were also found. No differences in the resilience factors emerged. The results offer a glimpse into a specific ethnic group of asylum seekers and its mental health risks and protective factors, taking into consideration the specificities of their past and current life-story experiences. Clinical implications for professionals working in the field of forced migration will be outlined.

Effects of a Social Media-Based Mind-Body Intervention Embedded With Acupressure and Mindfulness for Stress Reduction Among Family Caregivers of Frail Older Adults: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND

Family caregivers of frail older adults experience high levels of stress. Mind-body interventions (MBIs) focused on caregiver stress are often limited in teaching approaches, difficult to practice, and costly. A social media-based MBI embedded with mindfulness meditation (MM) and self-administered acupressure (SA) may be effective for family caregivers, offer greater usability, and lead to greater adherence.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to test the feasibility and preliminary effects of a social media-based MBI embedded with MM and SA on family caregivers of frail older adults and to investigate the preliminary effects of the intervention using a pilot randomized controlled trial.

METHODS

A 2-arm randomized controlled trial design was adopted. Family caregivers of frail older adults (n=64) were randomized into either the intervention group (n=32), receiving 8 weeks of social media-based MM and SA, or the control group (n=32), receiving brief education on caregiving for people with frailty. The primary outcome (caregiver stress) and secondary outcomes (caregiver burden, sleep quality, and mindfulness awareness and attention) were measured using a web-based survey at baseline (T0), immediately after the intervention (T1), and at the 3-month follow-up (T2).

RESULTS

The feasibility of the intervention was established with a high attendance rate (87.5%), high usability score (79), and low attrition rate (1.6%). The generalized estimating equation results showed that participants in the intervention group at T1 and T2 experienced a significant improvement in stress reduction (P=.02 and P=.04, respectively), sleep quality (P=.004 and P=.01, respectively), and mindful awareness and attention (P=.006 and P=.02, respectively) compared with the control group. There were no substantial improvements in caregiver burden at T1 and T2 (P=.59 and P=.47, respectively). A focus group session conducted after the intervention had 5 themes: impact on the family caregivers, difficulty in practicing the intervention, the strength of the program, the limitations of the program, and perception of the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings support the feasibility and preliminary effects of social media-based MBI embedded with acupressure and MM on reducing stress among family caregivers of frail older people and enhancing sleep quality and mindfulness levels. A future study with a larger and more diverse sample is proposed to evaluate the longer-term effects and generalizability of the intervention.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2100049507; http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=128031.

Alleviating Doctors' Emotional Exhaustion through Sports Involvement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Roles of Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy and Perceived Stress

This study aims to understand the state of emotional exhaustion of Chinese doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic, and explore the role of sports involvement in enhancing doctors' regulatory emotional self-efficacy, reducing stress perception, and alleviating emotional exhaustion. Finally, report the existing problems and make recommendations to the government and hospitals. The researchers constructed a cross-sectional questionnaire survey to collect data. From March to April 2022, using the snowball and convenience sampling methods, a total of 413 valid questionnaires were collected from 13 hospitals in Hunan Province. AMOS 23.0 was used to construct a structural equation model (SEM) with the bootstrapping approach to verify the proposed hypotheses. Doctors with more sports involvement exhibited higher levels of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and lesser perceived stress. Doctors who exhibited higher regulatory emotional self-efficacy had lesser perceived stress. The relationship between sports involvement and emotional exhaustion was mediated by perceived stress and/or regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Therefore, the government and hospitals should strengthen the depth and intensity of implementing the "National Fitness Program" at the hospital level, instead of just holding short-term activities with a small number of participants, but to cover all medical staff with fitness opportunities.

Improving University Students' Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From an Online Counseling Intervention in Italy

Background

The mental health of university students is significantly affected when faced with public health emergencies and requires specific interventions to help support and prevent any long-lasting effects that the pandemic may have on their mental health status. This study aims to evaluate the impact of an online individual counseling intervention provided by the University of Foggia and carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health status of a sample of university students.

Methods

32 Italian undergraduate students took part in a one-group pretest-posttest research design. The data was gathered in two times: before the start of the counseling intervention (T1), positive and negative affect, satisfaction with life, global mental distress, anxiety, stress, and future time perspective were collected, at the end of the counseling intervention (T2), the same dimensions were measured. A one-way repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed, and single Bonferroni-corrected dependent t-tests were conducted on variables showing a significant change over time.

Results

The results showed that positive affect, subjective well-being, and future time perspective increased significantly after the intervention. In contrast, the participants reported significantly lower levels of negative affect, global mental distress, state and trait anxiety, as well as perceived stress over time.

Conclusions

The study demonstrates the promising impact of online counseling intervention and its efficient contribution in promoting the well-being of university students. The results contribute to the ongoing debate concerning the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young adults, helping professionals develop more efficient clinical and psychological interventions.

Effect of online counselling on emotional outcomes during the COVID‐19 pandemic: An innovative group intervention for university students using the Brain Wave Modulation Technique

Young people's mental health problems are a matter of concern during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Counselling services for university students by means of telemental support can help them to deal with psychological issues that they may be facing due to the pandemic. The present study investigated the effects of four once‐weekly online counselling sessions based on a mind‐body technique (the Brain Wave Modulation Technique; BWM‐T) on enhancing positive affect and on reducing negative affect and anxiety in a sample of 54 university students (96.3% females; M_age = 21.31 years, SD = 2.09). An experimental design was conducted: the participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group, which received 15 min of a guided online BWM‐T session, or to the control group, which watched a 15‐min video on how to sustain their psychological well‐being. The results of a two‐factor mixed‐design analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the participants in the intervention group reported a significant increase in positive affect and a decrease in negative affect over time compared to those in the control group. They also reported a slight decrease in state anxiety compared to the control group, although this was just short of statistical significance. The information provided by this study, regarding emotional outcomes among university students after four brief online counselling sessions, suggests that such interventions could be an effective and sustainable way to reinforce young people's mental health during the COVID‐19 pandemic, as well as later in their university careers and adult lives.

Adolescents at a Distance

Abstract. Background: In many countries, physical distancing is seen as one of the crucial preventive measures for limiting the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is likely to be very difficult to ensure that adolescents keep apart from one another since peer interactions are extremely significant for them. Aims: We examined the utility of the Theory of Planned Behavior enhanced with a construct of the Protection Motivation Theory for predicting physical distancing behavior among adolescents during the period following the national lockdown imposed in Italy to tackle the pandemic. Method: Measures of attitude, subjective norm, perceptions of behavioral control, perceptions of threat regarding personal health and the health of loved ones, and intention were administered to the participants ( N = 363) at baseline. Measures of physical distancing behavior were then administered 3 weeks later ( N = 350). Results: The tested structural equation model accounted for 77% of variance in intention and 25% of variance in behavior. Perceived behavioral control and attitude were important predictors of intention and behavior, while the data did not support the hypothesized impact of perceptions of threat. Limitation: Due to the observational nature of the data caution should be taken in drawing causal inferences. Conclusion: The results suggest that programs for increasing physical distancing behavior in adolescents by concentrating exclusively on risks to their health or that of their loved ones might prove to be ineffective. Instead, it seems likely that prevention campaigns targeting adolescents will be more successful if they focus on perceived behavioral control and attitude.

Effects of the Brain Wave Modulation Technique Administered Online on Stress, Anxiety, Global Distress, and Affect During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized Clinical Trial

This study aims to evaluate the effects of an innovative mind-body practice named the brain wave modulation technique (BWM-T) on stress, anxiety, global distress, and affect. The technique was administered online through a web-based video conferencing platform. The intervention started on week four of the first quarantine in Italy (week commencing 30th March 2020), for a duration of 4 weeks and ended before lockdown measures were loosened. 310 people participated in the study, mean age 28.73 years old (SD = 9.16), 77.8% women. Of these, about half were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the other half served as controls. Participants completed online psychological tests before and after the intervention. 266 people (144 experimental, 122 controls) completed the post-intervention tests. Consistent with our hypothesis, the study's findings indicate a reduction in the levels of stress, anxiety, global distress, and negative affect in the experimental group, compared to the control group. Moreover, the experimental group also showed higher levels of positive affect, compared to controls after the intervention. The present findings add to the current literature in suggesting that the BWM-T reduced stress not only when administered face-to face but also when administered online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, we also noted that the BWM-T has an effect on anxiety, global distress, and affect, which we had not investigated in previous studies.

The Analysis of Mathematics Academic Burden for Primary School Students Based on PISA Data Analysis

To explore the impact of academic burden on the physical and mental health of primary school students, combined with the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report in 2018, the relationship among the development of mathematical literacy, mathematics academic burden, and the physical and mental health of primary school students is studied. First, the relationship between mathematical literacy and mathematics anxiety is analyzed, and related influencing factors and measurement methods of mathematics anxiety are introduced. A questionnaire is then designed for primary school students' mathematical stress, and the reliability and validity of the designed questionnaire are tested. Finally, a questionnaire survey is conducted on students, parents, and teachers in the third, fourth, and fifth grades of three standardized public primary schools. The results of the questionnaire survey show that students, teachers, and parents have a general understanding of the mathematics academic burden of primary school students at this stage. A total of 70% of teachers believe that primary school students have a heavy mathematics burden; 50% of parents think that primary school students are under heavy academic stress; 70% of primary school students believe that the heavy mathematics burden leads to reduced sleep time and extracurricular activities, which has a serious impact on the physical and mental health of primary school students. This research provides a reference for improving the current balance between education and students' physical and mental health in China.

A Psychosocial Genomics Pilot Study in Oncology for Verifying Clinical, Inflammatory and Psychological Effects of Mind-Body Transformations-Therapy (MBT-T) in Breast Cancer Patients: Preliminary Results

Several studies have highlighted the key role of chronic inflammation in breast cancer development, progression, metastasis, and therapeutic outcome. These processes are mediated through a variety of cytokines and hormones that exert their biological actions either locally or distantly via systemic circulation. Recent findings suggest that positive psychosocial experiences, including psychotherapeutic interventions and therapeutic mind-body protocols, can modulate the inflammatory response by reducing the expression of genes/proteins associated with inflammation and stress-related pathways. Our preliminary results indicate that a specific mind-body therapy (MBT-T) could induce a significant reduction of the release of different cytokines and chemokines, such as SCGFβ, SDF-1α, MCP3, GROα, LIF, and IL-18, in the sera of breast cancer patients compared to a control group, suggesting that MBT-T could represent a promising approach to improve the wellness and outcome of breast cancer patients.

School-Based Mind–Body Interventions: A Research Review

This paper contains a narrative review of the literature in the field of school-based mind–body interventions (MBIs). The aim of the current review is to verify whether the school-based MBI programs implemented in primary and secondary schools over the past 5 years are effective in helping schoolchildren cope with stress-related, behavioral, and affective issues, as well as improve stress response and school performance. All articles were retrieved using a number of databases. Inclusion criteria comprised qualitative and quantitative, English language, and peer-reviewed studies among third graders (8–9 years old) to twelfth graders (17–18 years old), including special needs pupils. Qualitative studies were limited to pupils’ experience only. Ten studies meeting the criteria for this review were assessed. The school-based interventions included yoga-based programs and mindfulness training. Evidence was evaluated and summarized. Across the reviewed studies, we found support for MBIs as part of school curricula to reduce negative effects of stress and promote overall well-being with caveats to consider in choosing specific programs. The practical implications of the current review include considerations related to the incorporation of MBIs in school curricula, which would likely benefit schoolchildren.