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Cited by 25Mindfulness and Compassion InterventionsStress and Burnout ResearchOccupational Health and Burnout

Improvements in Mindfulness Facets Mediate the Alleviation of Burnout Dimensions

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Kinnunen, Sanna M., Puolakanaho, Anne, Tolvanen, Asko, Mäkikangas, Anne, Lappalainen, Raimo·2020·Mindfulness
DOI 10.1007/s12671-020-01490-8
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Abstract

Objectives: While interventions using mindfulness have been effective in treating burnout, the mechanisms of change need more research. This study investigated which of five mindfulness facets (observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reacting) mediated the intervention effects on three burnout dimensions (exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy) during an 8-week mindfulness-, acceptance-, and value-based (MAV) intervention and a 10-month follow-up. Methods: The participants were a heterogeneous sample of employees suffering from burnout ( n = 202, 80% women, mean age = 47.5 years). Latent change score modeling was conducted for each combination of the mindfulness facets and the burnout dimensions. Confidence intervals were calculated for the coefficients in the models. Results: The modeling results showed that mindfulness improvement during the intervention mediated burnout alleviation during both the intervention and the 10-month follow-up. A large spread of mindfulness facets mediated changes in all the burnout dimensions during the intervention (all for cynicism, all except describing for exhaustion, and all except observing for reduced professional efficacy). The improvement in non-judging skills mediated the reductions in all burnout dimensions during the follow-up. For exhaustion, it was the only significant mediator during the follow-up, whereas for cynicism and reduced professional efficacy, describing and observing were additional mediators. Conclusions: Improving mindfulness facets using a MAV intervention had significant long-term effects on burnout in this study. Non-judging is possibly the most important mindfulness facet to improve in burnout interventions, given that it mediated the changes in all burnout dimensions during both the intervention and 10-month follow-up.

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  • Changes in different psychological flexibility skills may predict changes in different kinds of distress.

    “These results suggest that changes in different psychological flexibility skills may predict changes in different kind of distress, which is congruent with Gallego, McHugh, Villatte, and Lappalainen (2020) and Kinnunen, Puolakanaho, Tolvanen, Mäkikangas, and Lappalainen (2020), who found that different aspects of mindfulness and psychological inflexibility may be related to different psychological”

    From The effectiveness of a five-session workshop on the distress of international students in Finland – a pilot study. (2023) · cites this paper as Kinnunen, Puolakanaho, Tolvanen, Mäkikangas, and Lappalainen (2020)

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Authors
Kinnunen, S. M., Puolakanaho, A., Tolvanen, A., Mäkikangas, A., & Lappalainen, R.
Affiliations
  • University of Jyväskylä (FI)
  • Tampere University (FI)
Corresponding author
Kinnunen, Sanna M.
ORCID
Venue
Mindfulness
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2020-08-27
Volume
11
Issue
12
Pages
2779-2792
ISSN
  • 1868-8527 (ISSN-L)
  • 1868-8535
DOI
10.1007/s12671-020-01490-8
OpenAlex
W3082897782
Cited by
25
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4
FWCI
1.09
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Mindfulness (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Jyväskylä University Digital Archive (University of Jyväskylä) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Tampere University Institutional Repository (Tampere University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Finnish Social Insurance Institution
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
Keywords
mindfulness facets, burnout, non-judgment, acceptance and commitment therapy, occupational exhaustion, cynicism, mechanisms of change, employee well-being, long-term follow-up

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