The Impact of Mindfulness Training on Police Officer Stress, Mental Health, and Salivary Cortisol Levels

Abstract

Unaddressed occupational stress and trauma contribute to elevated rates of mental illness and suicide in policing, and to violent and aggressive behavior that disproportionately impacts communities of color. Emerging evidence suggests mindfulness training with police may reduce stress and aggression and improve mental health, but there is limited evidence for changes in biological outcomes or the lasting benefits of mindfulness training. We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of 114 police officers from three Midwestern U.S. law enforcement agencies. We assessed stress-related physical and mental health symptoms, blood-based inflammatory markers, and hair and salivary cortisol. Participants were then randomized to an 8-week mindfulness intervention or waitlist control (WLC), and the same assessments were repeated post-intervention and at 3-month follow-up. Relative to waitlist control, the mindfulness group had greater improvements in psychological distress, mental health symptoms, and sleep quality post-training, gains that were maintained at 3-month follow-up. Intervention participants also had a significantly lower cortisol awakening response (CAR) at 3-month follow-up relative to waitlist control. Contrary to hypotheses, there were no intervention effects on hair cortisol, diurnal cortisol slope, or inflammatory markers. In summary, an 8-week mindfulness intervention for police officers led to self-reported improvements in distress, mental health, and sleep, and a lower CAR. These benefits persisted (or emerged) at 3-month follow-up, suggesting that this training may buffer against the long-term consequences of chronic stress. Future research should assess the persistence of these benefits over a longer period while expanding the scope of outcomes to consider the broader community of mindfulness training for police.Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov#NCT03488875.

The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Police Officers’ Stress Reduction: a Systematic Review

“…Half of the studies had both an intervention and a control group, and another half had a one-group experimental design (only an intervention group). Of the two group experimental designs, three were randomised control trials (Christopher et al 2018 ; Grupe et al 2021a , b ; Krick and Felfe 2020 ), and one had a quasi-experimental design (non-randomised control trial) (Navarrete et al 2022 ). It is also worth mentioning that three of the analysed studies specified their research as pilot studies (Christopher et al 2016 ; Grupe et al 2021a ; Navarette et al 2022 ).…”

“…All studies included both genders and were done in Western countries. Three studies specified police officers working positions in detail (Christopher et al 2018 ; Grupe et al 2021a ; Hoeve et al 2021 ), two more abstractedly (Grupe et al 2021a , b ; Navarette et al 2022 ) and the other three just named the sample police officers and mentioned if some officers of command positions were included or not. The described working positions included patrol officers, detectives, criminalists, SWAT riot officers, forensic researchers, alarm room operators, human resource officers, sergeants, etc.…”

“…The inclusion criteria in four of the studies were that those police officers were able regularly to attend the class/mindfulness sessions (Grupe et al 2021a ; Hoeve et al 2021 ; Marquez et al 2021 ; Navarette et al 2022 ), and in one that participants are also willing to do homework assignments (Marquez et al 2021 ). The exclusion criteria in two of the analysed studies were previous participation in MBSR or other mindfulness interventions or significant previous meditation experiences (Grupe et al 2021a , b ). This was not an exclusion criterion in one study, but this variable was controlled and included in the analysis (Navarette et al 2022 ).…”

“…From physiological stress measures, three studies had salivatory cortisol measures (i.e. cortisol awakening response) (Christopher et al 2016 , 2018 ; Grupe et al 2021a , b ); one assessed hair cortisol concentration, diurnal cortisol slope and inflammatory markers (Grupe et al 2021a , b ); and one study measured heart rate (Krick and Felfe 2020 )—a cardiovascular marker of the activity sympathetic nervous system.…”

Mental health stigma and help-seeking intentions in police employees

“…Previous mindfulness training. Participants were asked whether they participated in an 8week mindfulness training class previously provided to some sworn personnel through our research center Grupe, Stoller, et al, 2021). For participants who took part in this training, follow-up questions asked how frequently they had engaged in mindfulness practices over the past month and whether they had found benefit in these practices.…”