Abstract
Objectives: Mindfulness training (MT) guidelines recommend that trainers have familiarity and knowledge of the training group as well as extensive MT expertise. Herein, a “train-the-trainer” (TTT) dissemination model was investigated for military service members whose access to MT is threatened by a scarcity of qualified trainers. Methods: US Army Master Resilience Trainer-Performance Experts (PEs), who had extensive familiarity with soldiers but no prior MT experience, participated in an MT practicum, and then delivered a 4-week MT program (Mindfulness-Based Attention Training, MBAT) contextualized for military personnel. Soldiers (n = 180) undergoing intensive military field training over the study interval were recruited as participants. MBAT was delivered to soldiers by PEs (n = 89) or by a trainer with extensive MT experience (Mindfulness Expert; ME, n = 45) but no military familiarity. The remaining participants served as no-training controls (NTC, n = 46). Soldiers’ performance on sustained attention and working memory (WM) tasks was assessed before (week 0, T1) and after MBAT delivery (week 5, T2), and again 4 weeks later (week 10, T3). Results: For all participants, sustained attention and WM performance declined over the high-demand field training interval (p < 0.001). Yet, the PE group declined significantly less in attentional (p = 0.040) and WM (p < 0.001) performance relative to the other groups. Conclusions: These results suggest that TTT delivery of short-form MT by context-familiar trainers may be an expeditious route by which to increase access to MT in the service of promoting cognitive resilience in high-demand groups.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 683-697 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Mindfulness |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 1 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2019, The Author(s).
Funding
The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Miami with oversight from the Human Research Protections Office of the US Department of Defense. All participants provided informed consent. This research was supported by Department of Army grant #W81XWH-12-2-0051 to APJ. We thank the U.S. Army Resiliency Directorate, Dr. Coreen Harada, and Dr. Amy Adler for their assistance with this project. We thank Dr. Stephen Gonzalez, Nick Fuller, Tyler Pauly, Gus Castellanos, Merissa Goolsarran, Eliot Tang-Smith, and Laura MacKinnon for their assistance with training and data collection, and MBAT advisory board members Lieutenant Gen. Walter Piatt, Col. (R) Michael Brumage, Col. (R) Charles Hogue, Sharon Salzberg, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Dr. Michael Gervais for their guidance and input regarding the MBAT program.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| US Department of Defence/Department of Army | 81XWH-12-2-0051 |
| Human Research Protections Office of the | |
| U.S. Army Resiliency Directorate | |
| US Department of Defense | |
| Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of Miami |
Keywords
- Attention
- Cognitive decline
- Cognitive degradation
- High stress
- Military
- Mind wandering
- Performance
- Working memory
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Health(social science)
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Applied Psychology