Police

Reduce Aggression in Law Enforcement Officers with Mindfulness

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Reduce Aggression in Law Enforcement Officers with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Law enforcement officers (LEOs) are exposed to significant stressors, elevating their risk for aggression and excessive use of force, as well as mental health consequences, including post-traumatic stress disorder, burnout, alcohol misuse, depression, and suicide. Mindfulness training is a promising approach with high-stress populations that has been shown effective for increasing resilience and improving negative mental health outcomes common among LEOs.” – Michael Christopher

 

Policing is a very stressful occupation. Stress in police can result from role conflicts between serving the public, enforcing the law, and upholding ethical standards and personal responsibilities as spouse, parent, and friend. Stress also results from, threats to health and safety, boredom, responsibility for protecting the lives of others, continual exposure to people in pain or distress, the need to control emotions even when provoked, the presence of a gun, even during off-duty hours, and the fragmented nature of police work, with only rare opportunities to follow cases to conclusion or even to obtain feedback or follow-up information.

 

This stress can have serious consequences for the individual and in turn for society. Police officers have one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, possibly the highest. They have a high divorce rate, about second in the nation. They are problem drinkers about twice as often as the general population. This is a major problem as stress and the resultant complications can impact job performance, which sometimes involve life or death situations. It can also lead to increased aggressiveness. Mindfulness training has been shown to improve the physiological and psychological responses to stress. So, it is likely that mindfulness training with police can help them cope with the stress, improve their psychological well-being, and reduce aggressiveness.

 

In today’s Research News article “Differential impact of mindfulness practices on aggression among law enforcement officers.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8274577/ ) Ribeiro and colleagues recruited meditation naïve law enforcement officers and randomly assigned them to a wait-list control condition or to receive 8 weekly 2-hour sessions of Mindfulness-Based Resilience Training (MBRT) including body scan, sitting and walking meditations, mindful movement, and group discussion along with home practice. They were measured before and after practice for meditation practice and aggression, including physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility.

 

They found that adherence to home practice was sporadic, with participants practicing at home on average for 14 days of the 56 days available. Nevertheless, they found that in comparison to baseline and the wait-list control condition, Mindfulness-Based Resilience Training (MBRT) produced a significant decrease in the levels of aggression. They also found that the higher the frequency of home meditation practices, the greater the total duration of home practice, and the greater the number of days practiced at home the lower the levels of aggression. This was true for all of the meditation practices.

 

These are interesting results that suggest that mindfulness practices reduce aggression in law enforcement officers even when practice is sporadic. Even though home practice was low, the amounts of that practice predicted the levels of reduction in aggression, the more home practice, the lower the aggression. But there were no follow-up measurements to ascertain if the effects are lasting and there was no collection of on-the-job aggression to ascertain if this reduction of aggression obtained with paper and pencil measures translates to the real world of policing. Hence, the results must be interpreted cautiously. More intensive research in the future is called for as reducing aggression in law enforcement officers would probably make them more effective and reduce burnout.

 

So, reduce aggression in law enforcement officers with mindfulness.

 

“an 8-week mindfulness intervention for police officers led to self-reported improvements in distress, mental health, and sleep, and a lower [cortisol awakening response].” – Daniel W. Grupe

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are available on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Ribeiro, L., Colgan, D. D., Hoke, C. K., Hunsinger, M., Bowen, S., Oken, B. S., & Christopher, M. S. (2020). Differential impact of mindfulness practices on aggression among law enforcement officers. Mindfulness, 11(3), 734–745. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01289-2

 

Abstract

Objectives:

Home-based mindfulness practice is a common component of formal mindfulness training (MT) protocols. Obtaining objective data from home-based mindfulness practice is challenging. Interpreting associations between home-based mindfulness practice and clinically impactful outcomes is complicated given the variability in recommendations in length, frequency, and type of practice. In this exploratory study, adherence to home-based practices of Mindfulness-Based Resilience Training (MBRT) was studied in order to evaluate associations with clinical outcomes.

Methods:

Home practices from 24 (92% male, non-Hispanic white, aged M = 43.20 years) law enforcement officers (LEOs) from the urban Pacific Northwest enrolled in a feasibility and efficacy trial of MBRT were studied using an objective tracking device and self-report data. Outcomes included adherence to home-based mindfulness practices and self-reported aggression.

Results:

Participants completed 59.12% of the frequency amount of practice assigned in the MBRT curriculum. Frequency of practice was associated with decreased aggression, adjusted R2 = .41, F(3,23) = 6.14, p = .004. Duration of practice also predicted decreased aggression, adjusted R2 = .33, F(3,23) = 4.76, p = .011.

Conclusions:

Home-based MBRT practices for LEOs, even at low rates of adherence, may reduce aggression. MTs may show beneficial effects for other populations presented with challenges to engage in regular MT practices.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8274577/

Improve Psychological Well-Being and Sleep in Police with Mindfulness

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Improve Psychological Well-Being and Sleep in Police with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“increased mindfulness was related to increased resilience and decreased burnout among police officers.” – John Kim

 

Policing is a very stressful occupation. Stress in police can result from role conflicts between serving the public, enforcing the law, and upholding ethical standards and personal responsibilities as spouse, parent, and friend. Stress also results from, threats to health and safety, boredom, responsibility for protecting the lives of others, continual exposure to people in pain or distress, the need to control emotions even when provoked, the presence of a gun, even during off-duty hours, and the fragmented nature of police work, with only rare opportunities to follow cases to conclusion or even to obtain feedback or follow-up information.

 

This stress can have serious consequences for the individual and in turn for society. Police officers have one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, possibly the highest. They have a high divorce rate, about second in the nation. They are problem drinkers about twice as often as the general population. This is a major problem as stress and the resultant complications can impact job performance, which sometimes involve life or death situations.

 

Mindfulness training has been shown to improve the physiological and psychological responses to stress and it has been found to reduce burnout in first responders. So, it is likely that mindfulness training with police can help them cope with the stress and thereby improve their psychological well-being.

 

In today’s Research News article “The Impact of Mindfulness Training on Police Officer Stress, Mental Health, and Salivary Cortisol Levels.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720753/full?utm_source=F-AAE&utm_medium=EMLF&utm_campaign=MRK_1721400_a0P58000000G0YfEAK_Psycho_20210909_arts_A ) Grupe and colleagues recruited police officers and randomly assigned them to either a wait-list control condition or to receive 18 hours over 8 weeks of mindfulness training. The program was based upon the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. They were measured before and after training and 3 months later for stress, mental health, physical health, anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbances, ability to participate in social roles and activities, physical function, pain interference, and pain intensity, sleep, alcohol use, burnout, and work limitations. They also had blood and hair samples collected for analysis of levels of cortisol and markers of inflammation.

 

They found that in comparison to baseline and the wait-list control group, the police who received mindfulness training had significantly lower levels of perceived stress, distress, and mental illness symptoms. These improvements were maintained at the 3-month follow up. Sleep quality was significantly improved, and cortisol levels were lower at the 3-month follow up.

 

The comparison, control, condition was a wait-list control which is passive and doesn’t control for many confounding factors such as expectancy, experimenter bias, and attentional effects. But previous controlled research has shown that mindfulness training produces lower levels of stress, distress, anxiety, depression, and cortisol levels, and improved sleep. So, the present findings were likely due to the mindfulness training rather than confounding factors.

 

Policing is a highly stressful difficult job that can have mental health consequences. So, the findings that mindfulness training produces lasting improvements in psychological health in the police are encouraging. They suggest that mindfulness training can help the officers withstand the stress and maintain psychological health and reduce burnout.

 

So, improve psychological well-being and sleep in police with mindfulness.

 

“Meditation is helping police officers to de-escalate volatile situations, improve community relations—and improve their own well-being.” – JILL SUTTIE

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Grupe DW, Stoller JL, Alonso C, McGehee C, Smith C, Mumford JA, Rosenkranz MA and Davidson RJ (2021) The Impact of Mindfulness Training on Police Officer Stress, Mental Health, and Salivary Cortisol Levels. Front. Psychol. 12:720753. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720753

 

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.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720753/full?utm_source=F-AAE&utm_medium=EMLF&utm_campaign=MRK_1721400_a0P58000000G0YfEAK_Psycho_20210909_arts_A

 

Moderate the Effects of Routine Stressors on Police with Mindfulness

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Moderate the Effects of Routine Stressors on Police with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“While the practice of mindfulness is not a “silver bullet” for officer stress, it could be a potentially valuable tool in the fight going forward.” – John H. Kim

 

Policing is a very stressful occupation. It can result from threats to health and safety, boredom, responsibility for protecting the lives of others, continual exposure to people in pain or distress, the need to control emotions even when provoked, the presence of a gun, even during off-duty hours, and the fragmented nature of police work, with only rare opportunities to follow cases to conclusion or even to obtain feedback or follow-up information.

 

This stress can have serious consequences for the individual and in turn for society. Police officers have one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. They have a high divorce rate, about second in the nation. They are problem drinkers about twice as often as the general population. This is a major problem as stress and the resultant complications can impact job performance, which sometimes involve life or death situations. Mindfulness training has been shown to improve the physiological and psychological responses to stress and it has been found to reduce burnout in first responders. It has also been shown to improve the psychological well-being of police officers. Hence, mindfulness may help police cope with the stress.

 

In today’s Research News article “Trait Mindfulness Moderates the Association Between Stressor Exposure and Perceived Stress in Law Enforcement Officers.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8339391/ ) Chen and colleagues recruited active police officers and had them complete measures of perceived stress in policing, police organizational stress, overall perceived stress, resilience, and mindfulness. They also completed a daily event log of various stressors encountered for one week.

 

Component analysis of the daily logs revealed three principal components of daily stressors encountered by police, acute/traumatic stressors, routine stressors, and interpersonal stressors. For all 3 components, the higher the level of the stressor, the higher the levels of overall stress as measured by the various stress measures. They also found that the higher the levels of mindfulness, the weaker the relationship between experienced routine stressors and overall stress.

 

These results are correlational and as such causation cannot be determined. But they suggest, not surprisingly, that the stressors that the police encounter in their everyday work are predictive of their overall stress levels. In addition, in mindful police routine stressors such as paperwork, service calls etc. tend to have less of an impact on their overall stress levels. In other words, mindfulness doesn’t appear to help with dealing with acute/traumatic or interpersonal stressors, but rather with the stress produced by their everyday work tasks. Since, these routine stressors occur in the majority of the workday, mindfulness may be helpful in reducing overall stress and potentially burnout in the police.

 

So, moderate the effects of routine stressors on police with mindfulness.

 

“Meditation is helping police officers to de-escalate volatile situations, improve community relations—and improve their own well-being.” – Jill Suttie 

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Chen, S., & Grupe, D. W. (2021). Trait Mindfulness Moderates the Association Between Stressor Exposure and Perceived Stress in Law Enforcement Officers. Mindfulness, 1–14. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01707-4

 

Abstract

Objectives

To test the magnitude of the relationship between self-reported stressor exposure and perceived stress in police officers using a novel measure of daily work events, and whether dispositional mindfulness and resilience moderate this relationship.

Methods

A total of 114 law enforcement officers from a mid-sized Midwestern US city completed daily logs of job stressors and associated perceived stress, as well as additional self-report measures of perceived stress, trait mindfulness and resilience, and demographics and work information. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to cluster job stressors into a smaller number of components in a data-driven manner. Linear mixed-effects models were used to test the relationship between stressor exposure and perceived stress for each component, and the moderation of this relationship by trait mindfulness and resilience.

Results

The PCA categorized stressor exposure into three components: (1) acute or traumatic line-of-duty stressors, (2) routine daily stressors, and (3) interpersonal stressors. Results of mixed models showed robust positive relationships between self-reported stressor exposure and corresponding perceived stress across all 3 components. Dispositional mindfulness (but not resilience) moderated the association between stressor exposure and perceived stress for routine stressors, such that individuals with higher dispositional mindfulness showed a relatively attenuated relationship between exposure to routine daily stressors and resulting perceived stress.

Conclusions

Police officers high in dispositional mindfulness may experience daily routine stressors as less stressful, which can reduce the accumulation of general stress in the long term and which could help buffer against negative health outcomes associated with perceived stress.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8339391/

 

Improve the Psychological Well-Being of Police with Mindfulness

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Improve the Psychological Well-Being of Police with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“self-reported mindfulness to be associated with increased resilience and emotional intelligence and decreased negative health outcomes among police officers.” – John H. Kim

 

Policing is a very stressful occupation. Stress in police can result from role conflicts between serving the public, enforcing the law, and upholding ethical standards and personal responsibilities as spouse, parent, and friend. Stress also results from, threats to health and safety, boredom, responsibility for protecting the lives of others, continual exposure to people in pain or distress, the need to control emotions even when provoked, the presence of a gun, even during off-duty hours, and the fragmented nature of police work, with only rare opportunities to follow cases to conclusion or even to obtain feedback or follow-up information.

 

This stress can have serious consequences for the individual and in turn for society. Police officers have one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, possibly the highest. They have a high divorce rate, about second in the nation. They are problem drinkers about twice as often as the general population. This is a major problem as stress and the resultant complications can impact job performance, which sometimes involve life or death situations.

 

Mindfulness training has been shown to improve the physiological and psychological responses to stress and it has been found to reduce burnout in first responders. So, it is likely that mindfulness training with police can help them cope with the stress and thereby improve their quality of life and psychological well-being.

 

In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness Training Improves Quality of Life and Reduces Depression and Anxiety Symptoms Among Police Officers: Results From the POLICE Study-A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7952984/ ) Trombka and colleagues recruited active police officers and randomly assigned them to a wait list control condition or to receive 8 weekly sessions of Mindfulness-Based Health Promotion (MBHP) which is based on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. It includes mindful movements, meditation, body scan, and breathing practices along with teachings on mindfulness and self-compassion and discussion. They were measured 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after training and 6 months later for quality of life, anxiety, depression, religiosity, mindfulness, self-compassion, and quality of life domains of spirituality, religiosity, and personal beliefs.

 

They found that in comparison to baseline and the wait-list control group, the group that received Mindfulness-Based Health Promotion (MBHP) had significantly greater quality of life, including physical health, psychological, social relationships, and environment, overall quality of life and general health facets. These improvements remained significant 6 months after the conclusion of treatment. In addition, the MBHP group had significant reductions in anxiety and depression and significant increases in self-compassion which were also still present at the 6-month follow-up. A mediation analysis revealed that MBHP improved all facets of quality of life directly and also indirectly by improving self-compassion which in turn improved the various facets of quality of life.

 

These are clear and important results. Mindfulness-Based Health Promotion (MBHP) produced significant improvements in the psychological well-being of the police. Mindfulness training has been previously shown to improve quality of life and self-compassion. The present study replicates these finding but also demonstrates that the improvement in self-compassion is in part responsible for the improvements in quality of life. Self-compassion involves kindness toward oneself in the face of one’s personal failings. This is important for psychological well-being especially for police who are often dealing with difficult and stressful situations. Recognizing their own imperfect humanness with kindness greatly reduce self-criticism and blame allowing them to being OK with doing the best they can,

 

So, improve the psychological well-being of police with mindfulness.

 

“The science is validating that mindfulness has the potential to increase fair and impartial policing, because we are open to recognizing our responses to a stimulus, to an event, to a person,” – Sylvia Moir

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Trombka, M., Demarzo, M., Campos, D., Antonio, S. B., Cicuto, K., Walcher, A. L., García-Campayo, J., Schuman-Olivier, Z., & Rocha, N. S. (2021). Mindfulness Training Improves Quality of Life and Reduces Depression and Anxiety Symptoms Among Police Officers: Results From the POLICE Study-A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial. Frontiers in psychiatry, 12, 624876. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.624876

 

Abstract

Background: Police officers’ high-stress levels and its deleterious consequences are raising awareness to an epidemic of mental health problems and quality of life (QoL) impairment. There is a growing evidence that mindfulness-based interventions are efficacious to promote mental health and well-being among high-stress occupations.

Methods: The POLICE study is a multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) with three assessment points (baseline, post-intervention, and 6-month follow-up) where police officers were randomized to mindfulness-based health promotion (MBHP) (n = 88) or a waiting list (n = 82). This article focuses on QoL, depression and anxiety symptoms, and religiosity outcomes. Mechanisms of change and MBHP feasibility were evaluated.

Results: Significant group × time interaction was found for QoL, depression and anxiety symptoms, and non-organizational religiosity. Between-group analysis showed that MBHP group exhibited greater improvements in QoL, and depression and anxiety symptoms at both post-intervention (QoL d = 0.69 to 1.01; depression d = 0.97; anxiety d = 0.73) and 6-month follow-up (QoL d = 0.41 to 0.74; depression d = 0.60; anxiety d = 0.51), in addition to increasing non-organizational religiosity at post-intervention (d = 0.31). Changes on self-compassion mediated the relationship between group and pre-to-post changes for all QoL domains and facets. Group effect on QoL overall health facet at post-intervention was moderated by mindfulness trait and spirituality changes.

Conclusion: MBHP is feasible and efficacious to improve QoL, and depression and anxiety symptoms among Brazilian officers. Results were maintained after 6 months. MBHP increased non-organizational religiosity, although the effect was not sustained 6 months later. To our knowledge, this is the first mindfulness-based intervention RCT to empirically demonstrate these effects among police officers. Self-compassion, mindfulness trait, and spirituality mechanisms of change are examined.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7952984/

 

Calm the Police with Yoga

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“Yoga has a sly, clever way of short circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety.” – Baxter Bell

 

Policing is a very stressful occupation. Stress in police can result from role conflicts between serving the public, enforcing the law, and upholding ethical standards and personal responsibilities as spouse, parent, and friend. Stress also results from, threats to health and safety, boredom, responsibility for protecting the lives of others, continual exposure to people in pain or distress, the need to control emotions even when provoked, the presence of a gun, even during off-duty hours, and the fragmented nature of police work, with only rare opportunities to follow cases to conclusion or even to obtain feedback or follow-up information.

 

This stress can have serious consequences for the individual and in turn for society. Police officers have one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, possibly the highest. They have a high divorce rate, about second in the nation. They are problem drinkers about twice as often as the general population. This is a major problem as stress and the resultant complications can impact job performance, which sometimes involve life or death situations.

 

Given the difficulties with stress and the critical nature of their roles in society, it is imperative that methods be found to not just reduce the stressors of the job but also to assist the officers in stress management. Contemplative practices including yoga practice have been shown to be effective in the management of stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/n). They’ve been shown to reduce both the physiological and the psychological responses to stress. Hence, contemplative practice may be an effective method to reduce stress in police.

 

In today’s Research News article “Evaluation of the benefits of a Kripalu yoga program for police academy trainees: a pilot study”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1139276302762961/?type=3&theater

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/256478725_Evaluation_of_the_benefits_of_a_kripalu_yoga_program_for_police_academy_trainees_a_pilot_study

Jeter and colleagues examined the effectiveness of yoga practice for reducing stress in police academy trainees. They administered six 75-minute classes during the 20-week police academy training and found that there was a significant reduction in perceived stress in the trainees. In addition, they found that the yoga training significantly reduced tension and fatigue.

 

Yoga practice has been shown previously to reduce not only perceived stress but also the hormonal and cardiovascular responses to stress. Unfortunately, these physiological indicators were not measured in the study by Jeter and colleagues. But, the reduction in the psychological perception of stress is normally linked to changes in the physiological response. So, it is likely that these were also present in the trainees.

 

The reduction in fatigue is very significant. Fatigue is a major problem with police. Rotating shift work, lack of sleep, financial pressures to take on extra work or second jobs induce fatigue which can, in turn, affect performance. It has been demonstrated that fatigue impairs judgment and eye-hand coordination, increases excessive use of force, severe mood swings, anxiety or depression, substance-abuse, back pain and frequent headaches, PTSD, gastrointestinal problems, and risk of serious health problems. So, the ability of yoga practice to reduce fatigue in the trainees is very important.

 

These results in trainees need to be reproduced in a more highly controlled trial and the effectiveness of yoga practice to reduce stress in police officers in the field needs to be established. But, these preliminary results certainly justify further research. The problem is too important to be left untreated and yoga practice definitely shows promise.

 

So, calm the police with yoga.

 

“Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one’s being, from bodily health to self realization. Yoga means union – the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day to day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions.” – B.K.S. Iyenga

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies