Abstract
•Mindfulness Training (MT) and Relaxation Training (RT) for firefighters.•MT benefits self-reported resilience.•MT out-of-class practice benefits attentional performance and self-reported affect.
Motivated by the growing interest in promoting resilience in first responders and other professionals who face threatening professional circumstances, the current study investigated the effectiveness of offering a short-form mindfulness training (MT) program to firefighters. The overarching question was to determine if psychological and cognitive markers of resilience are bolstered via MT. Firefighters (n = 121) were assigned to an MT program (n = 42), an active-comparison relaxation training program (RT, n = 31), or served as no-training controls (NTC, n = 48). Both the MT and RT programs were contextualized for firefighters and consisted of 4, 2-h training sessions delivered over 4 weeks by the same expert trainer, as well as 10–15 min of daily out-of-class practice. Intent-to-treat analyses revealed a significantly greater increase in psychological resilience from baseline (T1) to post-training (T2) in firefighters who received MT vs. RT or no training. In addition, positive affect and objective attentional task performance demonstrated a greater increase over time (from T1 to T2) with more days per week of out-of-class practice for the MT group but not for the RT group. These results suggest that MT moreso than RT bolsters markers of resilience in firefighters.
