According to a recent study, making mindfulness training available to active-duty military personnel can reduce the damaging effects of stress on their minds.
Active-duty soldiers are subjected to high mental and emotional stress levels, which can harm their brains. But, according to a new study, mindfulness instruction by military trainers can help reduce these effects.
The study was conducted to determine if professional trainers with no mindfulness background but with experience working with military personnel could successfully teach MBAT to soldiers. MBAT combines mindfulness practices and principles with military-specific skills to build mental resilience and reduce stress.
Prior studies with active duty soldiers have shown how periods of stress, uncertainty, and pressure can affect soldiers’ mental health. At the same time, mindfulness interventions emphasizing open monitoring and focused attention have been shown to boost resilience and protect against declines in attention and memory.
Before starting the study, military instructors without experience with mindfulness completed a 12-week MBAT practicum. The training included eight weeks of instructor training to prepare them to teach soldiers these skills. In addition, several trainers who had prior mindfulness training but needed a history of working with troops also completed the MBAT practical.
Delivering Mindfulness-Based Attention Training to Soldiers
Then, 180 active-duty male US Army volunteers in good health from three companies were randomly assigned either to receive COMBAT training from a professional military trainer (military instructor group) or an experienced mindfulness educator (mindfulness educator). Soldiers from a fourth US Army company who had not received any mindfulness training were included as a control group.
The MBAT program was delivered to both groups but by different trainers. The instruction was given weekly in two-hour sessions for four weeks. The training included mindfulness instruction and practice based on weekly themes, including concentration, body awareness, open monitoring, and connection. Participants had to do daily exercises that matched the weekly theme at least four times per week. They were also given an MP3 player containing guided 15-minute practices.
Soldiers in both the mindfulness and control groups completed several cognitive tests and questionnaires on computers before, after, and four weeks after the training. In addition, participants were asked to perform an attention memory task, which involved recalling pictures of shoes or faces while distracted by images related to combat or not.
Slowing Cognitive Decline
All three groups showed a decline in performance at the end of the research. However, the military trainer group showed the most negligible change immediately following training and four weeks later. The military trainer group also showed less decline in working memory compared to the control and mindfulness educator groups. All groups scored lower on tests when distracted by emotionally charged images.
In addition, there were differences in the amount of time each group spent practicing mindfulness. The military trainers spent an average of one more day per week practicing mindfulness than the mindfulness educators. This trend continued during the four-week follow-up. Dr. Jha is one of the study’s authors and believes this happened because “context-familiar trainers were better placed to motivate soldier engagement both in class and outside of it.” She concluded that soldiers might have felt these trainers were better attuned to their goals, challenges, and demands than context-unfamiliar instructors.
Jha feels the findings of this study to be hopeful. “The results suggest it can improve the accessibility of effective Mindfulness Training Programs for Groups like Soldiers, Firefighters, and Police Officers. Surgeons and Teachers are also included in this list.
Jha says, “We discovered that the key to scalability (of mindfulness programs) is to have members of these groups become trained in how to train their peers. Our results indicate that trainers ‘training’ can take a few years. “It can be done in as little time as 12 weeks,” says she.
The study results suggest that soldiers who receive mindfulness instruction from a professional who understands the military context are more likely to practice it independently and be protected from stress-related cognitive decline.