The effectiveness of a brief mobile phone-based mindfulness intervention: effects on stress, emotion regulation and life satisfaction in teachers

Research has frequently identified teaching as one of the most stressful of occupations, often due to high job demands and busy work schedules. With such detrimental effects to well-being caused by negative stress, intervention is essential. Mindfulness has offered promising results for stress reduction, however the duration of typical mindfulness interventions is impractical to most. The present study explored the effectiveness of a brief mobile phone-based mindfulness intervention. Thirty-nine secondary school teachers were randomly allocated to either a mindfulness group (n = 22) or active control group (n = 17) to establish the effectiveness of an atypical mindfulness intervention in increasing trait mindfulness, reducing stress, reducing difficulties in emotion regulation and improving life satisfaction over a ten-day period. The mindfulness group experienced significant increases in self-reported trait mindfulness and declines in stress and emotion regulatory difficulties. Self-reported life satisfaction failed to significantly increase from pre to post intervention. Non-significant changes were observed for all the tested variables in the control group. The present study contributes to the limited research of mobile phone- based interventions whilst addressing implications and directions for future research