Impact of Mindfulness Training on Stress-related Health Outcomes in Law Enforcement

In a sample of 120 officers from Dane County law enforcement agencies, the investigators are conducting a randomized controlled trial of an 8-week mindfulness-based training program for police officers, Madison Mindfulness-Based Resilience Training (mMBRT), and investigating the impact of this training on subjective responses to stress, stress-related psychological and physical health outcomes, and biological and behavioral correlates of perceived stress. While the benefits of mindfulness-based interventions have been documented in a variety of populations, this will be the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind of law enforcement personnel. In addition to self-report measures, this study assesses an array of objective biological and behavioral outcomes both in the laboratory and in the field that may speak to mechanisms of change involved in symptom reduction.