None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of training in a brief mindfulness meditation vs clinical hypnosis intervention for addressing symptoms of burnout and optimising wellbeing in uninjured competitive athletes. Additionally, the study aims to investigate potential psychological factors underlying the effects of these mind-body therapies. It is hypothesised that mindfulness meditation and clinical hypnosis will be effective via changes in unique mechanisms.
Interventions
The two brief interventions (described below) being compared comprise five training sessions of 20 minutes in length, delivered across five consecutive days. Athletes are randomised to condition and will only receive one of the two trainings. The training sessions will be delivered as audio recordings via Qualtrics so that athletes can listen to the recordings (via headphones) in a location of their choice. Participants will also have access to the recordings during the post-training maintenance
The two brief interventions (described below) being compared comprise five training sessions of 20 minutes in length, delivered across five consecutive days. Athletes are randomised to condition and will only receive one of the two trainings. The training sessions will be delivered as audio recordings via Qualtrics so that athletes can listen to the recordings (via headphones) in a location of their choice. Participants will also have access to the recordings during the post-training maintenance period. The length of the baseline period and maintenance period will be randomly assigned as either 5-days, 10-days, or 15-days in length such that the total duration of participation for all participants totals 25 days. The treatment period immediately follows the last day of baseline monitoring, and the maintenance period immediately follows the last day of treatment. Adherence will be tracked by the researchers via a function on Qualtrics. Both interventions will be recorded by A/Prof Melissa Day, a endorsed Clinical and Health Psychologist, with the same recording listened to by participants in each condition on each day of treatment and following treatment. Condition 1, Mindfulness Meditation (MM): The MM recording will be adapted from Day (2017). It will first instruct the listener to anchor attention on the breath while being mindfully aware of any physical sensations that arise throughout the body. The listener is then encouraged to explore sensations with non-judgmental attentiveness, without attempts to change the sensation in any way. This will implicitly provide training in mindful acceptance. Finally, the listener is instructed to simply label any thinking that arises as “thinking”, before returning to the object of the meditation. Condition 2, Clinical Hypnosis (HYP): The HYP recording will be adapted from Jensen (2011). It will take the listener through a standardised self-hypnosis practice that includes an induction, followed by tailored suggestions. Specifically, the HYP session aims to take the listener through four basic ideas: 1) an induction to get the individual into a state of readiness to accept new ideas; 2) instructions to go to a favourite place to deepen the induction and provide a context for feeling heat while being relaxed; 3) linking suggestions for reducing automatic behavioural inhibition system and behavioural activation system (BIS-BAS) activation in response to stressors and enhancing awareness of when to activate each system; 4) suggestions that target enhancing self-confidence and reducing competitive anxiety and 5) alerting.
Sponsors
The University of Queensland
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
a) be a competitive athlete (i.e., compete at a level beyond recreational or casual participation. This includes athletes who participate in regional, national, or international competitions, and those who are members of competitive teams or clubs), b) have participated in a competition in the past six months and are currently training for a future or ongoing competition), c) currently experiencing burnout, as indicated by a score of 79 or higher on the 18-item Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure d) be 18 or over, e) read, speak, and understand the English language, f) have access to the internet on a computer or smartphone, g) have access to a set of earphones, h) be willing to be randomly assigned to both conditions and listen to five 20-minute treatment sessions, i) be willing to participate in a daily survey for 25 consecutive days.
Exclusion criteria
a) having a current or previous injury within the last 6 months that lasted for 8 days or longer and that prevented you from participating in your sport during that time; b) report <2 on a numerical rating scale for pain intensity in response to experimental "heat" pain stimuli; c) having used alcohol and/or pain medication in the 24 hours before the thermal pain stimulus; d) current or history of diagnosis of primary psychotic or major thought disorder within the past 5 years; e) psychiatric hospitalisation within the past 6 months; f) psychiatric or behavioural conditions in which symptoms were unstable or severe within the past 6 months; g) problems with allergic skin reactions or excessive bruising; h) previous participation in a thermal pain stimulus experiment; i) current or past participation in a research study with treatment components that may overlap those in the current study.
Outcome results
None listed