Beyond the individual: group effects in mindfulness-based stress reduction.

Full Abstract

The authors explored the group as a source of change in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Participants consisted of 606 adults in 59 groups who completed an 8-week MBSR program. The authors examined change in the General Symptom Index (GSI) of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised and the Medical Symptom Checklist (MSC) from pre- to postintervention. Multilevel models were used to examine the extent to which groups differed in the amount of change reported by the participants. After controlling for pretreatment severity, group accounted for 7% of the variability in the GSI and 0% in the MSC. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the practice of MBSR as well as for research investigating the effects of MBSR and other programs or psychotherapies.

Author information

Author/s: Imel, Zac (Z); Baldwin, Scott (S); Bonus, Katherine (K); Maccoon, Donal (D);

Affiliation: Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53703, USA. zeimel(-atsign-)wisc.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Psychotherapy research : journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (Psychother Res), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Nov; vol 18 (issue 6) : pp 735-42

Dates: Created 2008/11/12; Completed 2009/03/23;

PMID: 18815948, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 3/23/2009, IMS Date: 23 Mar 2009 00:00:00)

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