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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1479584
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Diverse Personal and Social Challenges Impact on Athletes' Careers and Competition Preparation: Psychological Side Effects View all 3 articles
The Role of Mindfulness in Improving Quality of Life Among Student Athletes: A Pilot Mediation Study
Provisionally accepted- 1 Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden
- 2 Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
- 3 Linköping University, Linköping, Östergötland, Sweden
Introduction: There has been a growing interest in mindfulness research during the past three decades. However, studies investigating the mediating mechanisms of mindfulness on student athletes and their quality of life (QoL) are sparse. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine if the effects of a brief body scan intervention on QoL among student athletes would mediate a change in five facets of mindfulness (acting with awareness, describing, non-judgement, nonreactivity, and observing).Methods: Swedish student athletes (n=99; 40 % females) were recruited from six provincial high schools specialized in sport (Basketball k=5; Cross-country skiing, k=1). The student athletes were randomized into two arms: 4-week body scan (intervention group) or 4-week relaxation (active control group). Participants completed self-reported measures of QoL and mindfulness three times, at baseline, at follow-up 4 weeks after baseline, and 8 weeks after baseline. A simple mediation analysis was conducted.Results: Results showed no significant differences between the body scan and relaxation on change in QoL (c-path). There were no significant associations between the independent variable (body scan and relaxation) and the mediator FFMQ (a-path). Results did not demonstrate any significant indirect associations between FFMQ and QoL (b-path) for the five facets in FFMQ. In conclusion, body scan did not have any effect on student athletes' QoL.Discussion: This study provides a first step toward investigating facets of mindfulness and QoL among student athletes. No direct associations were revealed in this pilot study. Future research should refine mindfulness interventions, and explore diverse mindfulness practices to better understand which facets of mindfulness that may be helpful for student athletes' QoL.
Keywords: Athletes, body scan, Mediation analysis, Relaxation, quality of life 40 41
Received: 12 Aug 2024; Accepted: 28 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Johles, Lindner and Lundqvist. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Lis Johles, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden
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