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Mindfulness practice has shown great benefit for the psychological and physical health of the worker in improving well-being, especially for high-risk and work shortage professions, such as social work. More recently, mindfulness practices have shown to have significant impact on clinical judgment, specifically, acts of implicit bias that are unconscious and the unintentional stereotypes that influence behavior or choices. An asynchronous mindfulness intervention was implemented during the generalist phase of social work education at a mid-size BSW and MSW program. This study investigated whether social work trainees 1.) benefitted from this intervention 2.) better understood the relationship between their thoughts and emotions as it relates to judgment, and 3.) improved their social work practice skills.
Methods: Ninety-three BSW and MSW trainees participated in an eight-week mindfulness intervention. A mixed-methods exploratory design was utilized. Quantitative data was collected from participants in a survey deployed at pre and post of the training using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), a 15-item survey designed to measure unique aspects of consciousness associated with self-awareness on a 6-point Likert scale. Mean scores on the MAAS were tested for significant differences in a paired samples t-test. The qualitative data was analyzed using MaxQDA lab to better understand what concepts trainees learned and applied. Each week contained instructional webinars, homework, articles, and additional videos that trainees watched and then, practiced skill acquisition on a daily basis through completion of a daily diary card.
Results: Overall, mindfulness attainment was assessed by collapsing all the items on the scale. Social work trainees’ awareness significantly improved from pre-test (M = 3.726, SD = .76) to post-test (M = 4.231, SD = .70); t (-6.29) =92, p<.001. The MAAS reliability was high (α = .89). Moreover, our qualitative analyses yielded 4 themes in response to the free writing prompt, “What was your most significant learning?”: 1.) Improved Decision Making, 2.) Improved Nonjudgmental Practice, 3.) Improved Situational Awareness, and 4.) Increased Mindfulness Practice.
Conclusions and Implications: Our findings suggest that mindfulness intervention training 1.) improves trainees’ overall mindfulness and is of benefit to future social work practitioners 2.) improves trainees’ recognition of implicit bias and the relationship between thoughts, emotions and practitioner action, and 3.) improves their social work practice skills according to self-report. More research is needed to explore this contribution; however, mindfulness training could be a new strategy to help advance our practice skillset, address our own implicit bias and dismantle anti-oppressive acts as we advance our discipline into the next 30 years.