| Injury in sport is a frequent occurrence that often causes athletes to experience stress, frustration, anger, depression, and pain. Mindfulness practice has shown to be efficacious in reducing stress and pain, while improving well-being. Despite this, there is limited research investigating the effects of mindfulness-based interventions with injured athletes. In the current study, the Mindfulness Meditation Training for Sport 2.0 (MMTS 2.0; Baltzell, Caraballo, Chipman, & Hayden, 2014) was implemented and evaluated with three high school female athletes. Utilizing a nonconcurrent multiple baseline among subjects design, participants completed measures of pain, stress, well-being, self-compassion, and mindfulness throughout the intervention. Two participants improved in mindfulness and self-compassion relative to baseline levels. The same two participants also reported reductions in pain and stress, and improvements in psychological well-being subscales autonomy and self-acceptance. Improvements in mindfulness and self-compassion corresponded with adherence to between-session meditation exercises. The participant with the lowest adherence reported reductions in mindfulness, self-compassion, and well-being, and did not complete post-intervention follow-up assessment. Overall, results were mixed and should be interpreted with caution. Future research should continue to evaluate the impact of mindfulness and self-compassion interventions like the MMTS 2.0 with injured athletes to determine its utility. |
