Gaskin, Jennifer, Chao, Marc, and Li, Wendy Wen (2025) The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for Improving Mental Health in Different Populations: A Synthesis of Meta-Analyses. In: Li, Wendy Wen, Griffith, Gemma M., Shapiro, Shauna, and Zhu, Zhuohong, (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Third-Wave Psychotherapies. Springer, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 429-452.

PDF (Published Version) - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only

Abstract

This chapter synthesises findings from meta-analyses on the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in enhancing mental health among various populations, including healthy adults, veterans, and individuals with diabetes, cancer, chronic medical conditions, and fibromyalgia syndrome. The aim is to establish robust empirical evidence assessing the efficacy of MBSR. It is found that MBSR has large effects on reducing stress, moderate effects on alleviating anxiety, depression, distress, and improving quality of life, and minor effects on reducing burnout among healthy adults. Meta-analyses provide evidence that MBSR is effective in enhancing mental health among veterans and individuals with diabetes, cancer, chronic medical conditions, and fibromyalgia syndrome. The mental health outcomes examined in these meta-analyses include overall mental health, stress, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep quality, and fatigue. It is concluded that MBSR effectively improves mental health across different populations. Based on the synthesis, this chapter also provides directions for future research into the effectiveness of MBSR.

Item ID:	94027
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-3-032-00353-9
Keywords:	Mindfulness; Stress reduction; Mental health; Meta-analysis; Different populations
Copyright Information:	© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025, corrected publication 2025.
Date Deposited:	15 Sep 2026 05:04
FoR Codes:	52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5203 Clinical and health psychology > 520304 Health psychology @ 50% 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420603 Health promotion @ 50%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2004 Public health (excl. specific population health) > 200409 Mental health @ 60% 20 HEALTH > 2004 Public health (excl. specific population health) > 200401 Behaviour and health @ 40%
	More Statistics