Positive reappraisal and catastrophizing mediate the relationship between mindfulness and job burnout

Abstract Mindfulness is well-established as a viable treatment for job burnout. However, the mechanisms underlying mindfulness’s burnout-reducing effect remain unclear. Drawing on mindfulness-to-meaning theory, the purpose of this study was to explore two potential mediators of the mindfulness-burnout relationship: positive reappraisal and catastrophizing. Participants were 325 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers who completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, the Positive Reappraisal and Catastrophizing subscales of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory. Using a cross-sectional design, we tested six mediation models in which the effect of mindfulness or one of its five facets on burnout was mediated by positive reappraisal and catastrophizing. As expected, burnout correlated with mindfulness ( r = − 0.60, p < 0.001), positive reappraisal ( r = − 0.59, p < 0.001), and catastrophizing ( r = 0.36, p < 0.001), while mindfulness correlated with positive reappraisal ( r = 0.58, p < 0.001) and catastrophizing ( r = − 0.47, p < 0.001). Positive reappraisal mediated the mindfulness-burnout relationship for all six mindfulness predictors, while catastrophizing mediated the link for two. Planned contrasts indicated that, for all mindfulness predictors, positive reappraisal had significantly stronger indirect effects on burnout than did catastrophizing. These mediation results suggest multiple pathways by which mindfulness acts to reduce burnout. Thus, individuals experiencing burnout may have flexibility in choosing which mindfulness skills to develop to reduce symptoms. However, positive reappraisal better explained the mindfulness-burnout relationship than did catastrophizing. Future research could focus on mindfulness interventions that target positive reappraisal.