Applied Psychology

Applied Psychology

Effects of the Mindfulness-Based Strategic Awareness (MBSAT) App on Occupational Depression and Managers’ Individual Performance

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Soheyla Meysami Bonab 1
Seyed Esmaeil Hashemi 2
Abdolzahra Naami 2
Usha Brahmand 3
1 Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
2 Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.
3 Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY, USA.
10.48308/apsy.2026.243385.1971
Abstract
Aim: Given the importance of maintaining mental health and enhancing managers' performance in organizations, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Mindfulness-Based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT) application in reducing occupational depression and improving individual work performance among managers.
Methods: This applied study employed a randomized controlled trial with a pretest–posttest design, a control group, and a three-month follow-up. The study population consisted of managers and supervisors working at the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone in Asaluyeh, Iran, in 2025. A total of 262 eligible participants were enrolled and randomly allocated to either the intervention group (n = 131) or the control group (n = 131). Data were collected using the Occupational Depression Inventory (Bianchi & Schonfeld, 2020) and the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (Koopmans, 2014). Participants in the intervention group used the MBSAT application daily for 36 days. Data were analyzed using mixed-design repeated-measures analysis of variance.
Results: The mixed-design repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant Group × Time interaction for both occupational depression and individual work performance (p < .001). Compared with the control group, participants in the intervention group demonstrated a significant reduction in occupational depression and a significant improvement in individual work performance at posttest, and these improvements were maintained at the three-month follow-up.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that the MBSAT application is an effective digital intervention for reducing occupational depression and enhancing individual work performance among managers.
Keywords
Mindfulness-Based Strategic Awareness
Occupational Depression
App
Individual Performance
Subjects
American Psychological Association. (2023). Work in America Survey: Workplaces as engines of psychological health and well-being. American Psychological Association. [Link]
Arch, J. J., & Craske, M. G. (2006). Mechanisms of mindfulness: Emotion regulation following a focused breathing induction. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(12), 1849–1858. [Link]
Bianchi, R., & Schonfeld, I. S. (2020). The Occupational Depression Inventory: A new tool for clinicians and epidemiologists. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 138, 110249. [Link]
Borghouts, J., Eikey, V., De Leon, C., Schueller, S., Schneider, M., Stadnick, N., & Zheng, K. (2025). Characteristics associated with the use of the mindfulness meditation app Headspace in a large public health deployment: Cross-sectional survey study. JMIR Formative Research, 9, e73457. [Link]
Bostock, S., Crosswell, A. D., Prather, A. A., & Steptoe, A. (2019). Mindfulness on-the-go: Effects of a mindfulness meditation app on work stress and well-being. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 24(1), 127–138. [Link]
Budiono, A. (2024). Job performance influenced by leadership and training: Job satisfaction and organizational commitment as mediator variables. Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia, 24(2), 20–40. [Link]
Carney, R. M., & Freedland, K. E. (2017). Depression and coronary heart disease. Nature Reviews Cardiology, 14, 145–155. [Link]
Cavar Mišković, F., & Milas, G. (2025). Mindfulness reduces adolescent depression through stress appraisal and cognitive reactivity: Evidence from a four-wave longitudinal study. Medicina, 61, 1154. [Link]
Cizza, G., Primma, S., Coyle, M., Gourgiotis, L., & Csako, G. (2010). Depression and osteoporosis: A research synthesis with meta-analysis. Hormone and Metabolic Research, 42(7), 467–482. [Link]
Craig, A. D. (2009). How do you feel? Interoception: The sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(1), 59–70. [Link]
Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. Putnam.[Link]
Deady, M., Collins, D. A., Glozier, N., Gardiner, E., Arena, A., Gayed, A., … & Harvey, S. B. (2025). Naturalistic evaluation of HeadGear: A smartphone app to reduce depressive symptoms in workers. Behavior Therapy, 56(3), 529–542. [Link]
Eby, L. T., Allen, T. D., Conley, K. M., Williamson, R. L., Henderson, T. G., & Mancini, V. S. (2019). Mindfulness-based training interventions for employees: A qualitative review of the literature. Human Resource Management Review, 29(2), 156–178. [Link]
Farb, N. A. S., Segal, Z. V., & Anderson, A. K. (2013). Mindfulness meditation training alters cortical representations of interoceptive attention. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 8(1), 15–26. [Link]
Feng, X., Han, B., & Long, Y. (2024). Teams’ stressors and flow experience: An energy-based perspective and the role of team mindfulness. Journal of Business Research, 183, 114860. [Link]
Fitzhugh, H., Michaelides, G., Daniels, K., Connolly, S., & Nasamu, E. (2024). Mindfulness for performance and wellbeing in the police: Linking individual and organizational outcomes. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 44(3), 566–590. [Link]
Garland, E. L., Hanley, A., Farb, N. A., & Froeliger, B. (2015). State mindfulness during meditation predicts enhanced cognitive reappraisal. Mindfulness, 6, 234–242. [Link]
Glomb, T. M., Duffy, M. K., Bono, J. E., & Yang, T. (2011). Mindfulness at work. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 30, 115–157. [Link]
Gonzalez‐Mulé, E., & Cockburn, B. S. (2021). This job is (literally) killing me: A moderated‐mediated model linking work characteristics to mortality. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(1), 140–151. [Link]
Good, D. J., Lyddy, C. J., Glomb, T. M., Bono, J. E., Brown, K. W., Duffy, M. K., … & Lazar, S. W. (2016). Contemplating mindfulness at work: An integrative review. Journal of Management, 42(1), 114–142. [Link]
Gridwichai, P., Kulwanich, A., Piromkam, B., & Kwanmuangvanich, P. (2020). Role of personality traits on employees’ job performance in pharmaceutical industry in Thailand. A Multifaceted Review Journal in the Field of Pharmacy, 11(3), 185–194. [Link]
Harms, P. D., Credé, M., Tynan, M., Leon, M., & Jeung, W. (2017). Leadership and stress: A meta-analytic review. Leadership Quarterly, 28, 178–194. [Liink]
Hawkes, A. J., & Neale, C. M. (2019). Mindfulness beyond wellbeing: Emotion regulation and team-member exchange in the workplace. Australian Journal of Psychology, 71(3), 215–228. [Link]
Holmquist, S., Nordstrom, A., & Nordstrom, P. (2020). The association of depression with subsequent dementia diagnosis: A Swedish nationwide cohort study from 1964 to 2016. PLOS Medicine, 17(1), e1003016. [Link]
Huang, C. H., Tu, U., & Xie, X. (2024). Mindfulness and job performance in employees of a multinational corporation: Moderated mediation of nationality, intercultural communication, and burnout. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 10, 100975. [Link]
Hyland, P. K., Lee, R. A., & Mills, M. J. (2015). Mindfulness at work: A new approach to improving individual and organizational performance. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 8(4), 576–602. [Link]
Izadi, L. M., Asghari, J. M., Maleki, G. A., & Khosravi, D. M. (2025). Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (IWPQ) into Persian and assessing its psychometric properties. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 30, 1–15.[Link]
Johnson, K. R., Park, S., & Chaudhuri, S. (2020). Mindfulness training in the workplace: Exploring its scope and outcomes. European Journal of Training and Development, 44(4/5), 341–354. [Link]
Kalani, S., Khanlari, P., & Bianchi, R. (2024). A Persian validation of the Occupational Depression Inventory. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 42(1), 1–5. [Link]
Kang, Y., Gruber, J., & Gray, J. R. (2013). Mindfulness and de-automatization. Emotion Review, 5(2), 192–201. [Link]
Kim, T., Mullins, L. B., & Yoon, T. (2021). Supervision of telework: A key to organizational performance. SAGE Open, 51, 263–277. [Link]
Lee, S. I., Yoon, S. I., Song, G. J., Park, H. Y., Chung, S. Y., & Kim, J. W. (2025). Effectiveness of mobile mindfulness training on stress, burnout, and work engagement of office workers: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1440824. [Link]
Linardon, J., Messer, M., Goldberg, S. B., & Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M. (2024). The efficacy of mindfulness apps on symptoms of depression and anxiety: An updated meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Clinical Psychology Review, 107, 102370. [Link]
Linardon, J., Cuijpers, P., Carlbring, P., Messer, M., & Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M. (2019). The efficacy of app-supported smartphone interventions for mental health problems: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. World Psychiatry, 18, 325–336. [Link]
Liu, S., Xin, H., Shen, L., He, J., & Liu, J. (2020). The influence of individual and team mindfulness on work engagement. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2928. [Link]
Long, H. C., Minh An, H., Phuong Dung, P. T., & Dinh Quy, N. (2025). Mindfulness practice and work performance: The mediating role of emotional intelligence and psychological capital. Brain and Behavior, 15, e70291. [Link]
Mezuk, B., Eaton, W. W., Albrecht, S., & Golden, S. H. (2008). Depression and type 2 diabetes over the lifespan: A meta-analysis. Diabetes Care, 31(12), 2383–2390. [Link]
Nakano, M. (2025). Mindfulness program for workers in Japan: Online program focused on informal training in the workplace. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1526275. [Link]
Narayanan, S., Jayaraman, V., Luo, Y., & Swaminathan, J. M. (2011). The antecedents of process integration in business process outsourcing and its effect on firm performance. Journal of Operations Management, 29(1–2), 3–16. [Link]
Ong, N. Y., Teo, F. J. J., Ee, J. Z. Y., et al. (2024). Effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on the well-being of healthcare workers: A systematic review and meta-analysis. General Psychiatry, 37, e101115. [Link]
Parsons, C., Hessellund Nielsen, T., Vermillet, A., Hansen, I., & Mitkidis, P. (2020). The impact of mindfulness training on performance in a group decision-making task: Evidence from an experimental study. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(1), 1–10. [Link]
Peters, E. K., Sim, S., Reb, J., Young, J. H., & Young, M. E. (2025). Minding well-being: Validation of the Mindfulness-Based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT) for non-clinical populations. Mindfulness, 16, 1–19. [Link]
Qiu, J. X., & Rooney, D. (2019). Addressing unintended ethical challenges of workplace mindfulness: A four-stage mindfulness development model. Journal of Business Ethics, 157(3), 715–730. [Link]
Romano, S., Conforti, A., Guidetti, G., Viotti, S., & Ceschin, R. (2025). MBSR at work: Perspectives from an instructor and software developers. arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.11588v1.[Link]
Schoemann, A. M., Boulton, A. J., & Short, S. D. (2017). Determining power and sample size for simple and complex mediation models. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(6), 675–683. [Link]
Schubin, K., Seinsche, L., Pfaff, H., & Zeike, S. (2023). A workplace mindfulness training program may affect mindfulness, wellbeing, health literacy and work performance of upper-level ICT managers: An exploratory study in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 994959. [Link]
Sharma, N., Agrawal, M., Ayyub, S., & Rai, D. (2025). Mindfulness-based interventions for emotional dysregulation in adolescents: A systematic review. Annals of Neurosciences. [Link]
Slavich, G. M., & Irwin, M. R. (2014). From stress to inflammation and major depressive disorder: A social signal transduction theory of depression. Psychological Bulletin, 140(3), 774–815. [Link]
Stadin, M., Nordin, M., Broström, A., Hanson, L. L. M., Westerlund, H., & Fransson, E. I. (2021). Technostress operationalised as information and communication technology (ICT) demands among managers and other occupational groups: Results from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH). Computers in Human Behavior, 114, 106486. [Link]
Stewart, V. R., Snyder, D. G., & Kou, C. Y. (2023). We hold ourselves accountable: A relational view of team accountability. Journal of Business Ethics, 183(3), 691–712. [Link]
Torous, J., Bucci, S., Bell, I. H., Kessing, L. V., Faurholt-Jepsen, M., Whelan, P., & Firth, J. (2021). The growing field of digital psychiatry: Current evidence and the future of apps, social media, chatbots, and virtual reality. World Psychiatry, 20, 318–335. [Link]
Weinberger, A. H., Gbedemah, M., Martinez, A. M., Nas, D., Galea, S., & Goodwin, R. D. (2017). Trends in depression prevalence in the USA from 2005 to 2015: Widening disparities in vulnerable groups. Psychological Medicine, 48(8), 1308–1315. [Link]
Wu, Z., Li, Q., & Zhang, B. (2025). The role of innovation and entrepreneurship employee training programs in enhancing organizational commitment from the perspective of industry–education integration. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1527741. [Link]
Wu, Y., Ban, Y., Pan, G., Yao, M., Liu, L., Chen, T., & Wu, H. (2025). Effects of online mindfulness‑based stress reduction training on depression and anxiety symptoms among psychiatric healthcare workers in a randomized controlled trial: The mediating role of emotional suppression.BMC Psychiatry, 25, 577. [Link]
Young, J. H. (2025). Minding: A radically new management approach based on free energy minimization. Humanistic Management Journal, 10, 141–163. [Link]