Mindfulness Training Intervention to Manage Stress and Burnout : A Bibliometric Review

Abstract

Purpose-Mindfulness training is an emerging area in the field of research. There has been increased interest in this area on account of its usefulness to manage stress and prevent burnout. Yet there is limited research in the said area. Most research has either empirically examined the relationship of mindfulness training and burnout with other variables or it is a systematic review of literature in a sub-domain in that area. In this study, bibliometric analysis of Scopus listed publications is used to visualize the relationships between mindfulness training and burnout. Bibliographic coupling using VoSViewer was performed on the 87 Scopus publications obtained by using the keywords "mindfulness training" and "burnout". The application of bibliographic coupling resulted in 6 clusters. The themes of these 6 clusters as well as details of the top publications are examined in detail to understand the state of research in the area. Purpose: Mindfulness as a concept emerges from Buddhist principles. Mindfulness training is an emerging area of research, particularly in the context of its usefulness in managingstress and also in preventing burnout. In this research paper, the authors aim to systematically present the research in the field of mindfulness training and burnout with reference to most cited publications, countries, journals that are contributing the most to said area of research. Design/Methodology: This study analyses bibliometrically the links between mindfulness training and burnout for the listed publications in Scopus. For this research paper, the open software VOSviewer (van Eck and Waltman, 2010) was used to analyse the coupling of research papers in the area of mindfulness training and burnout to visualize the publications in this area in terms of the authorship. In this case, bibliographic coupling was carried out using VoSViewer with the sample of 87 Scopus publications obtained by using the keywords "mindfulness training" and "burnout". Findings/Conclusion: The bibliographic coupling analysis revealed six clusters. The overall structure of the cluster are: Cluster 2 ( 760), Cluster 1(462), Cluster 3 (300), Cluster 4 (296), Cluster 5 (159) and Cluster 6 (25). The critical papers that link the clusters are Roeser et al., (2013), Mackenzie , Poulin, Seidman-Carlson (2006a), Fortney et al., (2013, p.412), Dobkin, Hutchinson (2013), Moody et al., (2013) and O'Mahony et al., (2017). The application of bibliographic coupling resulted in 6 clusters. The themes of these 6 clusters are - Mindfulness Training Formats, Stress management & well-being, Mindfulness Training and work outcomes, Mindfulness training for Medical professionals and students and Facilitators of Mindfulness Training and end user benefits. Originality/Contribution/Value: This technique can be useful in understanding the evolution of research in the area. Given that this is an emerging area of research this paper can be useful to future researchers to visualize current research in the area and to identify areas of future research.