Preferably professional rather than spiritual. Communicating offers of mindfulness promotion in the university setting

ABSTRACT

Background: Mindfulness training has become an increasingly important part of health management at universities. The need for this type of training has been reinforced by the massive limitations of presence education and social contacts due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention. However, students are still quite reluctant to take part in such training, although their positive effects have been repeatedly proven. Objectives: Thus, the goal of our research was to examine perceptions and barriers among university students, and to deduce strategies for target-group oriented communication for mindfulness training. Methods: We conducted qualitative interviews with male and female students with low and high experience in mindfulness training. Results: It was shown that students prefer an ideologically neutral and evidence-based framing of the trainings. Emphasis of the spiritual background seems to limit the access for inexperienced users (although they are a relevant part for experienced users). In addition, it is important for the interviewed students that the advertisement for the mindfulness training depicts the relevance for academic and professional challenges without selling them as tools for performance enhancement. Conclusions: Although the roots of mindfulness training is spiritual, inexperienced users are skeptical about these aspects. This corresponds with more general discussions about the introduction of mindfulness training at universities. Furthermore, evidence for the selection of gatekeepers (authentic intermediaries) and the selection of message strategies (diverse exemplars) can be deduced. © 2021, The Author(s).