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Review
. 2023 Aug 8:11:1159902.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1159902. eCollection 2023.

A meta-analysis of the association between mindfulness and motivation

Li-Ying Li  1 , Xue Meng  1 , Wen-Ting Hu  1 , Jia-Sen Geng  1 , Tian-Hua Cheng  1 , Jia-Cheng Luo  1 , Ming-Yu Hu  1 , Hai-Yue Li  1 , Yi Wang  2   3 , Yan-Yu Wang  1
Affiliations
Review

A meta-analysis of the association between mindfulness and motivation

Li-Ying Li et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: Mindfulness reflects attention to the present moment in a non-judgmental way and has been linked to individual autonomy and motivation, but conclusions are inconsistent. The purpose of this review was to summarize previous studies to explore the relationship between mindfulness and motivation and its intervention effects.

Methods: Literature searches were conducted in five electronic databases. Both correlational studies assessing the association between motivation and mindfulness and experimental studies to verify the effect of intervention were included.

Results: Six papers with seven intervention studies and twenty-three papers with twenty-seven correlational studies met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed that mindfulness was positively correlated with intrinsic motivation (r = 0.28, p < 0.0001) and total motivation (r = 0.37, p < 0.0001) but had no significant correlation with extrinsic motivation (r = 0.01, p = 0.93) or amotivation (r = -0.17, p = 0.14). Effect-size estimates suggested that mindfulness intervention was beneficial to motivation promotion, but the effect was at a low level (g = 0.12).

Conclusion: We found consistent support for mindfulness practice relating to motivation promotion, especially on intrinsic motivation development. However, there was still a portion of heterogeneity that could not be explained and needed to be identified in future studies.

Keywords: amotivation; extrinsic motivation; intrinsic motivation; mindfulness; motivation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow-diagram showing the study selection process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The funnel plots for correlational studies. (A) The funnel plot for total motivation in correlational studies; (B) The funnel plot for intrinsic motivation in correlational studies; (C) The funnel plot for extrinsic motivation in correlational studies; (D) The funnel plot for amotivation in correlational studies.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The funnel plots for intervention studies.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The forest diagrams for correlational studies. (A) The forest diagram for total motivation in correlational studies; (B) The forest diagram for intrinsic motivation in correlational studies; (C) The forest diagram for extrinsic motivation in correlational studies; (D) The forest diagram for amotivation in correlational studies.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The forest diagram of motivation in intervention studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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