Using a Personal-Disclosure Mutual-Sharing Approach to Deliver a Team-Based Mindfulness Meditation Program to Enhance Cohesion

In an effort to increase perceptions of cohesion among intercollegiate soccer players, a team-based mindfulness meditation program was undertaken. This team-building program was delivered by using a personal-disclosure mutual-sharing (PDMS) approach. A total of 31 female intercollegiate soccer players from two teams participated. One team (n = 17), assigned to the intervention condition, was a Canadian Intercollegiate team (U Sports), while the other team (n = 14) who served as the control condition, was an American Intercollegiate team (NCAA, Division II). Participants completed a measure of cohesion (Group Environment Questionnaire) pre- and post-intervention. The eight-week team-based mindfulness meditation program resulted in significantly higher perceptions of social cohesion for the intervention group compared to the control group at post-intervention. However, there were no significant differences for task cohesion between the intervention and control group at post-intervention. Using PDMS seems a viable approach by which to deliver a team-based mindfulness meditation program to enhance a team’s social cohesion.