Mindfulness-based interventions for competitive anxiety in athletes: the moderating role of control type-Preliminary evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Front Psychol May 28, 2026 Kaiming Chen, Yiran Xing
A systematic review and meta-analysis of mindfulness-based interventions for competitive anxiety in athletes found that these interventions reduce anxiety, with the type of control group moderating the effect. The analysis included 12 studies and showed a significant overall effect favoring mindfulness interventions. The magnitude of the effect depended on whether the control condition was active or passive. The authors suggest that mindfulness training can be an effective approach for managing competitive anxiety, but the strength of the evidence is preliminary and varies by comparison group.