Author(s)

Ou Yuxia ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Nanjing Police University, Nanjing, 210023, China

Corresponding Author

Ou Yuxia

ABSTRACT

The mental health issues of college students have drawn increasing attention in recent years. However, the standard mindfulness curriculum is time-consuming and difficult to adapt to the highly structured management environment of the police colleges. This study investigated the intervention effect of brief embedded mindfulness exercise on psychological symptoms of police cadets. The whole class cluster sampling method was used to recruit 120 freshmen in a police college, of whom 52 completed the SCL-90 pre - and post-test and were included in the analysis. The 52 participants came from three groups: the embedded mindfulness group (EMG, n=18, practicing 3-5 minutes per week within 12 weeks of mental health curriculum), the extracurricular voluntary mindfulness group (EVMG, n=5, monthly activity) and the control group (CG, n=29, receiving standard mental health courses). Thematic analysis method was used to qualitatively analyze the text feedback of extracurricular voluntary mindfulness group participants. The results showed that the embedded mindfulness group had significant reductions in total SCL-90 score (p < 0.01) and five core subscales (p < 0.05), with a large effect size (r = 0.70). The total score of CG group also decreased significantly (r=0.47). The changes in extracurricular voluntary mindfulness group were not significant on the SCL-90. Theme analysis refined four themes: concentration and self-awareness improvement, body relaxation and sleep improvement, emotional regulation and mentality change, and social connection established by group sharing. The results showed that embedding brief mindfulness practice into the daily teaching routine was effective in improving mental health of students in high-discipline environments, and extracurricular groups should be considered as a complementary form for students with additional practice needs.

KEYWORDS

Mindfulness; Embedded mindfulness; Police cadets; SCL-90; Thematic analysis

CITE THIS PAPER

Ou Yuxia. Brief Embedded Mindfulness in Police Colleges: Effects on First-Year Students' Psychological Symptoms. Applied & Educational Psychology (2026). Vol. 7, No. 2, 65-74. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/appep.2026.070209.

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