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What is the purpose of the study?

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief mindfulness meditation or clinical hypnosis intervention for optimizing wellbeing in uninjured competitive athletes. Additionally, the study aims to investigate potential psychological factors underlying the effects of these mind-body therapies. This study is being conducted by Nicole Rickerby as part of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland under the supervision of Associate Professor Melissa Day and Professor Paul Hodges.

What is involved?

Participants will be required to:

• Complete a daily online survey that will take 3 minutes for 25 consecutive days.
• Listen to 5 20-minute treatment sessions across 5 consecutive days. The surveys and treatment sessions can be done from a location of your choosing.
• Visit the laboratory at the University of Queensland 4 times throughout the study, each for a 30-minute to 1-hour session. During these visits, you will participate in a survey and an experimental pain stimulus. The experimental pain stimulus involves pressing a small metal plate onto the inside of your forearm and slowly increasing the temperature until it reaches a temperature that you find painful.
• Participate in a brief 30-minute interview with the experimenter via zoom.

What are the potential risks of participating?

Participation in the experimental pain component may result in physical discomfort, however, this procedure uses technology that has been in place for many years, is considered safe and does not cause any lasting harm. Emotional discomfort may also be experienced while completing the questionnaires and the interview questions as questions inquire about the participant’s thoughts and feelings. If you find any question or procedure to be invasive or offensive, you are free to omit answering or participating in that aspect of the study.

What are the potential benefits of participating?

As a participating athlete, you will benefit from access to a psychological intervention that has the potential to reduce burnout, optimise well-being, prevent injury, enhance performance, or help with pain management during recovery and return to play. You may also benefit by learning more about yourself. Participants will also be compensated for their time at a rate of $20 per hour.

Can I withdraw from the study once I have started?

Participation in this study is completely voluntary and you are free to withdraw from this study at any time without prejudice or penalty. If you wish to withdraw, simply stop completing the survey, or inform the experimenter if it is during the experimental pain stimulus. If you choose to withdraw, any completed materials will be deleted and will not be included in the study. Once the study has been completed, you are free to contact the investigators to request to withdraw the use of your data.

Confidentiality and security of data

All data collected in this study will be stored confidentially. Only members of the research team will have access to identified data. All data will be coded in a de-identified manner and subsequently analysed and reported in such a way that responses will not be able to be linked to any individual. The data you provide will only be used for the specific research purposes of this study.

Ethics clearance and contacts

This study has been cleared in accordance with the ethical review processes of the University of Queensland and within the guidelines of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. You are, of course, free to discuss your participation with project staff, who’s information can be found on the contact us page. If you would like to speak to an officer of the University not involved in the study, you may contact the University of Queensland Ethics Office on +617 3365 3924 / +617 3443 1656 or email humanethics@research.uq.edu.au.