1. Self-administered mindfulness interventions reduce stress in a large, randomized controlled multi-site study.
- Author
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Sparacio, Alessandro, IJzerman, Hans, Ropovik, Ivan, Giorgini, Filippo, Spiessens, Christoph, Uchino, Bert, Landvatter, Joshua, Tacana, Tracey, Diller, Sandra, Derrick, Jaye, Segundo, Joahana, Pierce, Jace, Ross, Robert, Francis, Zoë, LaBoucane, Amanda, Ma-Kellams, Christine, Ford, Maire, Schmidt, Kathleen, Wong, Celia, Higgins, Wendy, Stone, Bryant, Stanley, Samantha, Ribeiro, Gianni, Fuglestad, Paul, Jaklin, Valerie, Kübler, Andrea, Ziebell, Philipp, Jewell, Crystal, Kovas, Yulia, Allahghadri, Mahnoosh, Fransham, Charlotte, Baranski, Michael, Burgess, Hannah, Benz, Annika, DeSousa, Maysa, Nylin, Catherine, Brooks, Janae, Goldsmith, Caitlyn, Benson, Jessica, Griffin, Siobhán, Dunne, Stephen, Davis, William, Watermeyer, Tam, Meese, William, Howell, Jennifer, Standiford Reyes, Laurel, Strickland, Megan, Dickerson, Sally, Pescatore, Samantha, Skakoon-Sparling, Shayna, Wunder, Zachary, Day, Martin, Brenton, Shawna, Linden, Audrey, Hawk, Christopher, OBrien, Léan, Urgyen, Tenzin, McDonald, Jennifer, van der Schans, Kim, Blocker, Heidi, Ng Tseung-Wong, Caroline, and Jiga-Boy, Gabriela
- Subjects
Humans ,Mindfulness ,Female ,Male ,Adult ,Stress ,Psychological ,Young Adult ,Adolescent ,Bayes Theorem - Abstract
Mindfulness witnessed a substantial popularity surge in the past decade, especially as digitally self-administered interventions became available at relatively low costs. Yet, it is uncertain whether they effectively help reduce stress. In a preregistered (OSF https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/UF4JZ ; retrospective registration at ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06308744 ) multi-site study (nsites = 37, nparticipants = 2,239, 70.4% women, Mage = 22.4, s.d.age = 10.1, all fluent English speakers), we experimentally tested whether four single, standalone mindfulness exercises effectively reduced stress, using Bayesian mixed-effects models. All exercises proved to be more efficacious than the active control. We observed a mean difference of 0.27 (d = -0.56; 95% confidence interval, -0.43 to -0.69) between the control condition (M = 1.95, s.d. = 0.50) and the condition with the largest stress reduction (body scan: M = 1.68, s.d. = 0.46). Our findings suggest that mindfulness may be beneficial for reducing self-reported short-term stress for English speakers from higher-income countries.
- Published
- 2024