1. Self-administered mindfulness interventions reduce stress in a large, randomized controlled multi-site study.
- Author
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Sparacio A, IJzerman H, Ropovik I, Giorgini F, Spiessens C, Uchino BN, Landvatter J, Tacana T, Diller SJ, Derrick JL, Segundo J, Pierce JD, Ross RM, Francis Z, LaBoucane A, Ma-Kellams C, Ford MB, Schmidt K, Wong CC, Higgins WC, Stone BM, Stanley SK, Ribeiro G, Fuglestad PT, Jaklin V, Kübler A, Ziebell P, Jewell CL, Kovas Y, Allahghadri M, Fransham C, Baranski MF, Burgess H, Benz ABE, DeSousa M, Nylin CE, Brooks JC, Goldsmith CM, Benson JM, Griffin SM, Dunne S, Davis WE, Watermeyer TJ, Meese WB, Howell JL, Standiford Reyes L, Strickland MG, Dickerson SS, Pescatore S, Skakoon-Sparling S, Wunder ZI, Day MV, Brenton S, Linden AH, Hawk CE, O'Brien LV, Urgyen T, McDonald JS, van der Schans KL, Blocker H, Ng Tseung-Wong C, and Jiga-Boy GM
- Subjects
- Humans, Female, Male, Adult, Young Adult, Adolescent, Bayes Theorem, Mindfulness methods, Stress, Psychological therapy, Stress, Psychological prevention & control
- 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 (n
sites = 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., (© 2024. The Author(s).)- Published
- 2024
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