Abstract
Mindfulness training, which involves observing thoughts and feelings without judgment or reaction, has been shown to improve aspects of psychosocial well-being when delivered via in-person training programs such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Less is known about the efficacy of digital training mediums, such as smartphone apps, which are rapidly rising in popularity. In this study, novice meditators were randomly allocated to an introductory mindfulness meditation program or to a psychoeducational audiobook control featuring an introduction to the concepts of mindfulness and meditation. The interventions were delivered via the same mindfulness app, were matched across a range of criteria, and were presented to participants as well-being programs. Affect, irritability, and two distinct components of stress were measured immediately before and after each intervention in a cohort of healthy adults. While both interventions were effective at reducing stress associated with personal vulnerability, only the mindfulness intervention had a significant positive impact on irritability, affect, and stress resulting from external pressure (between group Cohen’s d = 0.44, 0.47, 0.45, respectively). These results suggest that brief mindfulness training has a beneficial impact on several aspects of psychosocial well-being, and that smartphone apps are an effective delivery medium for mindfulness training.
Highlights
There is mounting evidence that mindfulness-based interventions bring about positive physical and mental health outcomes in both healthy (Brown and Ryan 2003; Keng et al 2011) and clinical (Hilton et al 2017; Hofmann et al 2010) populations
A power analysis using the software G*Power revealed that we required 52 participants to detect a time × group interaction with 80% power. This was based on the assumption of a small-medium effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.40) with respect to stress, which was in turn based on a recent metaanalysis of online mindfulness interventions (Spijkerman et al 2016)
The mindfulness intervention was delivered via the Headspace mindfulness-based smartphone app, and consisted of the app’s first 10 introductory sessions, named BTake 10.^ These sessions are intended to act as a general introduction to mindfulness meditation and incorporate techniques such as breath awareness and body scanning
Summary
There is mounting evidence that mindfulness-based interventions bring about positive physical and mental health outcomes in both healthy (Brown and Ryan 2003; Keng et al 2011) and clinical (Hilton et al 2017; Hofmann et al 2010) populations. MBSR and MBCT have been shown to convey a host of psychological benefits such as reduced stress and anxiety (Khoury et al 2015; Vøllestad et al 2012), reduced depressive symptomatology (Hofmann et al 2010), and increased quality of life in both cancer patients (Zhang et al 2015) and those with chronic pain (Hilton et al 2017) These interventions have been linked to changes in executive functioning networks in the brain (Tang et al 2012). Several recent studies suggest that mindfulness training delivered via a smartphone app can increase quality of life (van Emmerik et al 2017), well-being (Howells et al 2014), and self-reported mindfulness (Plaza García et al 2017), as well as reduce symptoms of depression (Ly et al 2014b). Compared to the active control, it was hypothesized that participants in the mindfulness intervention would demonstrate larger reductions in stress and irritability, and larger increases in positive affect
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