Self-administered mindfulness interventions reduce stress in a large, randomized controlled multi-site study

Authors

Alessandro Sparacio, Laboratoire InterUniversitaire de Psychologie. Personnalité, Cognition, Changement Social
Hans IJzerman, Laboratoire InterUniversitaire de Psychologie. Personnalité, Cognition, Changement Social
Ivan Ropovik, Institute of Psychology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Filippo Giorgini, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca
Christoph Spiessens, Spiessens Coaching Solutions Ltd
Bert N. Uchino, University of Utah, College of Social and Behavioral Science
Joshua Landvatter, University of Utah, College of Social and Behavioral Science
Tracey Tacana, University of Utah, College of Social and Behavioral Science
Sandra J. Diller, Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg
Jaye L. Derrick, University of Houston
Joahana Segundo, University of Houston
Jace D. Pierce, University of Houston
Robert M. Ross, Macquarie University
Zoë Francis, University of the Fraser Valley
Amanda LaBoucane, University of the Fraser Valley
Christine Ma-Kellams, San Jose State UniversityFollow
Maire B. Ford, Loyola Marymount University
Kathleen Schmidt, Ashland University
Celia C. Wong, SUNY Brockport

Publication Date

9-1-2024

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Nature Human Behaviour

Volume

8

Issue

9

DOI

10.1038/s41562-024-01907-7

First Page

1716

Last Page

1725

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.

Funding Number

PRIMUS/24/SSH/017

Funding Sponsor

Université Grenoble Alpes

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Psychology

Recommended Citation

Alessandro Sparacio, Hans IJzerman, Ivan Ropovik, Filippo Giorgini, Christoph Spiessens, Bert N. Uchino, Joshua Landvatter, Tracey Tacana, Sandra J. Diller, Jaye L. Derrick, Joahana Segundo, Jace D. Pierce, Robert M. Ross, Zoë Francis, Amanda LaBoucane, Christine Ma-Kellams, Maire B. Ford, Kathleen Schmidt, and Celia C. Wong. "Self-administered mindfulness interventions reduce stress in a large, randomized controlled multi-site study" Nature Human Behaviour (2024): 1716-1725. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01907-7