Psychological Mediators of Reduced Distress: Preregistered Analyses from a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Smartphone-Based Well-Being Training.
Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science – January 01, 2025
Source: PubMed
Summary
Engaging in a four-week smartphone-based meditation program significantly reduced psychological distress among 662 adults, with 79.9% experiencing clinical anxiety or depression. Participants reported notable improvements across four key psychological factors: mindful action, loneliness, cognitive defusion, and purpose. These mediators accounted for 21.9% to 62.5% of the intervention's impact on distress at three-month follow-up. Notably, decreased loneliness alone explained 61.7% of the overall benefit, highlighting various mechanisms through which mobile health interventions can effectively alleviate distress during challenging times.
Abstract
Understanding why interventions work is essential to optimizing them. Although mechanistic theories of meditation-based interventions (MBIs) exist, empirical evidence is limited. We randomly assigned 662 adults (79.9% reported clinical levels of anxiety or depressive symptoms) to a four-week smartphone-based MBI or wait-list control condition early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological distress and four theory driven preregistered psychological mediators of well-being (mindful action, loneliness, cognitive defusion and purpose) were assessed five times during the intervention period and at three-month follow-up. In preregistered analyses, assignment to the intervention predicted significant gains on all mediators which in turn significantly mediated follow-up distress (21.9%-62.5% of intervention effect on distress). No significant mediation pathway was observed in an exploratory multiple mediator analysis, but reduced loneliness accounted for 61.7% of the combined indirect effect. Multiple psychological pathways may mediate reduced distress in a digital MBI.