A four-week smartphone-based meditation intervention reduced psychological distress during the early COVID-19 pandemic. Among 662 adults, most of whom reported clinical levels of anxiety or depressive symptoms, the intervention improved four proposed mediators—mindful action, loneliness, cognitive defusion, and purpose—measured five times during the program and at three-month follow-up. Each mediator individually accounted for 22.2% to 64.5% of the intervention's effect on later distress. When all mediators were analyzed together, only reduced loneliness remained a significant pathway, explaining 70.0% of the combined indirect effect. Multiple psychological mechanisms likely contribute to the benefits of digital meditation interventions.
Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) measures of rumination are only modestly correlated with conventional self-report measures, especially for change over time, partly due to lower reliability of EMA. Changes in rumination were larger for conventional self-report than EMA. Both types of measures accounted for unique variance in depressive symptom improvement, showing incremental predictive validity. The findings suggest that EMA and conventional self-report provide distinct, clinically meaningful information. Researchers using EMA should consider psychometric properties and the precise construct they intend to capture.