A two-week compassion-based meditation program delivered via the Healthy Minds Program app was tested in undergraduates with elevated depression or anxiety (N=351). Participants were randomly assigned to either one 20-minute meditation per day or two 10-minute meditations per day. Both groups showed improvements in psychological distress, experiential avoidance, fear of missing out, loneliness, and self-compassion from before to after the intervention, and daily distress and loneliness also improved over time. No significant differences were found between the two dosing schedules on any measure. When total daily meditation time is equal, distributing practice into shorter sessions does not affect outcomes for distressed beginners.
A strong working alliance significantly enhances engagement in smartphone-based interventions. In a study involving 302 participants, with 80% experiencing elevated depression or anxiety, bidirectional relationships were observed between psychological distress and alliance during a 4-week meditation program. Effect sizes ranged from -.09 to -.14, comparable to those seen in traditional psychotherapy. These findings suggest that measuring alliance could improve the effectiveness of mobile health tools, highlighting the importance of digital technology in mental health support.