A mindfulness-based mobile health intervention reduced anxiety more than a social-support-based mobile health intervention among young adult students in quarantine in China who had elevated anxiety or depressive symptoms. Both groups improved on depression, with no significant difference between them. The mindfulness program was also rated as more feasible and acceptable. Emotional suppression reduction helped explain the improvements. The study suggests that delivering mindfulness or social support via smartphone apps can help reduce distress during a pandemic, with mindfulness especially effective for anxiety.
In a randomized clinical trial of mindfulness training for smokers, the quality of mindfulness practice—how well participants engaged with the techniques—predicted improvements in psychological functioning (including negative affect, emotion regulation, quality of life, and mindfulness) both immediately after treatment and at a 5-month follow-up, even after accounting for the amount of time spent practicing. The amount of practice time predicted improvements only at posttreatment, not at follow-up. Neither practice time nor change in practice quality predicted smoking abstinence at 1 or 6 months after quitting. The findings suggest that the quality of mindfulness practice is a more enduring predictor of psychological benefits than the quantity of practice.
In mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), the quality of meditation practice—not just the amount of time spent—mediates improvements in self-reported mindfulness. Multilevel mediation models showed that better practice quality linked practice time to changes in mindfulness, suggesting that how one practices is a mechanism connecting practice duration with outcomes. The authors recommend future research on practice quality in clinical samples using intensive sampling methods and objective measures.