Self-administered mindfulness interventions reduce stress in a large, randomized controlled multi-site study.
Alessandro SparacioHans I JzermanIvan RopovikFilippo GiorginiChristoph SpiessensBert N UchinoJoshua LandvatterTracey TacanaSandra J DillerJaye L DerrickJoahana SegundoJace D PierceRobert Malcolm RossZoë FrancisAmanda LaBoucaneChristine Ma-KellamsMaire B FordKathleen E SchmidtCelia C WongWendy C HigginsBryant M StoneSamantha K StanleyGianni RibeiroPaul T FuglestadValerie JaklinAndrea KüblerPhilipp ZiebellCrystal L JewellYulia V KovasMahnoosh AllahghadriCharlotte FranshamMichael F BaranskiHannah BurgessAnnika B E BenzMaysa DeSousaCatherine E NylinJanae C BrooksCaitlyn M GoldsmithJessica M BensonSiobhán M GriffinStephen DunneWilliam E DavisTam J WatermeyerWilliam B MeeseJennifer L HowellLaurel Standiford ReyesMegan G StricklandSally S DickersonSamantha PescatoreShayna Skakoon-SparlingZachary I WunderMartin V DayShawna BrentonAudrey Helen LindenChristopher E HawkLéan V O'BrienTenzin UrgyenJennifer S McDonaldKim Lien van der SchansHeidi BlockerCaroline Ng Tseung-WongGabriela M Jiga-BoyPublished in: Nature human behaviour (2024)
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 (n sites = 37, n participants = 2,239, 70.4% women, M age = 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.