Effects of mindfulness meditation duration and type on well‑being: an online dose‑ranging randomized controlled trial

Guy W. Fincham; Ken Mavor; Barbara Dritschel

doi:10.1007/s12671-023-02119-2

Effects of mindfulness meditation duration and type on well‑being: an online dose‑ranging randomized controlled trial

Guy W. Fincham^*, Ken Mavor, Barbara Dritschel

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Objectives

This multi-arm randomized controlled online trial explored the effects of two key mindfulness characteristics (dose and type) over 2 weeks on mental well-being, along with psychological distress and dispositional mindfulness, in a healthy community sample.

Method

Participants were randomly assigned to one of four mindfulness interventions (~ 10 min or ~ 30 min of sitting or movement meditation) to practice daily for 2 weeks; 161 participants fully completed the study and were included in the final sample. We also explored self-reported adherence through how often participants practiced, along with dropout rate via how many participants fully completed the study.

Results

Well-being and mindfulness scores increased—and distress scores decreased—within all four conditions. However, most importantly, there were no significant differences between the conditions as a function of meditation dose or type. There were also no differences between the conditions on how regularly the meditations were practiced irrespective of type or dose. Additionally, there was no difference on dropout rate regarding meditation dose. However, meditation type had an effect, with a significantly higher dropout rate for participants allocated to a movement meditation irrespective of the dose.

Conclusions

Brief mindfulness meditation may offer some benefit to well-being regardless of the meditation type and dose but, fundamentally, no differences in effects were detected between short/long sitting meditations and short/long movement meditations. Moreover, the results indicate that movement meditations may possibly be harder to adhere to, potentially informing the tailoring of mindfulness-based self-help programs. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.

Preregistration

This study was retrospectively registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12619000422123).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1171-1182
Number of pages	12
Journal	Mindfulness
Volume	14
Early online date	12 Apr 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02119-2
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2023

Keywords

Mindfulness meditation
Dose
Technique
Component analysis
Well-being

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10.1007/s12671-023-02119-2Licence: CC BY

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Copyright © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 976 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{379f0011a1c544738ce8d56d39d79ae3,

title = "Effects of mindfulness meditation duration and type on well‑being: an online dose‑ranging randomized controlled trial",

abstract = "ObjectivesThis multi-arm randomized controlled online trial explored the effects of two key mindfulness characteristics (dose and type) over 2 weeks on mental well-being, along with psychological distress and dispositional mindfulness, in a healthy community sample.MethodParticipants were randomly assigned to one of four mindfulness interventions (~ 10 min or ~ 30 min of sitting or movement meditation) to practice daily for 2 weeks; 161 participants fully completed the study and were included in the final sample. We also explored self-reported adherence through how often participants practiced, along with dropout rate via how many participants fully completed the study.ResultsWell-being and mindfulness scores increased—and distress scores decreased—within all four conditions. However, most importantly, there were no significant differences between the conditions as a function of meditation dose or type. There were also no differences between the conditions on how regularly the meditations were practiced irrespective of type or dose. Additionally, there was no difference on dropout rate regarding meditation dose. However, meditation type had an effect, with a significantly higher dropout rate for participants allocated to a movement meditation irrespective of the dose.ConclusionsBrief mindfulness meditation may offer some benefit to well-being regardless of the meditation type and dose but, fundamentally, no differences in effects were detected between short/long sitting meditations and short/long movement meditations. Moreover, the results indicate that movement meditations may possibly be harder to adhere to, potentially informing the tailoring of mindfulness-based self-help programs. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.PreregistrationThis study was retrospectively registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12619000422123).",

keywords = "Mindfulness meditation, Dose, Technique, Component analysis, Well-being",

author = "Fincham, {Guy W.} and Ken Mavor and Barbara Dritschel",

note = "Funding: Open access funding provided by University of Sussex. GWF has a doctoral scholarship from, and is a fellow of, The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund, Sylff Association, Tokyo.",

year = "2023",

month = may,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1007/s12671-023-02119-2",

language = "English",

volume = "14",

pages = "1171--1182",

journal = "Mindfulness",

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T2 - an online dose‑ranging randomized controlled trial

AU - Fincham, Guy W.

AU - Mavor, Ken

AU - Dritschel, Barbara

N1 - Funding: Open access funding provided by University of Sussex. GWF has a doctoral scholarship from, and is a fellow of, The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund, Sylff Association, Tokyo.

PY - 2023/5/1

Y1 - 2023/5/1

N2 - ObjectivesThis multi-arm randomized controlled online trial explored the effects of two key mindfulness characteristics (dose and type) over 2 weeks on mental well-being, along with psychological distress and dispositional mindfulness, in a healthy community sample.MethodParticipants were randomly assigned to one of four mindfulness interventions (~ 10 min or ~ 30 min of sitting or movement meditation) to practice daily for 2 weeks; 161 participants fully completed the study and were included in the final sample. We also explored self-reported adherence through how often participants practiced, along with dropout rate via how many participants fully completed the study.ResultsWell-being and mindfulness scores increased—and distress scores decreased—within all four conditions. However, most importantly, there were no significant differences between the conditions as a function of meditation dose or type. There were also no differences between the conditions on how regularly the meditations were practiced irrespective of type or dose. Additionally, there was no difference on dropout rate regarding meditation dose. However, meditation type had an effect, with a significantly higher dropout rate for participants allocated to a movement meditation irrespective of the dose.ConclusionsBrief mindfulness meditation may offer some benefit to well-being regardless of the meditation type and dose but, fundamentally, no differences in effects were detected between short/long sitting meditations and short/long movement meditations. Moreover, the results indicate that movement meditations may possibly be harder to adhere to, potentially informing the tailoring of mindfulness-based self-help programs. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.PreregistrationThis study was retrospectively registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12619000422123).

AB - ObjectivesThis multi-arm randomized controlled online trial explored the effects of two key mindfulness characteristics (dose and type) over 2 weeks on mental well-being, along with psychological distress and dispositional mindfulness, in a healthy community sample.MethodParticipants were randomly assigned to one of four mindfulness interventions (~ 10 min or ~ 30 min of sitting or movement meditation) to practice daily for 2 weeks; 161 participants fully completed the study and were included in the final sample. We also explored self-reported adherence through how often participants practiced, along with dropout rate via how many participants fully completed the study.ResultsWell-being and mindfulness scores increased—and distress scores decreased—within all four conditions. However, most importantly, there were no significant differences between the conditions as a function of meditation dose or type. There were also no differences between the conditions on how regularly the meditations were practiced irrespective of type or dose. Additionally, there was no difference on dropout rate regarding meditation dose. However, meditation type had an effect, with a significantly higher dropout rate for participants allocated to a movement meditation irrespective of the dose.ConclusionsBrief mindfulness meditation may offer some benefit to well-being regardless of the meditation type and dose but, fundamentally, no differences in effects were detected between short/long sitting meditations and short/long movement meditations. Moreover, the results indicate that movement meditations may possibly be harder to adhere to, potentially informing the tailoring of mindfulness-based self-help programs. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.PreregistrationThis study was retrospectively registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12619000422123).

KW - Mindfulness meditation

KW - Dose

KW - Technique

KW - Component analysis

KW - Well-being

U2 - 10.1007/s12671-023-02119-2

DO - 10.1007/s12671-023-02119-2

M3 - Article

SN - 1868-8527

VL - 14

SP - 1171

EP - 1182

JO - Mindfulness

JF - Mindfulness

ER -

Effects of mindfulness meditation duration and type on well‑being: an online dose‑ranging randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Keywords

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