Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
J Consult Clin Psychol. 2024 Aug;92(8):531-541. doi: 10.1037/ccp0000857.
Meditation apps are the most widely used mental health apps. The precise mechanisms underlying their effects remain unclear. In particular, the degree to which affect experienced during meditation is associated with outcomes has not been established.
We used the meditation app arm of a recently completed randomized controlled trial comparing a self-guided meditation app (Healthy Minds Program) to a waitlist control. Predominantly distressed public school employees ( = 243, 80.9% with clinically elevated depression and/or anxiety) reported positive and negative affect during meditation practice. Data were analyzed using two-level multivariate latent growth curve models (observations nested within participants) that simultaneously attended to both positive and negative affect. We examined whether positive and negative affect during meditation changed over time and whether these changes were associated with changes in psychological distress (parent trial's preregistered primary outcome) at posttest or 3-month follow-up.
On average, participants reported decreased negative affect but no change in positive affect during meditation over time. Increased positive affect and decreased negative affect during meditation were associated with improvements in distress at posttest and follow-up. Change in positive affect was a stronger predictor of distress at follow-up than change in negative affect.
Despite notions embedded within mainstream mindfulness meditation training that deemphasize the importance of the affective experience of practice (i.e., nonjudgmental awareness of present moment experience, regardless of valence), results indicate that these experiences contain signals associated with outcomes. Monitoring affect during meditation may be worthwhile to guide intervention delivery (i.e., measurement-based care, precision medicine). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
冥想应用程序是使用最广泛的心理健康应用程序。其确切的作用机制仍不清楚。特别是，在冥想过程中所经历的影响与结果之间的关系尚未确定。
我们使用了最近完成的一项随机对照试验的冥想应用程序部分，该试验比较了自我引导的冥想应用程序（健康思维计划）与候补对照组。主要是感到苦恼的公立学校员工（=243，80.9%的人有临床显著的抑郁和/或焦虑）报告了在冥想练习期间的积极和消极情绪。使用两级多元潜在增长曲线模型（参与者内嵌套的观察）同时关注积极和消极情绪来分析数据。我们检验了在冥想过程中积极和消极情绪是否随时间变化，以及这些变化是否与心理困扰（主要试验预先注册的主要结果）在测试后或 3 个月随访时的变化相关。
平均而言，参与者报告说，随着时间的推移，他们在冥想过程中负面情绪减少，但积极情绪没有变化。在冥想过程中增加积极情绪和减少消极情绪与测试后和随访时的困扰改善有关。与消极情绪变化相比，积极情绪变化是随访时困扰的更强预测因素。
尽管主流正念冥想训练中存在一种观念，即淡化实践的情感体验的重要性（即，对当前时刻的经验进行非评判性的意识，而不论其效价如何），但结果表明，这些经验包含与结果相关的信号。在冥想期间监测情绪可能有助于指导干预的实施（即基于测量的护理、精准医疗）。
