Category: Telehealth/m-Health
Goldberg, S. B., Imhoff-Smith, T., Bolt, D. M., Wilson-Mendenhall, C. D., Dahl, C. J., Davidson, R. J., & Rosenkranz, M. A. (2020). Testing the efficacy of a multicomponent, self-guided, smartphone-based meditation app: Three-armed randomized controlled trial. JMIR Mental Health, 7(11), e23825. https://doi.org/10.2196/23825
,Greenberg, M. T., & Harris, A. R. (2012). Nurturing mindfulness in children and youth: Current state of research. Child Development Perspectives, 6(2), 161-166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00215.x
,Davidson, R. J., Dahl, C. J. (2018). Outstanding challenges in scientific research on mindfulness and meditation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(1), 62-65. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617718358
,Alexander Williams, M.S.
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
Judy Garber, PhD (she/her/hers)
Professor
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
Richard E Zinbarg, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Professor
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
Alexander Williams, M.S.
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
Christian Webb, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Associate Professor
Harvard Medical School & McLean Hospital
Belmont, Massachusetts
Ashley Kendall, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
University of Illinois Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
Mindfulness interventions have been implemented to treat anxiety and depression (e.g., Kyken et al., 2008; Zhou et al., 2020). Although promising, the most common mindfulness-based interventions (i.e., Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction [Kabat-Zinn, 2003] and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy [Segal et al., 2004]), are difficult to scale to a wider population due to the need for a trained therapist or facilitator to present mindfulness techniques. In recent years, researchers have investigated the effectiveness of app-based mindfulness interventions. These interventions could be a powerful tool to address a growing need for low-cost psychological intervention, particularly among vulnerable and underserved populations.
This symposium will present the design and outcomes of several app-based mindfulness interventions designed for at-risk youth and adult samples. One approach to addressing the growing rates of anxiety and depression in young people has been to treat risk factors underlying the development of these clinical problems. Insufficient distress tolerance and excessive rumination both have been identified as important vulnerabilities for the onset of anxiety and depression (Allan et al., 2014; Lass & Winer, 2020). The presentations in this symposium will report findings from research trials that examined the impact of mindfulness training on transdiagnostic risk factors. These findings inform prevention efforts for adolescent populations and speak to whether mindfulness interventions can possibly address psychopathology before it manifests. To be comprehensive, we also will present data on clinical outcomes including anxiety and depression in adults.
Another important question in mindfulness research concerns dose-response effects (Davidson & Dahl, 2018). That is, how much mindfulness practice is needed to see benefits on a given outcome? This symposium also will address this question and will note that the answer varies by the outcome measured and type of sample (i.e., adolescents or adults). The Discussant will review how these findings provide a more enriched understanding of the versatile contributions of app-based mindfulness interventions across populations and clinical outcomes. The symposium Chairs and Discussant will facilitate a conversation among the presenters and the audience for the remainder of the session.
