From the Heart: Comparing the Effects of Spiritual and Secular Meditation on Psychophysiology, Cognition, Mental Health, and Social Functioning in Healthy Adults
- Conditions
- StressMental Well-beingEmpathyPainAttentionAnxietyForgivenessDepressionProsocial Behavior
- Registration Number
- NCT06136676
- Lead Sponsor
- Coventry University
- Brief Summary
The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the effects of Christian and Islamic heart-centred spiritual meditation to mindfulness meditation and waitlist control conditions, respectively, in healthy adults. The potential effects will be studied at multiple levels, with a focus on psychophysiology, cognition, mental health, and social functioning.
- Detailed Description
Background
Secular forms of meditation have been widely accepted as an effective tool to promote well-being and as therapeutic strategies. The popularity of such practices, most notably mindfulness meditation, can be attributed to the substantial body of research on their beneficial effects in the past few decades. While these practices are loosely based on Eastern traditions, and actively reduce emotional reactivity, some Western spiritual meditations have retained their God-centred focus and aim to elicit strong emotions. The current study aims to examine the effects of heart-centred contemplation based on Christian and Islamic traditions on mental, physical, cognitive, and social well-being, compare the outcomes of these exercises to mindfulness meditation, and investigate the external correlates of the outcomes.
Aims
The present study aims to recruit healthy adults to investigate and compare the effects of Christian and Islamic heart-centred spiritual meditation to mindfulness meditation (Mindfulness-based stress reduction; MBSR) and waitlist control, respectively. The potential effects will be examined using measures from multiple domains, with a focus on psychophysiology, cognition, mental health, and social functioning. Additionally, the study aims to examine the possible external correlates of the outcomes by testing perspective-taking, affect, religiosity, spiritual experiences, closeness to God, closeness to the offender, and credibility/expectancies about the spiritual meditation program. The study seeks to understand the impact of different types of meditation practices on the well-being of individuals.
Participants
This study will apply a mixed method repeated measures design to examine a three-arm stratified randomised control trial with healthy samples of Christians and Muslims in multiple testing centres in India. Assessments will be conducted at three time points: pre-intervention (T1), after intervention (T2), and at a 3-month follow-up (T3). Eligible participants will be first stratified into Christian and Islamic samples and then randomly allocated to one of the three conditions: religious contemplation (either Christian or Islamic spiritual meditation based on their religions), mindfulness meditation, or waitlist control.
Administration of intervention
The intervention will consist of an 8-week app-based program, including approximately 20-minute daily audio-guided instructions of either one of the spiritual meditations or mindfulness meditation. Participants from the waitlist control will not receive any intervention, but they will be given access to Christian or Islamic meditation app after the experiment is completed.
Outcome measures
Outcome measures consist of domains related to interpersonal functioning, physiology, attention, mental health, spirituality.
Primary outcomes will be the interpersonal functioning domain including measures of prosociality, forgiveness, empathy, and perspective taking.
Secondary outcomes include domains concerning physiology, attention, and mental health. Physiology domain encompasses pain tolerance, pain intensity, stress reactivity (heart rate and heart rate variability), psychophysiological reactivity associated with forgiveness (heart rate and heart rate variability). Attention domain includes measures of alerting attention, orienting attention, and executive attention networks. Mental health domain involves self-reported stress, depression, anxiety, subjective well-being, and positive and negative affect.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- RECRUITING
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 288
- 18 to 60 years old
- able to read, speak and understand English
- willing to be randomly assigned to all the conditions, with religious affiliation restricting allocation to either the Christian or Islamic type of spiritual meditation conditions
- consider oneself to be a Christian or Muslim and pray at least weekly
- currently suffer from any mental health conditions or use medication to manage mental health conditions
- long-term serious physical medical problems, such as liver, brain, kidney, or other life-threatening chronic diseases
- a history of a heart condition, high blood pressure, Raynaud syndrome, diabetes, or musculoskeletal condition
- the current use of anxiolytics/mood stabilizers.
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Interpersonal functioning: Change in Prosociality (3) Post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) The percentage of compensation fees that participants are willing to donate to a charity
Interpersonal functioning: Change in Prosociality (1) Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) The number of game points (0-10) that a participant is willing to allocate to another individual as measured by the Dictator Game
Interpersonal functioning: Change in Perspective Taking Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) - Perspective Taking scale. The 7-item Perspective Taking scale from IRI measures one's tendency to take the point of view of others. Participants are asked to rate how closely the statements describe them on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from A (Does not describe me well) to E (Describes me very well). The total scores range from 0 - 28. Higher scores indicate greater perspective-taking
Interpersonal functioning: Changes in self-reported Empathy Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) A self-reported empathy scale assessed within a forgiveness task, ranging from 0 (Not at all) to 20 (Completely). High scores reflect a higher level of empathy, while lower scores indicate a lower level of empathy.
Interpersonal functioning: Change in Prosociality (2) Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) Social value orientation scores as measured by the social value orientation slider measure. The higher scores represent greater prosocial preferences while lower scores represent greater self-interest preferences
Interpersonal functioning: Changes in self-reported Forgiveness Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) A self-reported forgiveness scale assessed within a forgiveness task, ranging from 0 (Not at all) to 20 (Completely). High scores reflect a higher level of forgiveness, while lower scores indicate a lower level of forgiveness
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Physiology: Change in Pain Tolerance Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) The duration (in seconds) that a participant endures painful stimulation assessed during an endurance task
Physiology: Change in Stress Reactivity (1) Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) Heart rate
Physiology: Change in psychophysiological reactivity associated with forgiveness (1) Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) Heart rate assessed during a forgiveness task.
Mental health: Change in self-reported Anxiety Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the 8-week intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention) The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 Items (DASS-21): Anxiety subscale, ranging from 0 ("Did not apply to me at all") to 3 ("Applied to me very much or most of the time"). Higher scores on anxiety scale reflect a greater severity of the anxiety symptoms, whereas lower scores indicate a milder experience of these symptoms
Physiology: Change in Pain Intensity Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) 0-10 Numerical Rating Scale
Attention: Change in Alerting Attention network Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) Reaction time assessed through a 10-minute version of Attentional Network Task (CRSD-ANT)
Physiology: Change in psychophysiological reactivity associated with forgiveness (2) Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) Heart rate variability assessed during a forgiveness task
Mental health: Change in self-reported Depression Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the 8-week intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention) The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 Items (DASS-21): Depression subscale, ranging from 0 ("Did not apply to me at all") to 3 ("Applied to me very much or most of the time"). Higher scores on depression scale reflect a greater severity of the depression symptoms, whereas lower scores indicate a milder experience of these symptoms
Physiology: Change in Stress Reactivity (2) Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) Heart rate variability
Mental health: Change in self-report Positive and Negative Affect (1) Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the 8-week intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention) International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) Short Form (I-PANAS-SF). I-PANAS-SF is a 10-item self-report questionnaire measuring 5 items of positive affect and 5 items of negative affect. Participants are asked to rate their general feelings and emotions on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Never) to 5 (Always). Higher scores indicate a greater level of positive affect, and lower scores represent a lower level of negative affect
Attention: Change in Executive Attention network Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) Reaction time assessed through a 10-minute version of Attentional Network Task (CRSD-ANT)
Mental health: Change in self-reported Stress Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the 8-week intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention) The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 Items (DASS-21) is a 21-item self-report questionnaire that comprises three distinct subscales: depression, anxiety, and stress, with each containing 7 items. Participants are asked to rate the extent of the statements applied to them over the past week using a 4-point rating scale, ranging from 0 ("Did not apply to me at all") to 3 ("Applied to me very much or most of the time"). Higher scores on stress scale reflect a greater severity of the stress symptoms, whereas lower scores indicate a milder experience of these symptoms
Attention: Change in Orienting Attention network Pre-intervention (collected up to 3 hours before the intervention), and post-intervention (collected up to two weeks after the 8-week intervention) Reaction time assessed through a 10-minute version of Attentional Network Task (CRSD-ANT)
Mental health: Change in self-report Positive and Negative Affect (2) Throughout the 8 weeks intervention 5-item Smiley Face Likert scale within the meditation app. The scale assesses participants' feelings before and after their daily contemplative / mindfulness practices. Participants are asked to choose one out of the five emoji faces on the scale to indicate their current feelings ranging from a very sad face to a very happy face
Mental health: Change in Subjective Wellbeing Pre-intervention (collected up to 1 week before the intervention), post-intervention (collected up to 2 weeks after the 8-week intervention), and at 3-month follow-up (collected up to 2 weeks following 3 months after the end of the intervention) Well-Being Index (WHO-5). WHO-5 is a 5-item self-report questionnaire measuring subjective wellbeing. Participants are asked to rate their feelings in the past 2 weeks using a 6-Likert scale, ranging from 0 (At no time) to 5 (All of the time). The raw score is multiplied by 4 and the final scores range from 0-100. A score of 0 indicates the lowest possible level of wellbeing, whereas a score of 100 reflects the highest possible level of wellbeing
Trial Locations
- Locations (2)
Little Flower Institute of Social Sciences and Health (LISSAH) college
🇮🇳Calicut, Kerala, India
Kuriakose Elias College Mannanam
🇮🇳Kottayam, Kerala, India