Effectiveness and Physiological Mechanisms of Contemplative Dyad Meditation to Increase Social Connection in Young Adults in the Aftermath of the Pandemic
试验速览
- 阶段
- 不适用
- 状态
- 已完成
- 入组人数
- 120
- 试验地点
- 1
- 主要终点
- Brief Inventory of Thriving
研究概览
简要总结
Many people are experiencing low well-being and loneliness, particularly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the world is opening back up, it is crucial to determine methods to help people grow closer again and boost subjective well-being. One promising method is contemplative dyad meditation, which has hardly been studied. This is a method in which two people have a structured dialogue with each other while contemplating a prompt, as they alternate between listening and speaking. It is related to but different from other methods that have previously been shown to increase connection, such as the "fast friends" exercise. In "fast friends", two people answer a series of increasingly personal questions in a dialogue.
Here, 180 participants between 18-35 years will be randomly allocated to three conditions (stratified by gender): (a) contemplative dyad meditation training, (b) "fast friends", or (c) no-intervention. Participants in the dyad meditation group will receive professional meditation training followed by 2 weeks of regular meditation practice. Participants in the "fast friends" group will meet regularly during 2 weeks to practice "fast friends" exercises. The impact of the interventions on well-being, loneliness, mindfulness, and related measures will be investigated. After the interventions have finished, participants' physiology (heart rate) and brain waves (using electroencephalography [EEG]) during the respective exercises will also be measured to explore potential biological mechanisms. Of particular interest are heart rate variability (HRV, often linked with higher well-being), frontal alpha asymmetry in the EEG (linked with positive affect and approach), and biological synchrony in these variables between the two interacting individuals.
Both dyad meditations and "fast friends" exercises are predicted to improve closeness, thriving, loneliness, affect, depression, anxiety, and social interaction anxiety compared to no-intervention. Moreover, dyad meditation is predicted to have stronger effects than "fast friends" in terms of increasing mindfulness, self-compassion, and empathy. Dyad meditation and fast friends will show differential physiological signatures (e.g., lower heart rate and higher averaged alpha power for meditation).
This study may reveal effective methods to improve well-being and connection and provide insights into their biological mechanisms.
研究设计
- 研究类型
- Interventional
- 分配方式
- Randomized
- 干预模型
- Parallel
- 主要目的
- Treatment
- 盲法
- Single (Participant)
盲法说明
Participants only receive information about the condition they have been assigned to and are not explicitly informed about the other conditions or the overall purpose of the study. All participants will be debriefed when the study has ended.
入排标准
- 年龄范围
- 18 Years 至 35 Years（Adult）
- 性别
- All
- 接受健康志愿者
- 是
入选标准
- •Current student, staff, or employee at the University of Pennsylvania (for safety reasons)
排除标准
- 未提供
研究组 & 干预措施
Fast friends
干预措施: Fast friends (Behavioral)
Contemplative dyad meditation
干预措施: Contemplative dyad meditation (Behavioral)
No intervention
结局指标
主要结局
Brief Inventory of Thriving
时间窗: 3 weeks
The Brief Inventory of Thriving (Su, Tay, \& Diener, 2014) is a questionnaire consisting of 10 items, measuring psychological well-being. Scores range from 1 to 5 with a higher score indicating more thriving (i.e., higher well-being).
Loneliness Scores on the Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving
时间窗: 3 weeks
The Loneliness sub-scale from the Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving (Su, Tay, \& Diener, 2014) consists of 3 items. Scores range from 1 to 5 with a higher score indicating higher loneliness.
Mindfulness Score on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire
时间窗: 3 weeks
The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (Baer et al., 2006) consists of 39 items. Scores for mindfulness range between 1 and 5 with a higher score indicating more mindfulness.
Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale
时间窗: Directly after each individual meditation or "fast friends" exercise
The Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale (Aron, Aron, \& Smollan, 1992) consists of 7 response options measuring closeness to another person (here: the meditation or exercise partner). The response options each show two circles labeled as" "Self" and "Other", which vary in terms of overlap, from barely touching (1, i.e., not close at all) to almost completely overlapping (7, i.e., extremely close).
次要结局
- Negative Affect Scores on the Negative And Positive Affect Scale(Directly after each individual meditation or "fast friends" exercise)
- Positive Affect Scores on the Negative And Positive Affect Scale(Directly after each individual meditation or "fast friends" exercise)
- Depression Scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9(3 weeks)
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 questionnaire(3 weeks)
- Social Interaction Anxiety Scale-6(3 weeks)
- Self-Compassion Scale Short-Form(3 weeks)
- Toronto Empathy Questionnaire(3 weeks)
- Emotional synchrony(Directly after each individual meditation or "fast friends" exercise)
- Positive Affect Scores on the Negative And Positive Affect Scale(3 weeks)
- Negative Affect Scores on the Negative And Positive Affect Scale(3 weeks)
研究者
Michael Platt
James S. Riepe University Professor
University of Pennsylvania