A Brief Online Mindfulness-Based Group Intervention for Psychological Distress Among Chinese Residents During COVID-19: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Open accessAbstract
Objectives The coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic has increased psychological distress among the general population. The objective of this study is to evaluate a mindfulness-based intervention for psychological distress among Chinese residents during COVID-19. Methods This study used a switching replications design to test the feasibility and efficacy of a brief online mindfulness-based intervention for Chinese residents' psychological distress. Fifty-one residents in the Hubei province were randomly allocated to two groups (experimental group and waitlist control group) with three waves of measurement at time 1, time 2, and time 3 for changes in mindfulness and psychological distress. Results In addition to significant within-group improvements over time for both groups, OLS linear regression with full information likelihood estimation revealed statistically significant between-group treatment effects across outcome domains, including mindfulness awareness, b = 2.84, p < 0.001, g = 6.92, psychological distress, b = -21.33, p < 0.001, g = 6.62, somatic symptoms, b = -6.22, p < 0.001, g = 4.42, depressive symptoms, b = -7.16, p < 0.001, g = 5.07, and anxiety symptoms, b = -8.09, p < 0.001, g = 6.84. Conclusions Results suggest that a brief online mindfulness-based intervention can be a feasible and promising intervention for improving mindfulness and decreasing psychological distress among Chinese residents staying at home during the COVID-19 outbreak. The study used a small convenience sample which led to a concern of external generalizability and with limited evaluation of long-term change.
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Zhang et al. (2021) found positive effects of a 13-day online mindfulness-based intervention in reducing psychological distress and anxiety symptoms.
“The second study (Zhang et al., 2021) tested the feasibility and efficacy of a 13-day online mindfulness-based intervention (composed of a 2-h training/psycho-education mindfulness session, followed by 13days of group-supported mindfulness practice). The findings indicated that there were positive effects in reducing psychological distress and anxiety symptoms.”
From Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Increases Mental Wellbeing and Emotion Regulation During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Synchronous Online Intervention Study (2021) · cites this paper as Zhang et al., 2021
Most studies conducted during the pandemic were cross-sectional and measured whether individuals with higher trait-mindfulness were more resilient to pandemic-related stress and anxiety; only two intervention studies studied the effect of MBI programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Notably, most studies conducted during the pandemic were cross-sectional and measured whether individuals with higher trait-mindfulness were more resilient to pandemic-related stress and anxiety. As far as is known, there have only been two intervention studies that studied the effect of MBI programs during the COVID-19 pandemic (Lim et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2021).”
From Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Increases Mental Wellbeing and Emotion Regulation During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Synchronous Online Intervention Study (2021) · cites this paper as Zhang et al., 2021
To date, only two MBIs studies have been conducted during COVID-19.
“To date, only two MBIs studies have been conducted during COVID-19.”
From Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Increases Mental Wellbeing and Emotion Regulation During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Synchronous Online Intervention Study (2021) · cites this paper as Zhang et al., 2021
The Methods (Participants; page unavailable) describe this paper’s mindfulness-based intervention during COVID-19. But our copy does not say that only two such studies had been conducted; searches for that count and for prior COVID-19 mindfulness studies found no passage establishing it. (LLM, conf=0.72)
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- Authors
- Zhang, H., Zhang, A., Liu, C., Xiao, J., & Wang, K.
- Affiliations
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
- University of Michigan (US)
- China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation (China) (CN)
- University of Denver (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zhang, Hui
- Venue
- Mindfulness
- Published
- 2021-03-18
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1502-1512
- ISSN
- 1868-8527 (ISSN-L)
- 1868-8535
- PMC
- PMC7972025
- OpenAlex
- W3138994686
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 6.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Mindfulness (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
- University of Michigan Library
- Funders
- Central China Think Tank of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (2020HZZK014)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71901098)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Keywords
- mindfulness-based interventions, psychological distress, COVID-19 pandemic, online intervention, Chinese residents, Hubei Province, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, somatic symptoms, mindfulness awareness, feasibility and efficacy
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