Cited by 10Mindfulness and Compassion InterventionsPsychological Well-being and Life SatisfactionDigital Mental Health Interventions

The effect of brief digital mindfulness-based interventions on increasing online charitable behavior in Chinese adolescents

Open access
Hong, Mei, Liang, Dapeng, Lu, Teng, Liu, Shengchen·2023·Frontiers in Psychology

Abstract

Digital mindfulness-based interventions (d-MBIs) have garnered significant research interest in recent years due to their psychological benefits. However, little is known about their impact on prosocial behaviors. This study investigates how d-MBIs impact prosocial behaviors where time spent is money, with Chinese adolescents as the subjects, through an online charity task (www.freerice.com). 119 students from a high school in China, who were inexperienced with mindfulness meditation, participated in this randomized controlled trial. The d-MBI group (N = 39) received online MBI guidance, while the face-to-face mindfulness-based intervention (f-MBI, N = 43) group underwent mindfulness intervention under personal tutors. The active control group (N = 37) completed a crossword task. Data analysis first involved repeated measures variance analysis, including pre-and post-intervention assessments. Subsequently, a two-way variance analysis was performed, with gender (female and male) and group (d-MBI, f-MBI, active control) as independent variables and the number of grains as dependent variables for the three groups of participants. Results showed that d-MBIs effectively improved empathy and compassion in Chinese adolescents, leading to increased rice donations to the United Nations World Food Program. These results underscore the positive effect of d-MBIs on prosociality and suggest their applicability in beneficial real-world situations involving prosocial behaviors, extending beyond previous research primarily conducted in artificial and hypothetical scenarios.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1213089

Cites

91 of 91 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Strategies such as mindfulness and gratitude may be effective in promoting healthier digital habits.

    “Research on digital detox and mindfulness practices suggests that strategies such as mindfulness and gratitude may be effective in promoting healthier digital habits [98].”

    From The Impact of Social Media & Technology on Child and Adolescent Mental Health (2025) · cites this paper as [98]

    The Discussion reports that mindfulness interventions increased adolescents’ time spent on an online charitable task, supporting a narrower claim about positive online behavior. The Methods > Procedures mentions gratitude as an emotion discussed in the mindfulness course, but does not test gratitude as a separate strategy. The paper does not establish effects on digital detox or digital habits more broadly; page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Hong, M., Liang, D., Lu, T., & Liu, S.
Affiliations
Harbin Institute of Technology (CN)
Corresponding author
Liang, Dapeng
Venue
Frontiers in Psychology
Published
2023-08-02
Volume
14
Pages
1213089-1213089
ISSN
1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4385493710
Cited by
10
References
91
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 6
FWCI
2.52
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
Keywords
prosocial behavior, adolescents, empathy, compassion, mindfulness meditation, Chinese adolescents

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review