Reducing loneliness through the power of practicing together
A randomized controlled trial of online dyadic socio-emotional vs. mindfulness-based training
Publication date
2024-04-29
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Organisational unit
Publisher
MDPI AG
Series or journal
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
ISSN
Periodical volume
21
Periodical issue
5
Article ID
570
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Language
English
Abstract
Loneliness has become a pressing topic, especially among young adults and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a randomized controlled trial with 253 healthy adults, we evaluated the differential efficacy of two 10-week app-delivered mental training programs: one based on classic mindfulness and one on an innovative partner-based socio-emotional practice (Affect Dyad). We show that the partner-based training resulted in greater reductions in loneliness than the mindfulness-based training. This effect was shown on three measures of loneliness: general loneliness assessed with the 20-item UCLA Loneliness Scale, state loneliness queried over an 8-day ecological momentary assessment in participants’ daily lives, and loneliness ratings required before and after daily practice. Our study provides evidence for the higher efficacy of a mental training approach based on a 12 min practice conducted with a partner in reducing loneliness and provides a novel, scalable online approach to reduce the increasing problem of loneliness in society.
Version
Published version
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