None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The current study will investigate whether listening to self-compassion (SC) meditation audio recordings will increase levels of body appreciation (BA) and well-being (WB) whilst reducing body dissatisfaction. This experimental design will establish a cause and effect relationship of SC mediation on self-reported BA. A screening survey will ask whether participants have been diagnosed with an anxiety or eating disorder. Participants selecting yes on either question will be ineligible to participate further. The preliminary screening survey will also contain items from the Anxiety subscale from the DASS-21 and the EDE-QS, where if participants score greater than 15 (DASS) or greater than 15 (EDE-QS), they will be ineligible to participate further. Random allocation of participants will then occur. Those in both groups will complete the pre-intervention survey containing established measures of body appreciation, body dissatisfaction, self-compassion, and positive psychological wellbeing. Those in the experimental group (EXG) will then be provided links to audio recordings of self-compassion meditations which they are required to listen to daily for 3 weeks. Email and text reminders with the audio link will provided. After 3 weeks, participants from both groups will complete the post-intervention survey. Participants in the waitlist control group (CG) will then have be provided with links to the meditation recordings and will undergo the same intervention program as those in the main intervention group. Reminders with the link to the audio will be provided. 6 weeks after completion of the post-intervention survey, those in the EXG will be required to do a follow-up survey to determine if any improvements are maintained over time. Those in the CG will not do a follow-up survey. The project will yield information about factors facilitating positive body image, which could help with designing interventions based on risk factor models.
Interventions
Summary: This study involves a 3-week intervention period during which participants will listen to audio recordings of brief self-compassion meditations each day. Pre- and post-intervention measures of body dissatisfaction, body appreciation, and psychological wellbeing will be administered via an online survey, and these measures will be administered again 6 weeks after the intervention. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether regular listening to self-compassion meditations decrea
Summary: This study involves a 3-week intervention period during which participants will listen to audio recordings of brief self-compassion meditations each day. Pre- and post-intervention measures of body dissatisfaction, body appreciation, and psychological wellbeing will be administered via an online survey, and these measures will be administered again 6 weeks after the intervention. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether regular listening to self-compassion meditations decreases body dissatisfaction, increases body appreciation, and improves psychological wellbeing. Brief name: Self-compassion meditation Materials: All audio recordings of the self-compassion meditations are freely available at www.self-compassion.org. The specific meditations are: Week 1, Compassionate Body Scan (24 minutes); Week 2, Affectionate Breathing (21 minutes); Week 3: Loving Kindness (20 minutes). Procedures: Participants randomly allocated to the intervention group following the pre-intervention online survey will be given a commencement date for the intervention period. They will be provided the links to the relevant meditations via email and text reminders each day during the intervention period, and will be asked to listen to the relevant meditation each day. Who: The research team will send the email and text reminders. The meditation recordings were made by Dr Kristen Neff, a leading expert in self-compassion. It will be up to participants to access and listen to these recordings. Mode of delivery: Participants will access the recordings online. Duration and intensity: Participants will listen to the relevant meditation recordings (approximately 20 minutes) once a day for three weeks. Location: All participants will complete online surveys and listen to audio recordings of the meditations at a location of their choosing, provided they have internet access. Adherence and fidelity: Participants will receive daily reminders via email and text to access and listen to the recordings. As the recordings are provided by a third party, we will not be able to track adherence. However, in the post-intervention survey we will ask participants to report how often they listened to the recordings.
Sponsors
Victoria University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Other
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 39 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Participants will be young adults in the Australian general population
Exclusion criteria
Individuals with a formal diagnosis of an eating disorder and/or an anxiety disorder are ineligible. The pre-intervention survey will also screen for eating disorder symptoms using the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire Short (EDE-QS; Gideon et al., 2016), and anxiety symptoms using the Anxiety subscale of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale short form (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). EDE scores above 15 indicate the possible presence of an eating disorder, therefore individuals with a score above 15 will be excluded. Similarly, anxiety scores above 15 indicate severe or extremely severe anxiety, therefore individuals with scores above 15 will be excluded.
Outcome results
None listed