A 4-Week Digital Mindfulness-Based Program to Support Well-being

This project is designed to investigate the impact and efficacy of the new digital method (i.e a commercially available social humanoid robot with a tablet interface) to deliver a mindfulness-based program over a 4-week period using a two-group (immediate vs wait-list) trial design. This program has been adapted from a mindfulness-based program that is offered at Monash University. It is intended that this trial will explore how a social humanoid robot can help people to learn and practice mindfulness and its impact on state and trait well-being, including finding a new and interactive ways to engage people in practice that can be used in conjunction with other services, if effective. Participants will complete a 45-minute in-person session conducted at Monash University. This session will include a 30-minute session for a Pepper robot leading the session content and training to deliver a robot-adapted version of a mindfulness-based program. Each participant will complete the session on their own, working with the robot to complete the content. At the end of the session, participants will be invited to complete a 15-minute interview with a research team member about the experience with the robot program. Participants will receive a weekly email after the first session until the end of the 4-week program that involves additional program content that is expected to take 5 minutes to complete, such as a mindfulness meditation audio file and suggestion for informal practice. Participants are also given the option to receive a mid-week reminder. Participants will be asked to complete 2 x 20-minute online questionnaires at two and four weeks.