Compassion, often a key element in mindfulness routines, has been linked to reduced feelings of loneliness.
While single-session interventions (SSI) have shown promise in addressing issues such as depression, substance abuse, and anxiety, their effectiveness in alleviating loneliness has been limited.
Recent studies suggest that SSIs could be beneficial for managing anxiety related to COVID-19. A new mindfulness-based SSI was investigated to determine whether the inclusion of compassion exercises resulted in greater reductions in loneliness and related mental health problems.
The study involved three distinct groups structured as a game. The first group practiced mindfulness, the second group engaged in both mindfulness and compassion exercises, while the third group served as a control and did not participate in any interventions.
Each participant was assessed three times: at the beginning of the study, one week after starting the interventions (or waiting period), and again two weeks later. Data collection lasted from May 25, 2020, to November 26, 2021.
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Interestingly, after one week, neither intervention showed a significant reduction in loneliness compared to the wait group. Moreover, after two weeks, no differences were evident between the active programs.
However, at the end of the two weeks, both intervention groups showed a slight decrease in loneliness. However, further investigation is needed to determine whether this decline is due to the interventions or occurs naturally over time, as a control group is necessary for comparison.
Follow-up analyses revealed that, unlike the waiting group, participants in the mindfulness with compassion intervention reported significant reductions in stress, despair, and anxiety after one week, whereas the mindfulness-only group did not. However, after one or two weeks, there were no differences between the two mindfulness groups.
This suggests that compared to no intervention, a one-hour mindfulness program with a compassion component can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. As is common with short-term interventions, the observed effects were modest compared to studies using longer interventions.
The short duration of the compassion segment (5–10 minutes) may explain the lack of differences between the mindfulness groups. Future research could examine the efficacy of longer-compassion components to see if they yield greater improvements in stress and loneliness.
The researchers noted, “These findings suggest that a single mindfulness intervention can lead to significant reductions in a range of clinical problems, including perceived stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. This brief, one-session mindfulness intervention offers an approach that can be easily adopted in a variety of contexts.”
