Objectives: The demand for effective psychological treatments for depression, anxiety, and heightened stress is far outstripping their supply. Accordingly, internet delivered, self-help interventions offer hope to many people, as they can be easily accessed and at a fraction of the price of face-to-face options. Mindfulness and self-compassion are particularly exciting approaches, as evidence suggests interventions that cultivate these skills are effective in reducing depression, anxiety, and heightened stress. We examined the efficacy of a newly developed program that combines mindfulness and self-compassion exercises into a brief self-guided intervention (Mind-OP). The secondary aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of conducting a randomized-controlled trial entirely on a popular crowdsourcing platform, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Methods: We randomized 456 participants reporting heightened depression, anxiety, or stress to one of two conditions: the 4-week Mind-OP intervention (n= 227) or to an active control condition (n =229) where participants watched nature videos superimposed onto relaxing meditation music for four consecutive weeks. We administered measures of anxiety, depression, perceived stress, dispositional and state mindfulness, self-compassion, and nonattachment. Results: Intent-to-treat and per-protocol analyses revealed that, compared to participants in the control condition, participants in the Mind-OP intervention condition reported significantly less anxiety and stress at the end of the trial, as well as significantly greater mindfulness, self-compassion, and nonattachment. Conclusions: Mind-OP appears efficacious in reducing anxiety symptoms and perceived stress among MTurk participants. We highlight issues (e.g., attrition) related to feasibility of conducting randomized trials on crowdsourcing platforms such as MTurk.
Can Amazon's Mechanical Turk be used to recruit participants for internet intervention trials? A pilot study involving a randomized controlled trial of a brief online intervention for hazardous alcohol use