Objectives: Mindful breathing meditation (MBM) and loving-kindness meditation (LKM) are common components of effective mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). This pilot study examined the differential effects of MBM and LKM on purported therapeutic process variables and mental health outcomes via component analysis. Methods: The research design was a randomized controlled trial with four conditions: MBM, LKM, combined (MBM+LKM), and a relaxation control. Participants were college undergraduates. Condition effects were analyzed across seven therapeutic process variables and three mental health outcomes. Treatment integrity and treatment acceptability data were also collected.Results: Findings indicated statistically significant and very large main effects of time, regardless of condition. Statistically significant time by condition interactions were only observed for one process variable and one mental health outcome. Follow-up descriptive evaluation of between-group effect sizes indicated patterns of favorable effects for MBM and LKM over the combined and relaxation control conditions. Treatment integrity and treatment acceptability data indicated very favorable social validity across conditions. Conclusion: We conclude that the findings make a modest yet value-added contribution to the MBI component analysis literature, suggesting differentiated performance among isolated MBM and LKM exercises compared to combined and control conditions. Yet further research is warranted to improve upon the limitations of this study.
Treatment Integrity and Differentiation in the Very Early Rehabilitation in SpEech (VERSE) trial
