The Effect of Loving-Kindness Meditation on Mood and Anxiety Symptoms, Interpersonal Relationships, and Emotions: An Initial Randomized Controlled Trial With a Non-Clinical Sample of Undergraduate Women

NCT07611253 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: rf#1025416
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 240
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial was to examine the effects of Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM) on anhedonic depressivity, interpersonal relationships (other inclusive self-concept, willingness to sacrifice, interaction quality) and emotions (positive affect, negative affect). The second aim was to conduct exploratory analyses investigating potential mediators that help explain changes in anhedonic depressivity over the course of short-term targeted LKM. Participants were randomly assigned to receive one week of \~5-minute daily audio recordings of Loving-Kindness Meditation or a visualization meditation, both of which were focused on a same-gender close friend. Participants completed baseline and follow-up questionnaires measuring psychological, social, and emotional variables; participants also completed daily questionnaires.

Conditions

Depression and Anxiety Symptoms

Keywords

Meditation; Anhedonic Depression; Social Relationships; Positive Affect; Inclusion of the Other in the Self Scale; Loving-Kindness Meditation; Willingness to Sacrifice; Negative Affect; Rochester Interaction Record

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Anhedonic Depressivity

  The anhedonic depression scale of the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ; Clark \& Watson, 1991) was used to measure anhedonic depressivity. Participants rated items of the MASQ (Clark \& Watson, 1991) on a scale from 1-5 (1 = Not at All; 5 = Extremely) based on how they felt over the past week. The anhedonic depression subscale includes 22 items (e.g., "Felt like there wasn't anything interesting or fun to do"). A mean score was calculated, with higher scores indicating more anhedonic depressivity.

  Assessed once at baseline (Day 0) and once at follow-up after the intervention (follow up sent on Day 8).

Secondary Outcomes (9)

• Positive Affect

  Assessed once at baseline (Day 0) and once at follow-up after the intervention (follow up sent on Day 8).

• Willingness to Sacrifice

  Assessed once at baseline (Day 0) and once at follow-up after the intervention (follow up sent on Day 8).

• Other-Inclusive Self Concept

  Assessed once at baseline (Day 0) and once at follow-up after the intervention (follow up sent on Day 8).

• Interaction Quality

  Assessed once at baseline (Day 0) and once at follow-up after the intervention (follow up sent on Day 8).

• Anxious Arousal

  Assessed once at baseline (Day 0) and once at follow-up after the intervention (follow up sent on Day 8).

Other Outcomes (4)

• Daily Engagement with the Meditation

  Questionnaires with an embedded meditation were sent each day (Day 1 - Day 7). Engagement was measured after listening to the audio recording.

• Daily Negative Affect

  Questionnaires with an embedded meditation were sent each day (Day 1 - Day 7). Negative affect was measured before and after listening to the audio recording.

• Daily Positive Affect

  Questionnaires with an embedded meditation were sent each day (Day 1 - Day 7). Positive affect was measured before and after listening to the audio recording.

Study Arms (2)

Loving-Kindness Meditation

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants randomly assigned (via Microsoft Excel) to receive the Loving-Kindness Meditation intervention.

Behavioral: Loving-Kindness Meditation

Visualization Meditation

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Participants randomly assigned (via Microsoft Excel) to receive the Visualization Meditation active comparator condition.

Behavioral: Visualization

Interventions

Loving-Kindness Meditation BEHAVIORAL

Participants received a \~5 minute audio recording of Loving-Kindness Meditation Instructions everday for one week. Recordings were delivered via email. Meditators in both conditions were instructed to find a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down, and were then guided through some initial deep breathing. Once relaxed, meditators in the LKM condition were asked to imagine receiving love and wishes of well-being from a close other; they were then asked to direct feelings of love and wishes of wellness to their target close friend. After approximately 5 minutes, meditators were guided back to relaxation.

Loving-Kindness Meditation

Visualization BEHAVIORAL

Participants received a \~5 minute audio recording of visualization Instructions everday for one week. Recordings were delivered via email. Meditators in both conditions were instructed to find a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down, and were then guided through some initial deep breathing. Meditators in the visualization condition were asked to visualize specific details of their target close friend's appearance. After approximately 5 minutes, meditators were guided back to relaxation.

Visualization Meditation

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Gender Eligibility Details: Participants had to self-identify as women.
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Participants must be enrolled as an undergraduate student
• Each Participant had to self-identify as a woman.
• Participants had to be age 18 or older.
• Participants had to have at least one close female platonic friend.

You may not qualify if:

• Participants did not complete at least three of seven daily meditations.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Luis Flores: lead
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Queen's University

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Location

Related Publications (13)

• Flores Jr, L. E., & Berenbaum, H. (2014). Desired emotional closeness moderates the prospective relations between levels of perceived emotional closeness and psychological distress. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 33(8), 673-700. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2014.33.8.673

  BACKGROUND

• Flores Jr, L. E., & Berenbaum, H. (2012). Desire for emotional closeness moderates the effectiveness of the social regulation of emotion. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(8), 952-957. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.07.009

  BACKGROUND

• Meyer TJ, Miller ML, Metzger RL, Borkovec TD. Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behav Res Ther. 1990;28(6):487-95. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(90)90135-6.

  PMID: 2076086 BACKGROUND

• Hayes, A. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.) Guilford publications.

  BACKGROUND

• Hayes, A. F. (2012). PROCESS: A versatile computational tool for observed variable mediation, moderation, and conditional process modeling [White paper]. Retrieved from http://www.afhayes.com/public/process2012.pdf

  BACKGROUND

• Trautwein FM, Naranjo JR, Schmidt S. Decentering the Self? Reduced Bias in Self- vs. Other-Related Processing in Long-Term Practitioners of Loving-Kindness Meditation. Front Psychol. 2016 Nov 21;7:1785. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01785. eCollection 2016.

  PMID: 27917136 BACKGROUND

• Bierhoff, H. W., Grau, I., & Ludwig, A. (1993). Marburger Einstellungsinventar zu Liebesstilen (MEIL). Hogrefe.

  BACKGROUND

• Wheeler, L., & Reis, H. T., (1991). Self-recording of everyday life events: Origins, types, and uses. Journal of Personality, 59, 339-354. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1991.tb00252.x

  BACKGROUND

• Aron, A., Aron, E. N., & Smollan, D. (1992). Inclusion of the other in the self scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(4), 596-612. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.4.596

  BACKGROUND

• Seppala, E.M., Hutcherson, C.A., Nguyen, D.T., Hutcheson, C. A., & Gross, J. J. (2014). Loving-kindness meditation: A tool to improve healthcare provider compassion, resilience, and patient care. Journal of Compassionate Health Care, 1(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40639-014-0005-9

  BACKGROUND

• Gachter S, Starmer C, Tufano F. Measuring the Closeness of Relationships: A Comprehensive Evaluation of the 'Inclusion of the Other in the Self' Scale. PLoS One. 2015 Jun 12;10(6):e0129478. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129478. eCollection 2015.

  PMID: 26068873 BACKGROUND

• Watson D, Clark LA, Tellegen A. Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1988 Jun;54(6):1063-70. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.54.6.1063.

  PMID: 3397865 BACKGROUND

• Clark LA, Watson D. Tripartite model of anxiety and depression: psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications. J Abnorm Psychol. 1991 Aug;100(3):316-36. doi: 10.1037//0021-843x.100.3.316.

  PMID: 1918611 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Depression; Anxiety Disorders

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Luis Flores, Ph.D.

  Queen's University and Rutgers University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, INVESTIGATOR
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Dr.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 1, 2026
• First Posted: May 28, 2026
• Study Start: January 13, 2021
• Primary Completion: April 11, 2021
• Study Completion: April 11, 2021
• Last Updated: May 28, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Beginning within at publication with no end date.
• Access Criteria: The data will be publically available. A link to the Open Science Framework page will be included when the results are published.

Locations

CA (1)