JAMA Network Open
January 2, 2025
Rachel M Radin, Julie Vacarro, Elena Fromer et al.
11 citations
A brief digital mindfulness meditation program, compared to a waiting list, reduced perceived stress and job strain among employees of a large academic medical center. In a randomized clinical trial with 1458 adults (mostly female, average age 35.5 years), those assigned to 10 minutes of daily meditation for 8 weeks showed moderate to large improvements in stress and secondary outcomes like burnout and work engagement at 8 weeks, and these benefits persisted at 4 months. Greater daily use of the app (5 to 9.9 minutes versus less than 5 minutes) was linked to larger stress reductions. The findings suggest that a scalable digital meditation program can effectively lower stress in the workplace.
Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine
January 4, 2025
Matthew J. Zawadzki, Zoltan A Torok, Mercedes Peña et al.
7 citations
A randomized controlled trial with 138 university employees found that using the Headspace meditation app for 10 minutes daily reduced subjective stress and perseverative cognitions by week 2, and improved perceived coping by week 5, with effects lasting through week 8. No changes were observed for stressor appraisal. The control group reported increases in stress and perseverative cognitions and decreases in coping over the same period. The study used ecological momentary assessments five times daily across four days at multiple points, yielding 6260 observations. Headspace was effective at reducing stress in a high-stress environment, suggesting quick and sustained benefits from meditation practice.
Frontiers in Psychology
April 10, 2026
Natalie R. Beylin, Matthew J. Zawadzki
Mindfulness-based interventions show mixed results for people with histories of adverse childhood experiences. This paper proposes the Mindfulness Recalibration Model, a framework that reinterprets mindfulness practice as a process of biopsychological recalibration driven by experience, rather than just skill acquisition. The model distinguishes somatic practices that regulate physiology through bottom-up pathways from cognitive-affective practices that support top-down control, and emphasizes their coordinated, reciprocal engagement to reshape stress-regulatory systems. It offers a unifying explanation for inconsistent findings and a roadmap for developing interventions tailored to adversity-shaped regulatory systems.
Mindfulness
November 1, 2025
Natalie R. Beylin, Emely Covarrubías, Matthew J. Zawadzki
Higher trait mindfulness is associated with lower reward-based eating, and an 8-week mindfulness intervention via the Headspace mobile app reduced reward-based eating and improved trait mindfulness. Among 137 participants (mean age 38, 73.7% female) randomly assigned to the app or a control group, the strongest protective link was with the lack of satiety component. Changes in mindfulness predicted changes in reward-based eating only for the Headspace group, indicating that the training drove the improvement.
Mindfulness
September 1, 2023
Larisa Gavrilova, Matthew J. Zawadzki
An 8-week app-based mindfulness intervention (Headspace) produced rapid and sustained improvements in acceptance-attention and nonreactivity, with marginal effects for decentering, among 132 university employees. Changes in these mindfulness mechanisms were detectable from the second week onward and increased steadily over the intervention period. The study used ecological momentary assessment five times daily for four days at baseline and during weeks 2, 5, and 8, yielding 6,327 assessments. Results suggest that app-based mindfulness can quickly enhance key mechanisms such as acceptance and nonreactivity.