Gender Differences in the Influence of Mindfulness Meditation on Emotion Regulation: Randomized Controlled Trial with a Smartphone App Intervention
Koichiro Adachi, Takumu Kurosawa, Ryu Takizawa
preprint DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7025339/v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 300 |
| Population | Healthy workers |
| Duration | 4-week intervention |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | In a four-week app-based mindfulness intervention, group-by-gender interactions were significant for cognitive flexibility and angry reactions. Women showed increased cognitive flexibility and decreased anger reactions, suggesting brief online mindfulness-based interventions may enhance cognitive flexibility more in women than in men. |
Abstract
Abstract This study investigated the potential moderating effects of gender in online mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) on mental health problems in healthy populations. Specifically, it explored gender differences in emotion regulation and cognitive flexibility and the mechanisms underlying the influence of MBIs on mental health problems. Data were obtained from randomized controlled trials using a crossover design in 2022 and 2023. A total of 300 workers were randomly allocated to either an intervention or a waitlist group. The participants practiced mindfulness exercises following an app-based MBI for four weeks. Perceived stress, anger, psychological flexibility, self-esteem, and emotion regulation were measured before and after the intervention or waitlist periods. Interaction analyses between groups and gender revealed significant effects for cognitive flexibility ( p = .02) and angry reaction ( p = .007). Simple slope analyses showed women had significantly increased cognitive flexibility ( p = .03) and decreased anger reactions ( p < .001). This study showed that brief online MBIs in preventive contexts enhanced cognitive flexibility more so in women than in men. Considering individual differences, including gender, is important to optimize psychological interventions.