Assessing the Efficacy of Color Mandala Intervention on Spiritual Attitude, Happiness, and Mindfulness Among Adults
Rabia Aftab Sethi, Urooj Tara
Journal of Global Social Transformation October 13, 2026 DOI: 10.71317/jgst.2.10.2026.823 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pre-test–post-test experimental design with control group Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 70 |
| Population | Adults aged 18–60 years |
| Interventions | Mandala coloring Neutral reading task |
| Measures | Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (SAIL), Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Mandala coloring was associated with significant pre–post increases in spiritual attitude (73.60 to 83.42) and happiness (76.00 to 90.80), with post-test means higher than the control group's on both. Mindfulness changed only slightly (35.54 to 36.02) and the experimental–control difference in mindfulness was not significant. The authors caution that inconsistencies in some reported statistics warrant careful interpretation. |
Abstract
Color mandala activities are art based tasks that can be used as a structured activity for focused attention, emotional regulation and reflective experience. They may be related to spiritual attitude, happiness, and mindfulness, which should be investigated in adults empirically.The study evaluated the effectiveness of a color mandala intervention on spiritual attitude, happiness, and mindfulness among adults and the relationships between the three outcomes and some demographic differences. It was a pre test- post test experimental design with control group. A total of 70 adults (18–60 years) were selected using purposive sampling and randomly divided into experimental (n = 35) and control (n = 35) groups. The experimental group underwent a structured mandala coloring exercise and the control group went through a neutral reading task. The Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (SAIL), Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), and Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS) were the measures. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, paired-samples and independent-samples t tests, as well as one-way ANOVAs, were reported in the analyses in the source. The source report mentions positive relationships between spiritual attitude, happiness and mindfulness. In the experimental group, spiritual attitude reported pre–post changed from 73.60 to 83.42; happiness changed from 76.00 to 90.80; and mindfulness changed from 35.54 to 36.02. All three outcomes had statistically significant pre–post tests, but the mean difference for mindfulness was not very large, according to the source. The results indicated that posttest means for the experimental group were higher than the posttest means for the control group in spiritual attitude and happiness, and that the difference between the experimental and the control group in mindfulness was not significant. There are inconsistencies in some t statistics, p values, degrees of freedom and scale ranges in the source tables and therefore findings should be interpreted with care. This study suggests that mandala coloring might be a feasible and low-cost creative art related to enhanced self-reported spiritual attitude and happiness in this sample. There is less evidence for a unique mindfulness benefit. More well-designed, statistically reported, controlled and follow-up studies are necessary.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |