Meditation Practice and Mental Health Outcomes: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Indian Context
Ram Kumar Gupta, Abhishek Kumar Bhardwaj
Indian Journal of Psychological Science 2026 DOI: 10.66509/ijps.21.1.2026.100-111 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study (cross-sectional, correlational) Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 200 |
| Population | Indian meditation practitioners with a mean age of 22.7 years |
| Intervention | Meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Meditation experience was inversely related to depression scores, and more days of meditation practice per week were negatively related to anxiety and to total depression, anxiety, and stress scores. The authors conclude that meditation practice serves as an effective strategy to enhance mental health. |
Abstract
Recent technological advancements and changes in social norms have developed significant mental health concern.Meditation, an ancient practice has gained an attention in recent years for its psychological as well as neurological benefits.Hence the objectives of the current study are to inspect the relationship between meditation practice and scores of depressions, anxiety and stress among Indian population.Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 200 meditation practitioners (mean age of 22.7 years) were finalized.All the participants were assessed for meditation, depression, anxiety and stress.All the variables were analyzed using SPSS version 29.0.In results, experience of meditation showed an inverse relationship with scores of depressions (p<0.05).Whereas, daily practice of meditation in a week showed a negative relation with anxiety (p<0.01) and with the total of DAS scores (p<0.05).The results concluded as meditation practices serves as an effective strategy to enhance mental health.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups | 2008 | Cross-sectional study | |
| Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Adult participants | 2007 | Observational cross-sectional | n = 27 |
| Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). School-aged children and adolescents | 2011 | Cross-sectional validation study | n = 1,413 |
| Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators Experienced meditators and demographically matched nonmeditators | 2012 | Cross-sectional study | n = 152 |
| Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress Undergraduates | 2008 | Cross-sectional, correlational |
Citations in the library
Cites 3
- Mindfulness Interventions Annual Review of Psychology September 30, 2016
- Biologic effects of mindfulness meditation: growing insights into neurobiologic aspects of the prevention of depression Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience March 1, 2011
- Neural correlates of meditation: a review of structural and functional MRI studies. Frontiers in Bioscience March 1, 2020