Compassion, often a key element of mindfulness practice, is associated with reducing feelings of loneliness.
Although single-session interventions (SSI) have shown promise in addressing problems such as depression, substance abuse, and anxiety, their effectiveness in reducing loneliness is limited.
Recent research suggests that SSI may be useful in managing anxiety related to COVID-19. A new SSI was studied to determine whether the addition of compassion training led to a greater reduction in loneliness and associated mental health problems.
The study involved three separate groups designed as a game. The first group practiced mindfulness, the second group practiced mindfulness and compassion, and the third group was the control group and did not participate in any of the activities.
Each participant was assessed three times: at the beginning of the study, one week after the start of the intervention (or waiting period), and two weeks later. Data collection takes place from May 25, 2020 to November 26, 2021.
Interestingly, after one week, none of the interventions showed a significant reduction in loneliness compared to the waiting group. Furthermore, after two weeks, no difference was observed between the active programs.
However, at the end of the two-week period, both intervention groups showed a slight decrease in loneliness. However, further research is needed to determine whether this decline is due to interventions or occurs naturally over time, as a control group is needed for comparison.
Observational analysis found that participants with compassion intervention reported significantly less stress, hopelessness, and anxiety after one week than the mindfulness-only group, unlike the waiting-list group. However, after one or two weeks, there is no difference between the two groups of opinion.
This shows that a one-hour mindfulness program with a compassion component can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression compared to no intervention. As with short-term interventions, the observed effects were smaller compared to studies using long interventions.
The short duration of the compassion segment (5-10 minutes) may explain the lack of differences between the cognitive groups. Future research could test the effectiveness of a longer compassion component to see if it leads to greater improvements in stress and loneliness.
