OBJECTIVE Meditation apps are the most widely used mental health apps. The precise mechanisms underlying their effects remain unclear. In particular, the degree to which affect experienced during meditation is associated with outcomes has not been established. METHOD We used the meditation app arm of a recently completed randomized controlled trial comparing a self-guided meditation app (Healthy Minds Program) to a waitlist control. Predominantly distressed public school employees (n = 243, 80.9% with clinically elevated depression and/or anxiety) reported positive and negative affect during meditation practice. Data were analyzed using two-level multivariate latent growth curve models (observations nested within participants) that simultaneously attended to both positive and negative affect. We examined whether positive and negative affect during meditation changed over time and whether these changes were associated with changes in psychological distress (parent trial's preregistered primary outcome) at posttest or 3-month follow-up. RESULTS On average, participants reported decreased negative affect but no change in positive affect during meditation over time. Increased positive affect and decreased negative affect during meditation were associated with improvements in distress at posttest and follow-up. Change in positive affect was a stronger predictor of distress at follow-up than change in negative affect. CONCLUSIONS Despite notions embedded within mainstream mindfulness meditation training that deemphasize the importance of the affective experience of practice (i.e., nonjudgmental awareness of present moment experience, regardless of valence), results indicate that these experiences contain signals associated with outcomes. Monitoring affect during meditation may be worthwhile to guide intervention delivery (i.e., measurement-based care, precision medicine). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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冥想的感觉重要吗？经验抽样研究。


目标 冥想应用程序是使用最广泛的心理健康应用程序。其影响的确切机制仍不清楚。特别是，冥想期间经历的影响与结果的相关程度尚未确定。方法 我们使用最近完成的一项随机对照试验的冥想应用程序部分，将自我引导冥想应用程序（健康心灵计划）与候补名单对照进行比较。主要处于痛苦状态的公立学校员工（n = 243，80.9% 患有临床抑郁症和/或焦虑症）报告了冥想练习期间的积极和消极影响。使用两级多元潜在增长曲线模型（嵌套在参与者内的观察）对数据进行分析，该模型同时关注积极和消极影响。我们检查了冥想期间的积极和消极影响是否随着时间的推移而变化，以及这些变化是否与测试后或 3 个月随访时的心理困扰（家长试验预先登记的主要结果）的变化有关。结果 平均而言，参与者报告说，随着时间的推移，冥想期间的负面情绪有所减少，但正面情绪没有变化。冥想期间积极情绪的增加和消极情绪的减少与后测和随访时痛苦的改善有关。积极情绪的变化比消极情绪的变化更能预测随访时的痛苦。结论 尽管主流正念冥想训练中嵌入的观念淡化了练习中情感体验的重要性（即对当下体验的非评判性意识，无论效价如何），但结果表明这些体验包含与结果相关的信号。 监测冥想期间的影响可能有助于指导干预实施（即基于测量的护理、精准医疗）。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。