Objectives

The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a global mental health challenge that has disrupted the lives of millions of people, with a considerable effect on university students. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of a brief online Mindfulness and Compassion-based Intervention to promote mental health among first year university students during COVID-19 home confinement.

Methods

Participants (n=66) were first-year psychology students from a university in Spain with no prior meditation experience. Intervention lasted for 16 days and was designed ad-hoc. Using a pre–post within-subjects design, feasibility was assessed in five domains (acceptability, satisfaction, implementation, practicality, and limited efficacy testing). Participants completed both baseline and post-intervention assessments of perceived stress, anxiety, and self-compassion.

Results

The intervention showed to be feasible in all domains evaluated. It was implemented as planned with constrained resources, and limited efficacy testing showed promising results. After the intervention, stress and anxiety levels decreased significantly (p<0.001, Hedges’s g=0.5146; p<0.001, Hedges’s g=0.6068, respectively) whereas self-compassion levels were augmented significantly (p<0.001, Hedges’s g=0.6968).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that a brief online mindfulness and compassion intervention may be a feasible way of promoting mental health among university students during COVID-19 lockdown. Further studies are required to address the limitations of the present study. We conclude that online interventions may constitute a promising pathway to buffer the mental health burden derived from the COVID-19 pandemic.

中文翻译：

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在 COVID-19 大流行期间进行简短的在线正念和慈悲干预以促进大学生心理健康的可行性

目标

COVID-19 大流行构成了全球心理健康挑战，扰乱了数百万人的生活，对大学生产生了相当大的影响。本研究的目的是评估一个简短的在线正念和慈悲干预的可行性，以促进 COVID-19 居家隔离期间大学一年级学生的心理健康。

方法

参与者（n = 66）是来自西班牙一所大学的一年级心理学学生，之前没有冥想经验。干预持续了 16 天，是专门设计的。使用事前的受试者内设计，在五个领域（可接受性、满意度、实施、实用性和有限功效测试）评估了可行性。参与者完成了对感知压力、焦虑和自我同情的基线和干预后评估。

结果

干预显示在所有评估的领域都是可行的。它在资源有限的情况下按计划实施，有限的功效测试显示出有希望的结果。干预后，压力和焦虑水平显着下降（p <0.001，Hedges g=0.5146；p <0.001，Hedges g=0.6068），而自我同情水平显着增加（p <0.001，Hedges g=0.6968）。

结论

我们的研究结果表明，在 COVID-19 锁定期间，简短的在线正念和同情干预可能是促进大学生心理健康的一种可行方式。需要进一步的研究来解决本研究的局限性。我们得出的结论是，在线干预可能是缓解 COVID-19 大流行带来的心理健康负担的一条有希望的途径。