COVID-19 has led to mental health adversities worldwide. The current study examined whether daily practice of brief mindfulness training has a beneficial impact on affective well-being, and mitigates the negative impact of exposure to COVID-19 news during the pandemic. Participants were randomly assigned into a mindfulness training (MT) group or a waitlist control (WC) group. Participants in the MT group practiced guided mindfulness meditation for a minimum of 10 min each day for 10 days. Both groups completed questionnaires assessing well-being at baseline and after the 10-day period. We also included four ecological momentary assessments (EMA) interspersed throughout the day to measure fine-grained affective states and recent exposure to COVID-19-related news, which has been linked to negative affect. We observed an increase in positive affect in the MT group compared to the WC group in the post-training assessment. However, no group differences emerged in the other three post-training affective measures of negative affect, anxiety and depression. EMA revealed that the MT group also showed more positive affective valence than the WC group across the 10 days. Notably, the WC group reported more negative affective valence following COVID-19 news exposure, whereas the MT group was not impacted. Taken together, our study indicates brief sessions of guided mindfulness meditation during COVID-19 may boost positive affect and serve as a protective buffer against the negative impact of exposure to COVID-19-related news on affective well-being. These findings highlight the utility of mindfulness meditation as an accessible and cost-effective technique to elevate positive affect amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 已导致全球范围内的心理健康困境。目前的研究检查了简短的正念训练的日常实践是否对情感健康产生有益影响，并减轻在大流行期间接触 COVID-19 新闻的负面影响。参与者被随机分配到正念训练（MT）组或候补名单控制（WC）组。MT 组的参与者每天至少进行 10 分钟的引导式正念冥想，持续 10 天。两组都完成了评估基线和 10 天后的幸福感的问卷。我们还包括全天穿插的四项生态瞬时评估 (EMA)，以测量细粒度的情感状态和最近接触到的与负面影响有关的 COVID-19 相关新闻。在训练后评估中，我们观察到与 WC 组相比，MT 组的积极影响有所增加。然而，在负面影响、焦虑和抑郁的其他三个训练后情感测量中没有出现组间差异。EMA 显示 MT 组在 10 天内也表现出比 WC 组更积极的情感效价。值得注意的是，WC 组在 COVID-19 新闻曝光后报告了更多的负面情感效价，而 MT 组没有受到影响。综上所述，我们的研究表明，在 COVID-19 期间进行简短的引导正念冥想可以增强积极影响，并作为保护性缓冲，防止接触 COVID-19 相关新闻对情感健康产生负面影响。