Overview

This study is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the four-week Healthy Minds Program (HMP) app Foundations training in employees of a mid-size urban school district in the United States during the summer of 2020, in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. A 3-month follow-up in the fall of 2020 will also be conducted.

Participants will be recruited via email and mailed postcards, and will first complete an online screen. Eligible participants will then enter a waiting zone for between 2-days and 2-weeks before they are sent the online pre-test. Upon completion of the pre-test, participants will be assigned to condition via a simple random number generator. If assigned to the intervention (i.e., the Healthy Minds Program App), participants will receive instructions and support in downloading and activating the app. Every 7-days over the 4-week intervention period participants in both conditions will complete the same set of measures. A full battery of measures will be administered a second time post-test, following the 4-week intervention period. Three-months after post-test, a follow-up assessment will be conducted.

The investigators predict that participants assigned to the intervention will demonstrate significantly reduced psychological distress after the intervention, and these decreases will persist at the 3-month follow-up. Further, it is hypothesized that baseline participant characteristics and early experience of the intervention will predict treatment adherence, study drop-out and outcomes, and that treatment engagement will moderate outcomes.

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Ages 18 years old and up
• School district employee
• Smartphone or device that can download apps from Google Play or the iTunes app store

Exclusion Criteria:

• Individuals under 18 years old
• Significant meditation experience:
  1. Meditation retreat experience (meditation retreat or yoga/body practice retreat with significant meditation component),
  2. Regular meditation practice weekly for over 1 year OR daily practice within the previous 6 months; or
  3. Previous use of the HMP app.
• Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) depression score > 70