Mindfulness for Emerging Adults Experiencing Anxious and/or Depressive Symptoms

A 5-week Mindfulness Program for Emerging Adults Experiencing Anxious and/or Depressive Symptoms

Emerging adults (EA; 18 to 29 years old) in Canada are among the age group with highest risk of developing mental health issues. Despite this, they experience especially long wait-times for mental health services. To date, there has been minimal research into developmentally appropriate treatment options for the EA population. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are emerging as a potential treatment to address this need. MBIs are group-based psychological treatments for coping with distress, with the goal of improving mental health. Unfortunately, these 'traditional' MBIs are very demanding in terms of time and homework and are therefore not sufficiently feasible for the demanding schedules of EA university students. Instead, recent studies suggest a role for briefer MBIs in addressing mental health symptom burden, well-being and reducing acute stress symptoms. The brevity of these interventions make them theoretically better suited for EA university populations. High quality research, including controlled clinical trials are needed to demonstrate whether MBIs can provide efficacious treatment to improve the lives of EA university students. The current study will test the efficacy of a five-week MBI baseline within-subject controlled trial.

Inclusion Criteria:

• consenting Emerging Adults
• Ability to communicate, in written and spoken English

Exclusion Criteria:

• Minimal depressive and anxious symptoms (score below 10 and 8 on the PHQ-9/GAD-7
• Current substance abuse or dependence, psychosis or mania
• Current self-injurious behavior of past suicide attempt
• Previously completed >4 weeks of an MBI, or general Cognitive behavioral Therapy, in the past 3 years