Can Digital Group Meetings Enhance App-Based Mindfulness Training?

University students are experiencing more and more stress, which can negatively impact their mental health. Therefore, new ways are needed to address this issue. This study examined the effectiveness of an app-delivered mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training and a possible interaction with additional group meetings within a university setting. To this end, a randomized mixed experimental design was used to assess an 8-weeks MBSR course delivered via podcasts and supplemented by group meetings, either in video calls (VC) or a virtual reality (VR) environment. The intervention aimed to improve mental health, focusing on risk factors stress and loneliness as well as protective factors such as self-compassion and self-efficacy. Our results indicated partial overall effectiveness of the MBSR course, with significant reductions in stress experience and loneliness and increases in self-compassion, yet all at the facet level. Exploratory analyses revealed that group meetings enhanced mindfulness, which in turn contributed to stress reduction, but the relationships of VR immersion and stress reduction yielded mixed results. Therefore, our findings give novel insights into how the specific positive effects of an MBSR course might interact with digital group meetings, which could pave the way for further research with optimized intervention settings.