Study Goals
The first aim of this RCT was to compare the effects of 2 brief app-delivered practice types. Specifically, attention-based, solitary mindfulness-based practices were compared with a novel socioemotional dyadic practice, Affect Dyad [In our preregistered hypotheses [With regard to the underlying processes of practice effects, we expected that, in the socioemotional training, an increase in compassion would be mediated by socioaffective and motivational processes such as an increase in acceptance and empathic listening and a decrease in empathic distress. Thus, changes in these mediators over time were expected to be significantly associated with changes in compassion from before to after the intervention. We further expected an increase in empathy to be mediated by an increase in mindfulness and interoceptive awareness. Thus, changes in these mediators over time were expected to be significantly associated with changes in empathy from before to after the intervention.