Topic: Anxiety, Depression, Emotional Competency, Life Stress, Sleep
Target Population: Adults, Adolescents, Middle Childhood
Sector: Community-Based
This program is for youth who are 3 to 18 years old and adults.
Headspace, a mindfulness-meditation app, is designed to help improve sleep quality and focus, decrease stress and anxiety, and foster self-improvement in participants.
Many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Headspace app, and short-term results have been promising. One RCT conducted among healthcare workers indicated improvements in the intervention group in stress, depression, anxiety, well-being, mindfulness, self-compassion, and worry at a 3-month follow-up compared to an active control group. One RCT conducted among employees from two large companies in the United Kingdom indicated improvements in the intervention group in well-being, depression, and job strain at a 2-month follow-up compared to a control group. An RCT among college students indicated small improvements in the intervention group in distress and college adjustment at the end of the semester compared to a control group. One RCT was conducted among women who were diagnosed with breast cancer and found significant improvements in quality of life and dispositional mindfulness at a 1-month follow-up compared to a control group. One RCT conducted among medical students indicated improvements in the intervention group in perceived stress and well-being at a 1-month follow-up compared to a control group.
Headspace content is divided into the following sections:
In addition to meditation sessions, the app includes “SOS” sessions that address stronger feelings of panic or being overwhelmed or in pain. Users can complete monthly check-ins regarding anxious or stressful events and view their progress over time.
Headspace for Kids and Headspace for Teens are two options within the app that provide content for children who are 3 to 12 years old and adolescents who are 13 to 18 years old.
Headspace for Work is also available for organizations and includes employee assistance program (EAP) services, therapy, medication management, coaching, and mindfulness.
Headspace was founded in 2010, and the first version of the Headspace app was launched in 2012. The app is used in 190 countries and has had 70 million downloads across all platforms since that time.
Training is not required or available for implementation of this app as it is self-administered.
Considerations for using this app include acquiring participant buy-in, ensuring that participants have a mobile device that can run the Headspace app and internet access, finding time to engage in the app, and realizing that results are dependent upon how much time a person chooses to engage with the app.
The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email clearinghouse@psu.edu
If you are interested in implementing the Headspace app, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you! Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email clearinghouse@psu.edu
Headspace contains courses that consist of 10 to 30 sessions each and single exercises that last 1 to 20 minutes each. The frequency, dose, and timing of engagement with the app and its content and use of various features are self-selected by each user and self-paced.
Different implementation plans are available for this app, and they include the following: annual, monthly, family, student, and teens. In addition, there are implementation options for employers and consultants, and the app can be used within many healthcare plans. Please use details in the Contact section to learn more.
To move the Headspace app to the Promising category on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence, at least one evaluation should be performed lasting at least one year from the beginning of the program or at least six months from program completion.
The Clearinghouse can help you develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email clearinghouse@psu.edu
Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program. Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: clearinghouse@psu.edu
You may also contact Headspace by visiting https://www.headspace.com/contact-us
https://www.headspace.com/ and Taylor, Cavanagh, Field and Strauss (2022)
Bostock, S., Crosswell, A. D., Prather, A. A., & Steptoe, A. (2019). Mindfulness on-the-go: Effects of a mindfulness meditation app on work stress and well-being. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 24(1), 127-138. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000118
Flett, J. A. M., Conner, T. S., Riordan, B. C., Patterson, T., & Hayne, H. (2020). App-based mindfulness meditation for psychological distress and adjustment to college in incoming university students: A pragmatic, randomised, waitlist-controlled trial. Psychology & Health, 35(9), 1049-1074. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2019.1711089
Keng, S., Chin, J. W. E., Mammadova, M., & Teo, I. (2022). Effects of mobile app-based mindfulness practice on healthcare workers: A randomized active controlled trial. Mindfulness, 13(11), 2691-2704. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-022-01975-8
Rosen, K. D., Paniagua, S. M., Kazanis, W., Jones, S., & Potter, J. S. (2018). Quality of life among women diagnosed with breast cancer: A randomized waitlist controlled trial of commercially available mobile app‐delivered mindfulness training. Psycho-Oncology, 27(8), 2023-2030. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.4764
Taylor, H., Cavanagh, K., Field, A. P., & Strauss, C. (2022). Health care workers' need for headspace: Findings from a multisite definitive randomized controlled trial of an unguided digital mindfulness- based self-help app to reduce healthcare worker stress. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 10(8), e31744-e31744. https://doi.org/10.2196/31744
Yang, E., Schamber, E., Meyer, R. M., & Gold, J. I. (2018). Happier healers: Randomized controlled trial of mobile mindfulness for stress management. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 24(5), 505-513.
Mani, M., Kavanagh, D. J., Hides, L., & Stoyanov, S. R. (2015). Review and evaluation of mindfulness-based iPhone apps. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 3(3), e82-e82. https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.4328
O'Daffer, A., Colt, S. F., Wasil, A. R., & Lau, N. (2022). Efficacy and conflicts of interest in randomized controlled trials evaluating headspace and calm apps: Systematic review. JMIR Mental Health, 9(9), e40924-e40924. https://doi.org/10.2196/40924
Wasil, A. R., Palermo, E. H., Lorenzo-Luaces, L., & DeRubeis, R. J. (2022). Is there an app for that? A review of popular apps for depression, anxiety, and well-being. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 29(4), 883-901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2021.07.001
