Manual development and efficacy of Mindful Living Group activities to promote trauma healing during the COVID-19 pandemic in China

Abstract

Introduction:&nbsp;Disasters can be traumatic with a profound and lasting impact on individuals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our team developed the Mindful Living Group (MLG) activities manual based on Eastern body-mind wisdom and Western trauma healing theory to provide psychological assistance for trauma healing. Methods:&nbsp;In this study, we introduce a framework developed for the 10-session MLG activities manual, which consists of three core modules. Thirty-one participants living all over the country who had experienced traumatic stress resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic received the MLG intervention. This single-arm intervention study offered psychological assistance during the pandemic. The MLG intervention included 10 weekly 2-h sessions held online. Participants completed the initial interview, pre-test, post-test, and 1-month follow-up interviews. The effectiveness of the MLG activities manual was evaluated using psychological measures, including Self-Rating Depression Scale, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Post-traumatic Growth Inventory, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Perceived Social Support Scale. Results:&nbsp;Compared with the pretest level, the post-test levels of depression (F&nbsp;= 42.78,&nbsp;p&nbsp;&lt; 0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;= 0.59) and anxiety (F&nbsp;= 23.40,&nbsp;p&nbsp;&lt; 0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;= 0.44) were significantly lower; and mindfulness (F = 12.98,&nbsp;p&nbsp;=0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;=0.30), posttraumatic growth (F&nbsp;= 27.06,&nbsp;p&nbsp;&lt; 0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;= 0.48), general self-efficacy (F&nbsp;= 13.20,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;= 0.31), and perceived social support (F&nbsp;= 16.27,&nbsp;p&nbsp;&lt; 0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;= 0.35) were significantly higher (ANOVA). Further correlation analysis revealed a significant negative relationship of mindfulness with both depression (r&nbsp;= &minus;0.43,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.015) and anxiety (r&nbsp;= &minus;0.35,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.053), and significant positive relationships of mindfulness with posttraumatic growth (r&nbsp;= 0.40,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.025), general self-efficacy (r&nbsp;= 0.52,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.003), and perceived social support (r&nbsp;= 0.40,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.024). Discussion:&nbsp;These preliminary findings showed the effectiveness of MLG activities for trauma healing. The mechanisms underlying mindfulness promoting trauma healing are discussed based on both Eastern body-mind wisdom and Western theories of trauma healing.</p