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Abstract Despite existing wellbeing services, university students remain particularly vulnerable to mental health difficulties. Recently, mindfulness-based practice and attachment security priming paradigms are evidenced to improve psychological wellbeing. This study comparatively examined immediate and sustained therapeutic potential of a digitally delivered repeated attachment priming and mindfulness-based practice protocol in improving student mental health deployed over a one-week period. Using a randomised controlled design, N=122 UK undergraduate students were equally allocated to one of three conditions: repeated security priming, mindfulness practice, or waitlist control. After completing measures of perceived stress, insomnia, and emotion regulation at baseline, experimental treatment groups completed five consecutive days of attachment priming or mindfulness-based practice. All groups completed the same questionaries: on immediate completion of day five (T2); four weeks post-completion (T3). Relative to controls, students receiving treatment displayed significant improvements in perceived stress, insomnia symptoms, emotion regulation, and drop-out intention at T3 compared to baseline. Attachment priming yielded the most promising improvements compared to mindfulness-based practice. We add to the literature emphasizing the need for improvements and novel therapeutic additions to current practices of counselling and student support services in higher education. Here, digital delivery of mindfulness practice and attachment priming may serve as an adjunct or standalone alternate for institutions failing to provide students with an adequate degree of support within a timely manner.
Stevenson et al. (Wed,) studied this question.