# Smartphone-based meditation training to reduce adolescent depression

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2024 · $135,370

## Abstract

Project Summary / Abstract
Despite robust evidence that (a) depression rises precipitously during adolescence, (b) mental health during
adolescence predicts lifelong trajectories, and (c) meditation-based interventions (MBIs) reduce depressive
symptoms, access to and research on MBIs in adolescent populations is limited. Mobile health (mHealth)
delivery of MBIs offers the promise of accessibility, affordability, and personalization. Research on mHealth
MBIs in adults indicates these programs are feasible, acceptable, safe, and effective in reducing depressive
symptoms. Coupled with advances in ambulatory assessment of behavior and psychophysiology (i.e., personal
sensing data) through wearable devices, mHealth and personal sensing data represent a new frontier in
intervention research and mental health care. Although mHealth technologies are ubiquitous for today’s
adolescents, there is virtually no research on mHealth MBIs in adolescents and no research integrating
mHealth MBI delivery with personal sensing data. The proposed Career Development Award begins to
address this knowledge gap by developing the candidate’s skills to conduct research involving clinical
adolescent samples, personal sensing data, and advanced mediation methods to identify mechanisms of
change. This new training will be leveraged to study, in a sample of 150 adolescents with elevated depressive
symptoms, the impact of a mHealth MBI that has strong preliminary evidence of efficacy. Participants will be
randomly assigned to the mHealth MBI or to a wait-list control condition. Aim 1 will assess the feasibility,
acceptability, and safety of the 8-week mHealth MBI in depressed adolescents. Aim 2 will preliminarily assess
program efficacy in reducing depressive symptoms. Aim 3 will characterize psychological (i.e., perseverative
thinking, cognitive distancing, loneliness), behavioral (i.e., social isolation via geolocation data), and
psychophysiological (i.e., sleep quality and heart rate metrics via wearable) mediator effects on depressive
symptoms using advanced structural equation modeling methods. These methods will provide preliminary
evidence of intervention efficacy while potentially identifying mechanisms of change at multiple levels of
analysis, providing critical data for planning future, large-scale randomized controlled trials. All aims will be
supported by didactic, experiential, and mentored training in the fundamentals of clinical research through the
NIH-funded Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) and the Center for Healthy Minds. Aim 3
will be facilitated by new training in personal sensing data and advanced mediation methods, supported by a
mentor team with extensive expertise in these domains. Combined, the research aims and training goals of this
project seek to promote the development of accessible, acceptable, safe, and effective mHealth MBIs for the
treatment and ultimately prevention of adolescent depression. This award will enable the ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10884328
- **Project number:** 5K01MH130752-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Matthew Hirshberg
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $135,370
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-07-07 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10884328

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10884328, Smartphone-based meditation training to reduce adolescent depression (5K01MH130752-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10884328. Licensed CC0.

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