Mindfulness → prosocial behaviour
Intervention studies from a systematic review and meta-analysis of the link between mindfulness and prosocial behaviour. Interventions are mindfulness, loving-kindness, or self-compassion trainings; outcomes are behavioural or self-reported prosociality, compared against waitlist or active control conditions.
Donald, J. N., Sahdra, B. K., Van Zanden, B., Duineveld, J. J., Atkins, P. W. B., Marshall, S. L., & Ciarrochi, J. (2019). Does your mindfulness benefit others? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the link between mindfulness and prosocial behaviour. British Journal of Psychology, 110(1), 101–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12338
Pooled effects
Estimates as published in Table 2 of the source article (multilevel random-effects models; all effects p < .001). Not recomputed.
| Subgroup | Studies | Effects | N | d | 95% CI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intervention type | |||||
| Mindfulness-only | 13 | 30 | 2,834 | 0.53 | [0.33, 0.72] |
| Mindfulness-plus (adds prosocial-emotion training) | 9 | 11 | 587 | 0.51 | [0.32, 0.69] |
| Measure of prosocial behaviour | |||||
| Self-report | 5 | 6 | 264 | 0.61 | [0.35, 0.88] |
| Observer-report | 17 | 35 | 3,157 | 0.48 | [0.32, 0.64] |
| Relationship with recipient | |||||
| Known person | 5 | 10 | 722 | 0.49 | [0.22, 0.79] |
| Stranger | 14 | 28 | 2,577 | 0.49 | [0.33, 0.66] |
| Age | |||||
| Childhood (<12) | 2 | 7 | 631 | 0.55 | [0.39, 0.71] |
| Adolescence (12–18) | 3 | 8 | 708 | 0.34 | [0.13, 0.56] |
| Emerging adult (18–25) | 5 | 13 | 1,028 | 0.43 | [0.36, 0.50] |
| Adult (25+) | 8 | 9 | 736 | 0.68 | [0.37, 1.00] |
| Gender | |||||
| Mixed gender (33–66% female) | 10 | 21 | 1,995 | 0.52 | [0.27, 0.77] |
| Majority female (66%+) | 7 | 15 | 1,108 | 0.54 | [0.48, 0.61] |
| Intervention intensity | |||||
| Less than 1 hour | 6 | 18 | 2,033 | 0.54 | [0.25, 0.82] |
| 1–10 hours | 7 | 13 | 1,034 | 0.51 | [0.34, 0.69] |
| More than 10 hours | 7 | 9 | 321 | 0.55 | [0.30, 0.81] |
| Control condition type | |||||
| Waitlist | 10 | 15 | 832 | 0.40 | [0.23, 0.57] |
| Non-specific active | 7 | 14 | 1,582 | 0.52 | [0.25, 0.78] |
| Specific active | 7 | 12 | 1,007 | 0.53 | [0.36, 0.71] |
| Allocation to condition | |||||
| Non-randomized | 4 | 5 | 226 | 0.40 | [0.38, 0.83] |
| Randomized | 17 | 36 | 3,195 | 0.53 | [0.37, 0.68] |
Data
Standardized CSV of the intervention effects coded in the authors' analysis dataset (32 effects from 20 studies).
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