The Effect of Loving-Kindness Meditation on Mood and Anxiety Symptoms, Interpersonal Relationships, and Emotions: An Initial Randomized Controlled Trial With a Non-Clinical Sample of Undergraduate Women

Undergraduate women were recruited via the Queen's University psychology department'ssubject pool (n = 222) and online advertisements (i.e., Facebook; n = 18) in 2021;written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to any data collection.We randomly assigned participants‐via Microsoft Excel random number generation‐to engagein one‐week of either a targeted form of Loving‐Kindness Meditation or a visualizationmeditation. Participants identified a specific close friend at the beginning of the studyto be the target of their meditation practice. They completed baseline and one‐weekfollow‐up measures.Audio instructions for the LKM and visualization meditation conditions were developed forthis study based on those used by Seppala et al. (2014). Recordings were delivered viaemail. Descriptions of the conditions can be found in the Arms and Interventionssections.