Online Mindfulness Meditation Training and Academic Performance: A Replication and Extension

Last registered on April 30, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Online Mindfulness Meditation Training and Academic Performance: A Replication and Extension
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015857
Initial registration date
April 22, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
April 30, 2025, 8:41 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

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Primary Investigator

Name
Mira Fischer
Affiliation
WZB Berlin Social Science Center
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Lea Cassar
PI Affiliation
University of Regensburg
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PI Name
Vanessa Valero
PI Affiliation
Institut Mines-Télécom – Business School
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-04-23
End date
2026-10-31
Keywords
Education, Health
Additional Keywords
academic performance, online mindfulness meditation training, mental health, field experiment
JEL code(s)
I21, C93, I12, I31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study replicates and extends our previous field experiment titled "Keep Calm and Carry On: Immediate- vs. Six-Month Effects of Mindfulness Training on Academic Performance" (AEA RCT registry number AEARCTR-0004197). The original study, conducted at the University of Cologne, found that in-person mindfulness training significantly improved students' mental health and non-cognitive skills. Importantly, while academic performance marginally declined immediately following the training, it significantly improved six months after the intervention.
This second study explores whether an online version of the same Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program can replicate these effects among university students at the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin). Among subjects who indicated interest in participating in an online mindfulness meditation course, it is randomly determined who receives access to the training and who does not. The course consists of eight weekly online sessions with an experienced and certified MBSR teacher and daily individual exercises. Unlike the in-person format used in the original study, this online version is fully remote and designed to be scalable and accessible, reflecting the post-pandemic shift in higher education delivery methods.
Pre- and post-intervention grade information from the university’s administrative records will be used to assess whether the intervention improves academic performance. Additionally, online surveys administered at baseline, post-intervention, and six months later will allow us to explore potential channels through which the intervention may affect academic outcomes. These include mental health (stress, anxiety and depression), mindfulness, cognitive skills, study behavior, and health behavior, as well as newly introduced exploratory variables such as academic motivation, life priorities, time allocation, present orientation, activity energy demand, locus of control and life satisfaction.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Cassar, Lea, Mira Fischer and Vanessa Valero. 2025. "Online Mindfulness Meditation Training and Academic Performance: A Replication and Extension." AEA RCT Registry. April 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15857-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Treatment group: Participants assigned to the treatment group will be invited to take part in an 8-week online mindfulness course based on the standardized Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) protocol. The course will include weekly live sessions led by experienced meditation instructors, covering practices such as guided meditation, body scan, and mindful movement. In addition, participants will be encouraged to engage in daily home practice throughout the program.
Control Group: Participants in the control group will not receive any intervention.
Intervention Start Date
2025-05-26
Intervention End Date
2025-07-18

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Participants’ academic performance, as measured by their weighted mean exam grade obtained at the end of the summer semester and at the end of the subsequent winter semester.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Participants’ academic performance will be assessed using their university grade records from exams taken during the exam period at the end of the summer semester and during the exam period at the end of the winter semester. Grades will be weighted by ECTS credits obtained for the respective module and then averaged per exam period.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
We investigate the potential channels through which the meditation course may influence academic performance. As in the original study, we measure a range of relevant variables, including stress, anxiety, depression, mindfulness, cognitive skill (focus), self-control, study and exam behavior, health behavior, and meditation practice.
In Study 2, we expand the set of potential mechanisms by additionally measuring variables such as academic motivation, life priorities, time allocation, activity energy demand, present orientation, life satisfaction, and locus of control.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
We focus on variables that we know from the literature (i) are influenced by meditation, and (ii) are relevant for academic performance.
Measures:
- stress: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
- anxiety: Generalized Anxiety Disorder - 7 (GAD-7)
- depression: Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9)
- mindfulness: adapted from the mindfulness scale of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS)
- self-control: Brief Self-Control Scale
- focus: Stroop task (incentivized)
- study and exam behavior
- health behavior
- meditation practice: questions related to frequency and quality of meditation practice
- academic motivation
- life priorities: ratings of importance across life domains
- time allocation: self-reported hours per weekday spent on key activities
- activity energy demand: perceived mental/physical effort required for activities
- time orientation: present vs. future orientation
- life satisfaction: overall life satisfaction
- locus of control: perceived control over life outcomes

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
A free online mindfulness meditation course will be advertised to students of TU Berlin, who will be able to apply by registering and filling out a questionnaire online. Students will be informed that the number of available places is limited, and they will provide informed consent for their academic records to be used for research purposes.
Eligible students will be randomly assigned to either the treatment or the control group. The treatment group will participate in an eight-week online mindfulness program led by a certified instructor and will be provided with materials to support independent home practice. All participants (treatment and control) will be asked to complete three online surveys: one at baseline (before randomization and intervention), one immediately after the intervention, and one six months later.
Academic performance will be assessed using data from the university’s administrative records. Specifically, we will collect participants’ grades from three time periods: all grades in the current study program before the intervention (baseline grades), immediately after the intervention (summer main exam period), and six months after the intervention (winter main exam period). This will allow us to study both the short-term and longer-term effects of the online mindfulness training on academic outcomes.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Eligible applicants will be randomly assigned to treatment or control group at the individual level. Randomization will be blocked on program of study, year of study, gender, and baseline stress. Re-randomization will be used to ensure that all relevant outcome measures are balanced at baseline.
Randomization Unit
Randomization is performed at the individual level.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
8 online meditation courses in the treatment group
Sample size: planned number of observations
We plan to recruit at least 364 participants to account for expected attrition and ensure adequate statistical power for both primary academic outcomes. Based on attrition in the first study, we expect a final sample of approximately 278 students for immediate academic outcomes and 232 students for six-month academic outcomes. In case of a higher number of applications, we plan to accommodate as many requests as possible up to 35 students per course, meaning a total sample size of up to 560 students, 280 of whom are treated.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We plan to assign at least 182 participants to the treatment group and 182 participants to the control group. Treatment group participants will attend one of 8 parallel meditation courses.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Based on power analysis and assuming we can pool the data with the previous study, we estimate a minimum detectable effect size (MDES) of approximately 0.28 standard deviations for immediate academic performance and 0.33 standard deviations for six-month academic performance, using value-added models and two-sided t-tests at the 5% significance level with 80% power. These estimates account for attrition rates of 14% (immediate grades) and 36% (six-month grades) observed in the previous study.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Berlin Social Science Center Research Ethics Board
IRB Approval Date
2025-04-22
IRB Approval Number
2025/03/290
Analysis Plan