Savoring meditation for emotional disorders: Targeting positive emotion regulation deficits

Abstract

Deficits in positive emotion regulation (PER) contribute to emotional disorders but are less studied than negative emotion regulation (NER). One maladaptive PER strategy, positive emotion contrast-seeking (PEC-seeking), involves sustaining negative affect to enhance later positive emotions, reinforcing anxiety and depression. This study developed and tested a savoring-based, transdiagnostic intervention to reduce PEC-seeking and alleviate emotional disorder symptoms. A single-blind RCT with 59 Chinese college students with elevated depression and anxiety (majority meeting depression criteria) compared a two-week group savoring meditation intervention to waitlist control. Changes in depression, anxiety, savoring beliefs, and PEC-seeking were assessed at Baseline (T0), MidTest (T1), PostTest (T2), and one-month Follow-up (T3). The experimental group also reported positive and negative affect before and after each group session and individual practice. Savoring meditation significantly reduced depression (T1, d = −1.11, p = .005; T2, d = −1.60, p < .001) with effects maintained at follow-up (T3, p < .001). Negative affect also declined significantly (Session 5, p < .001), though changes in positive affect were not statistically significant. The intervention increased savoring beliefs (T1, d = 1.42, T2, d = 1.41, ps =.003) and reduced PEC-seeking (T1, d = −0.92, p = .027), which in turn mediated reductions in depression. Although anxiety symptoms declined within the experimental group over time, between-group differences did not reach statistical significance. Nonetheless, the effect size was larger for the experimental group (T2, d = 0.34) than for the waitlist group (d = 0.01), suggesting a potential anxiolytic effect of the intervention. These findings suggest that targeting maladaptive PER strategies, especially PEC-seeking, via savoring meditation may effectively reduce emotional disorder symptoms. This study highlights PER’s role in transdiagnostic interventions and provides novel insights into PER-focused therapies.