UC Santa Barbara

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability (F&A) of an online Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) intervention for same-sex attracted men with a range of bullying experiences. The intervention was closely modeled after the original 8-week MBCT protocol developed by Segal, Williams, and Teasdale (2013). The sample consisted of men who identified as gay or same-sex attracted, between the ages of 19 and 61, who resided in the United States. Due to high dropout rates, we were unable to complete the original goal of assessing the efficacy of the intervention. The F&A study utilized a follow-up survey designed to evaluate factors leading to high attrition in the efficacy study. Out of the 80 participants who completed at least the pretests in the efficacy study, 41 participants completed the F&A survey. The F&A study utilized descriptive, multinomial logistic regression, and chi-square test of independence quantitative analyses. Qualitative content analysis (Crowe, Inder, & Porter, 2015) was also used to evaluate positive and negative experiences of the training. Analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between various demographic characteristics and retention rates. Age, socioeconomic status, bullying status, and internalized homonegativity status did not appear to be related to retention rates. While ethnicity did not appear to be statistically associated with retention rates, a large effect size suggested that participants of color may have been more likely to drop out of the study compared to White participants. Findings from the F&A study showed that monetary compensation and session length might have served as barriers to completing the 8-week training. That is, there is evidence that increased pay and decreased session length and overall number of sessions may have led to higher retention rates. Data revealed that the most unfavorable aspects of the efficacy study were related to training content (e.g., training was perceived as boring or lacking value). There was also evidence to show that some participants had difficulty with training logistics (e.g., not being able to view videos or the efficacy sessions not being optimized for mobile technology). Overall, this study shows promising support for engaging in F&A research to inform the effective design and implementation of mindfulness and other wellness-based trainings, particularly for same-sex attracted men. Future research efforts should aim to inform the development and evaluation of efficacy studies, which can yield adequate retention rates.