Culturally Responsive Stress Reduction: A Mobile Mindfulness Application to Support Health Promotion for African Americans - ABSTRACT
The proposed intervention, Culturally Responsible Stress Reduction: A Mobile Mindfulness Application to
Support Health Promotion for African Americans (CRSR), is designed to encourage the use of mindfulness to
mitigate the disproportionate amount of stress-related health disparities facing African Americans.1-3 Current
mindfulness approaches have been unsuccessful in engaging this population;19 therefore, we propose to bridge
this disparity by developing an mHealth (mobile health) mindfulness application (“app”) tailored specifically to
the cultural values of the African American community.
Mindfulness involves meditative practices that cultivate purposeful and nonjudgmental attention to current
thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations in the body. Mindfulness has been incorporated into widely-used
interventions, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).28 The CRSR app will be grounded in
ACT and will integrate the convenience of mobile technology with tailored content to allow users to shift from
potentially harmful culturally prescribed stress-coping activities (e.g., self-reliance, emotional suppression) to
adaptive mindfulness-based stress-coping activities aligned with culturally specific values. This integration of
content, backed by theory and empirical evidence, effective instructional delivery, an interdisciplinary
development team, and modern communication technology will produce an effective mHealth intervention.
The CRSR app features will include brief (< 3 minute) guided meditations to connect the user to the present
moment and a place of calm through culturally aligned exercises grounded in spirituality, orality, self-
empowerment, and resilience; daily notifications prompting users to reflect and engage with the app;
scheduled email messages on the importance mindfulness as a way increase control over physical and
psychological health; and user-customized alerts.
Phase I will focus on proof of concept, i.e., the feasibility and social acceptability of the CRSR app. In Phase
I we will develop a testable prototype that provides functionality for participants to practice mindfulness.
Testing will occur with 42 African American participants and will result in a minimally viable product prior to
full development and testing with a fully-powered RCT in Phase II. The final product will consist of a native
mobile application on Android and Apple IOS.
The applicant, IRIS Educational Media, has assembled a knowledgeable and experienced team of research
scientists, content and technology developers, and evaluation specialists to adequately realize this project. The
company has an established track record of developing and marketing technology-assisted public health
interventions.
