Abstract

In this study, in order to examine the effects of LKCM program on psychological health such as depression, anxiety, stress, mindfulness, and self-compassion, 28 domestic articles and dissertations targeting healthy adults up to April 29, 2022 were selected and meta-analyzed. The case compared to the passive control group (e.g., wait-list control) and the case compared to the active control group (e.g., mindfulness meditation, yoga, and other psychotherapy) were analyzed separately, and the moderating variables were the quality of the study, publication status, the average age and gender ratio in the experimental group, the number of people in the program subgroup, practitioner's expertise and the total intervention time (minutes), the total intervention period (weeks), the total number of sessions, whether or not assignments are given, and the subject of loving-kindness & compassion (LKC). Compared with passive control, LKCM program had a large effect size for depression, g = 1.161, a medium effect size for mindfulness, g = .757, a large effect size for self-compassion, g = .823. As a result of the moderating effect analysis, the difference in effect size according to the object of LKC in mindfulness and self-compassion was significant, mindfulness: p = .029; self-compassion: p = .041. In other words, the program including self-compassion meditation and other-compassion meditation showed higher levels of mindfulness than the program focusing only on other-compassion meditation, and the program focusing on self-compassion meditation showed higher levels of self-compassion than the program focusing on other-compassion meditation. On the other hand, when compared with active control, LKCM program did not show a significant effect size for mindfulness and self-compassion. Additionally, the control group types were integrated and analyzed for anxiety and stress, which were insufficient in the number of studies. As a result, both anxiety and stress had midium effect sizes, anxiety: g = .709; stress: g = .557. Moderation effect analysis was not performed due to the insufficient number of studies per variable. As a result of performing sensitivity analysis in relation to the quality of the study and whether it was a standardized program, it was found that the large effect size of self-compassion dropped to a medium effect size when the cases of the standardized program were excluded. Overall, the risk of publication bias was not high. Based on the results of this study, major implications and suggestions for future research were discussed.