Recruiting

Meditation App

Sponsor:

University of Illinois at Chicago

Code:

NCT06997120

Conditions

Behavioral Health

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 13 - 20

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Bodhi AIM (intervention group)

HIB (control group)

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goals of this hybrid type 2 randomized controlled trial (RCT) are to evaluate the effectiveness and individual-level implementation of a 1-month app-based meditation program with youth on probation in Cook County, IL. The primary questions it is designed to answer are:

1. Is the meditation app associated with improvements in behavioral health outcomes including cannabis use problems?
2. Do improvements in emotion regulation appear to mediate the effects of the meditation app on these behavioral health outcomes?
3. Will youth adequately adhere to the meditation app?

Conditions

Behavioral Health

Study ID

NCT06997120

Start date

Jun 5, 2025

Status verified date

Mar, 2026

Completion date

May 31, 2029

Anticipated

Primary completion date

May 31, 2029

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 13 - 20

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 13-20 years old
  • In probation programming (i.e., in legal programming but not detained) in Cook County
  • Have access to an Apple/Android smartphone
  • Understand and provide assent/consent
  • Have legal guardian permission (if under 18 years old)
  • English-speaking, due to norming of instruments

Study Design

Enrollment

300 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Prevention

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Bodhi AIM

Participants randomized to the intervention arm will receive the Bodhi AIM meditation app.

active comparator: HIB

Participants randomized to the active control arm will receive the HIB health promotion app.

Interventions

Bodhi AIM (intervention group)

AIM (Action In Mindfulness) is a smartphone app that teaches users to establish a daily meditation practice via a 30-day "path," with each day consisting of a brief audio- or video-guided file. In addition to the 30 daily path files, users have access to a menu of "to go" audio-guided meditation practices that they may access any time to prepare for particular situations.

HIB (control group)

HIB (Health In Balance) is a smartphone app that is matched to AIM for time and structure, but includes health promotion content (e.g., educational information on substance use) in place of the meditation content featured in AIM. Like AIM, HIB includes a 30-day "path" of audio and video files, along with a menu of "to go" audio files that users may access any time to review key intervention concepts.

Primary outcome measure

  • Cannabis use problems [ Time Frame: baseline, 1 month, 6 months ]
  • App adherence [ Time Frame: 1 month ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Locations

University of Illinois at Chicago

Recruiting

Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60612

Contacts

Ashley D Kendall, PhD

312-355-1836akendall@uic.edu

Principal Investigator:

Ashley D Kendall, PhD

More Information

Sponsor

University of Illinois at Chicago

Last update posted

Mar 10, 2026

Last verified

Mar, 2026

Keywords

  • Juvenile legal system
  • Meditation
  • Mindfulness
  • Smartphone
  • Mobile health (mHealth)
  • Ecological momentary assessment (EMA)
  • Substance use
  • Mental health

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Illinois at Chicago on 2026-03-10.