Edu:Social Health Care Project Phase II is a non-randomized waitlist-controlled trial with sequential recruitment of the intervention and waitlist control groups (nrWLC), designed to evaluate the effects of a partner-based Dyad-based empathy-compassion mental training (EmCo) intervention on healthcare professionals with regard to following primary outcome domains: 1) mental health, 2) resilience, 3) social cohesion and support, 4) social skills, 5) coping and emotion regulation, and 6) social behaviors.
One main goal is to examine the effects of such adapted 8-week EmCo Dyad intervention within the health care context, with a particular focus on strengthening healthcare professionals' mental health, resilience, social skills and behaviors, and social cohesion as well as fostering interprofessional attitudes by pairing every week study partners across different healthcare disciplines with each other for practicing their daily Dyads (e.g., nurses will practice daily via app with medical doctors or midwives).
A further aim is to validate the novel Dyad Voice Assessment (DYVA) task, which explores the use of app-based voice recordings as indicators of healthcare professionals' emotional states during their daily partner-based Dyad practice. By combining healthcare professionals' self-reported practice-related emotions with partner-based evaluations, this approach aims to generate new and innovate, more objective markers of training-induced changes in emotional processing and regulation over time in a real-live applied setting.
The final aim is to investigate the cognitive and affective mechanisms and factors underlying observed changes in healthcare professionals' mental health, resilience, social cohesion, social skills and social behaviors, that may explain observed training-related effects in primary outcome domains. Based on previous research, we expect the socio-emotional EmCo Dyad training to activate evolutionary old care- and affiliation-based motivational systems that foster positive affect and motivation, acceptance, trust social capacities and behavioral tendencies. These processes should go along with reduction in loneliness, stress and other mental vulnerabilities (anxiety, depression, burn-out etc.) and foster social skills such as empathy, compassion as well as social cohesion and resilience.
Between 18- and 65-years old.
Currently practicing a healthcare profession in Germany or Austria 2a. Belongs to one of the eligible state-regulated professions with legally defined independent responsibility for patient care, including diagnosis, treatment, psychotherapy, maternity care, or the overall nursing process (e.g., physician, psychotherapist, midwife, or registered nurse).
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9 ; Martin et al., 2006 ; Löwe et al., 2004 ; Cutoff ≥ 15 ; or endorsing suicidality on the item 9),
Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7; Löwe et al., 2007; Spitzer et al., 2006; Cutoff ≥ 15)
Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20; Bagby et al., 1994; Ritz & Kannapin, 2000; Cutoff ≥ 61)
Standardized Assessment of Personality - Abbreviated Scale (SAPAS; Moran et al., 2003; Söchtig et al., 2012, Cutoff ≥ 4).
Parallel
Empathy- and compassion-based socio-emotional mental training (EmCo)
Behavioral1. Participants engage in a structured 13-minute partner-based contemplative exercise. Each dyad reflects on two experiences from the previous 24 hours: one involving a difficult emotion and one involving gratitude. Partners take turns speaking while the other listens non-judgmentally. During weeks 1-4, the practice emphasizes empathic listening; during weeks 5-8, compassionate listening. Participants are instructed to attend to bodily sensations associated with the emotions described. The practice aims to improve coping with difficult emotions, empathic and compassionate listening, (self)acceptance, compassion, gratitude, resilience. 2. Participants also attend eight 1.5-hour online group sessions led by Expert Dyad teachers. The coaching sessions help deepen the Dyad practice and educate participants about body language, coping better with difficult emotions/stress, the benefits of empathy versus compassion and the act of listening from a mindset of empathy versus compassion.
Non-randomized waitlist control group (nrWLC)
Other interventionParticipants in the control group will not receive the intervention. They will complete pre- and post-test procedures consisting primarily of self-report questionnaires, and behavioral tasks, as well as ecological momentary assessment (EMA) conducted on four days within two weeks at pre-test and post-test 1 \& 2.
Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21)
A scale measuring depression, anxiety, and stress (Henry \& Crawford, 2005; Nilges \& Essau, 2021). Higher scores indicate more depression, anxiety, and stress
Maslach burnout inventory-human services survey (MBI-HSS)
A scale measuring burnout (Maslach, 1996). Higher scores indicate more burnout.
UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA)
A scale measuring loneliness severity (Döring \& Bortz, 1993; Russell et al., 1980). Higher scores indicate more loneliness.
Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC)
A scale measuring psychological resilience (Connor \& Davidson, 2003; Sarubin et al., 2015). Higher scores indicate more resilience.
Positive Affect (Affect Grid) (explanatory mechanism)
Assessment of emotional state (valence) and arousal (Russell et al., 1989). Higher scores on valence and arousal indicate more positive affect and higher arousal.
Emotion Acceptance (EAQ) (explanatory mechanism)
A self-report questionnaire measuring emotional awareness, and acceptance of emotions (Beblo et al., 2011; Kisley et al., 2025).
Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-5-G) (explanatory mechanism)
A scale measuring gratitude (Hudecek et al., 2021; McCullough et al., 2002). Higher scores indicate more gratitude.
Self-Kindness Scale (SCS-SF) (explanatory mechanism)
A self-report questionnaire measuring self-kindness and compassionate attitudes toward oneself (Hupfeld \& Ruffieux, 2011; Raes et al., 2011). Higher scores indicate greater self-kindness.
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9; pre-screening)
A scale assessing depression (Löwe et al., 2004; Martin et al., 2006). Higher scores indicate more depression.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7; pre-screening)
A scale assessing generalized anxiety (Spitzer et al., 2006; Löwe et al., 2007). Higher scores indicate more anxiety.
Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20; pre-screening)
A scale assessing alexithymia (Bagby et al., 1994; Ritz \& Kannapin, 2000). Higher scores indicate more alexithymia.
Standardized Assessment of Personality - Abbreviated Scale (SAPAS; pre-screening)
A self-report scale used to screen personality disorders (Moran et al., 2003; Söchtig et al., 2012)
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