Mindfulness Matters: Supporting Student Experiences Across Higher Education During Times of Stress

Overview: This poster will share brief mindfulness activities developed for classroom use, and results of this study on the benefits of using brief mindfulness activities at the start of class with college students: decreasing stress, improving mindfulness and well-being, supporting transition to class and increasing sense of connection and community.Proposal text: This study explored whether starting university classes with a brief (under 5 minutes) mindfulness activity demonstrates positive effects on students’ sense of well-being in the classroom, and on class dynamics as a whole, among a university population (undergraduate, graduate, and professional students across various majors including social work).

Pretest surveys were administered at the beginning of the semester prior to starting the activities, and post-test surveys were administered after courses finished at the end of the semester. Students completed self-report standardized measures of perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale, the individual’s perceived stress in the past 2 weeks), well-being (WHO-5 well-being scale about current mental well-being), and mindfulness (CAMS-R, the Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale Revised about different aspects of mindfulness). Students also provided extended text responses as part of the post-test assessment.

133 students completed either the study’s pre-test or post-test, and 18 students completed both pre- and post-test surveys. Across all groups, female students comprised over 60% of the sample, and the majority of participating students were seeking undergraduate degrees. Students were primarily between 18 and 22 years old, and most identified as white.

After applying the Bonferonni correction for multiple tests, results from repeated-measures t-tests indicated that students’ (n = 18) mindfulness was, on average, significantly higher after mindfulness program participation (M = 28.83, SD = 4.06) compared to before (M = 25.61, SD = 4.65); t(17) = 2.76, p = 0.0134. No significant differences were observed in mean level of stress, t(16) = -2.60, p = 0.0192, or well-being, t(16) = 2.35, p = 0.0320. Due to concerns of low power consequent of the small sample of students who reported both pre-test and post-test scores, Welch independent samples t-tests were additionally run to assess whether students (n = 90) who were assessed prior to potential participation in mindfulness programming reported different mean levels of mindfulness, stress, and well-being compared to a separate group of students (n = 43) who were assessed after having participated in mindfulness programming. Results indicated that, compared to students who had not yet participated, students who had participated in mindfulness programming reported higher average levels of mindfulness, t(79.47) = 4.26, p = 0.0001, and lower average levels of stress, t(74.19) = -3.23, p = 0.0019. No significant differences were observed for students’ well-being, t(95.90) = 2.32, p = 0.0225.

To better understand students’ experiences of engaging in mindfulness exercises during the semester, we also employed reflexive thematic analysis to examine students’ post-test extended responses. Two coders independently analyzed students’ qualitative responses and jointly identified four primary and interrelated themes. Students expressed 1) overarching positive appraisals of and appreciation for the mindfulness exercises, which 2) served as a welcome mental transition into class time and 3) facilitated a sense of centering and resetting before learning, and students thus saw 4) mindfulness programming as a key factor in reducing their stress and overwhelm both inside and outside of class.