353 Stress & Mindfulness

Research by Galante, J., Dufour, G., Vainre, M., Wagner, P. N., Stochl, J., Benton, A., Lathia, N., Howarth, E., & Jones, P. B. (2017).

Written by Shannon Cantalupo, B.S.

Going to college can be taxing and stressful. Colleges have responded to the resulting increase in demand for mental health services for students.

English researchers examined if a mindfulness course within Cambridge University could improve students’ resilience to stress. Mindfulness is learning meditation, to relax and focus one’s full attention on the present moment, and accepting or noting all feelings and thoughts.  Studying over 600 college students, they assigned half to a Mindfulness Skills course plus mental health support and half received only mental health support. After a few months, they gave students a self-report measure to evaluate their current distress. The higher the number on the evaluation the more distress the student felt.

Results? Those that participated in the mindfulness course and received mental health support had lower distress scores than those who received only mental health support.

So, if you are a college student and you are beginning to feel stressed out, obtain mental health support and take a mindfulness skills course! Implementing these skills into every day and receiving mental health support will reduce your overall stress!

Reference:

Galante, J., Dufour, G., Vainre, M., Wagner, P. N., Stochl, J., Benton, A., Lathia, N., Howarth,   E., & Jones, P. B. (2017). A mindfulness-based intervention to increase resilience to stress in university students (the mindful student study): A pragmatic randomized controlled trail. Lancet Public Health, 3(2), 72-81.