A Brief Mindfulness Intervention for Healthy College Students and Its Effects on Psychological Distress, Self-Control, Meta-Mood, and Subjective Vitality

This study investigated the effects of a 6-week adapted mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention on the psychological health and well-being of college students. The experimental group participants were students and faculty (N = 19) who signed up for the mindfulness-based class, and the control group participants (N = 25) were interested in the class but were unable to sign up in time to enroll. Participants were surveyed three times on a range of self-report psychological variables including symptoms of psychological distress, emotional awareness, self-control, day-to-day mindfulness, and subjective vitality. A control group took the same surveys but did not receive any treatment. The adapted-MBSR intervention significantly reduced psychological distress in the experimental group participants as compared to the control group (p = .027, η ² = .161) and significantly increased self reported mindful awareness (p = .028, η ² = .160), self-control (p = .007, η ² = .216), and subjective vitality (p = .001, η ² = .293), while meta-mood was not affected (p = .314, η ² = .055). We concluded that MBSR has wide-ranging positive effects on college students, and would be beneficial as a campus stress reduction and preventative mental health intervention.