Review
Mindfulness-based meditation to decrease stress and anxiety in college students: A narrative synthesis of the research

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2015.12.004Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Narrative review of mindfulness meditation on stress/anxiety in college students.

  • Shows promise decreasing stress/anxiety of college students, but not conclusive.

  • Significant gaps in the literature need addressed before conclusion can be drawn.

  • Effects of and relationships between trait/state mindfulness should be examined.

  • Differences in intervention/participant characteristics should be examined.

Abstract

Objective

The primary purpose of this paper was to narratively review the research testing the effects of mindfulness meditation on stress and anxiety in the college students; reviewing the inclusion of mindfulness was a secondary purpose.

Methods

A literature search resulted in 57 studies on the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation in reducing stress and anxiety in college students.

Conclusions

Researchers examined anxiety in 40 studies, self-reported stress in 34, physiological stress in 11, and mindfulness in 24. Thirty-three of 40 and 25 of 34 studies showed significant decreases in anxiety and stress respectively; 22 of 24 showed an increase in mindfulness. Physiological stress had inconsistent results indicating a need for further research. Overall, mindfulness meditation shows promise in reducing stress and anxiety in college students. Additionally, there are a number of differences in mindfulness interventions including frequency, duration, instructional method, and inclusion of yoga, that need quantitative examination (meta-analysis) to determine which is most effective.

Introduction

Transition to college requires emerging adults to adapt to new environments, social situations, academic workload, and much more. As students attempt to acclimate to new environments and situations, stress and anxiety often occur. Mindfulness meditation (MM) is a meditative practice that encourages focus and attention. Recently mindfulness-based interventions have been widely applied in research and integrated into college programs with the expectancy that they provide effective coping strategies for students who are under considerable stress to be successful.

Currently there are no narrative reviews on MM in college students. Therefore, we conducted a narrative review of MM interventions used to reduce college student stress and anxiety.

Section snippets

Stress

Stress is the perception that a situation or event exceeds coping resources (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Students can experience stress from living away from their caregivers for the first time, changing social lives, and challenging experiences of higher learning. Stress at low levels can be beneficial, motivating students to perform well and preserve their mental and physical well-being. However, a majority of college students (53.5%) reported that their stress was above average or extreme.

Search strategies

We searched several databases through 2014, including PsychINFO (1967+), PsychARTICLES (1894+), MEDLINE (1946+), CINAHL (1981+), Scopus (1832+), PubMed (1946+), Cochrane (1993+), Proquest Dissertation and Theses, Campbell Library (2000+), ERIC (1966+), Education Source (1929+), Academic Search Complete (1887+), Educators Reference Complete (1932+). Structured language search terms were used to gather as many potential articles as possible, which included; “mindful*” AND “college OR universit*”

Theory and research

Theory serves to characterize and articulate central concepts (Walker & Avant, 2005) and to guide research and generate new knowledge. While theory is critical, often researchers do not mention a theoretical framework in their published studies. Likewise in this review, few researchers mentioned using a theoretical framework. Of the 57 studies included in this review, in a mere 12 studies researchers reported a theoretical framework. The most common of these was the Transactional Model of

Discussion

Although mindfulness interventions look promising, much more must be known before conclusions can be made. Most researchers reported significant decreases in stress and anxiety suggesting that MBSR and MM were successful in reducing college students’ perceived stress and anxiety. MBSR was reported as effective in decreasing stress in 73% and anxiety in 100% of the studies reviewed. Mindfulness was increased in 85% of the 7 studies where it was included as an outcome. MM was reported as

Conclusion

This is the first large narrative review of 57 articles that were solely focused on the college student population. Both MBSR and MM intervention outcomes indicate encouraging results in reducing stress and anxiety in college students. Out of the 40 studies that examined anxiety; researchers reported significant reductions in 33 of those. Research teams in the remaining seven studies reported downward trends. Self-reported stress was an outcome in 38 studies and researchers reported significant

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank Drs. Helen Lach and Rebecca Lorenz who reviewed earlier drafts of this manuscript.

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