Abstract:

Introduction: In the academic environment, negative emotional reactions and physical symptoms related to stress occur when curricular requirements outbalance the student's ability, resources, or needs [1]. It can cause negative consequences in concentration, memory, and problem solving, which affect academic success [2]. Therefore, it is important for college students learning how to manage stress while actively engaging with healthy challenges that promote growth [3]. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of an emotional balance training in the levels of anxiety, depression and mindfulness in college students. Method: A pretest/posttest design with 59 undergraduate and graduate female students (treatment group (TG): n = 27; control group (CG): n = 32) in a Brazilian public university was performed between October and December 2016. TG completed an 8-week program, 2 and half hours/week with the Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) based course [4] and Hatha Yoga exercises. All participants completed self-report questionnaires at baseline and after 8 weeks (Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)). Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed to all inventories, and clinical significance test, by Jacobson and Truax method [5], was used to analyze BAI and BDI results. Results: Cronbach’s α was 0.893, 0.890, 0.828 for BAI, BDI and MAAS, respectively. Anxiety (t (1,26) = 3.915; p = .001) and depression scores (t(26)= 4.170, p < .001) were significantly reduced at the posttest; 37.03% (n = 10) TG’s volunteers had a significant clinical improvement in anxiety (CS= 21.300; CI = 13.485; SE= 3.508), and 40,74% (n= 11) in depressive symptoms (CS =18.070; CI = 0.272; SE = 3,480). Results for MAAS (t(26) = -1.663; p = .108) was not significant in TG, although MAAS scores are higher in the posttest than pretest (pre = 53.52; post = 57.56). Conclusions: The CEB based course (CEB short version) associated to Hatha Yoga exercises were able to reduce the anxiety and depressive symptoms in college students. Although mindfulness scores were higher in posttest, no evidence was found at present study. Future researches are necessary to investigate the correlations among the constructs and over time.

Note: CS = clinical significance; CI = confidence interval; SE= standard error.

References:
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5. N. S. Jacobson and P. Truax. “Clinical Significance: a statistical approach to denning meaningful change in psychotherapy research”, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 12-19, 1991.

Keywords:

Stress, anxiety, depression, mindfulness, attention, college students, intervention.