Abstract:

The mental health and wellbeing of students in higher education institutions (HEIs) is subject to ongoing international discussion and debate. Higher education study presents a unique set of stressors, often at a transitionary period in students’ lives, and HEIs recognise the need for effective student support service provision to support students through these challenges. However, not all students experiencing study-related mental health difficulties seek, or are able to access, timely support to help manage this proactively. This may be due to a broad variety of reasons, including but not limited to: a lack of sufficient student support service provision; students’ minimisation of issues they are encountering; an unwillingness, or inability, to disclose mental health difficulties; a lack of insight or awareness of mental health difficulties and support services. This can contribute to students experiencing study-related burnout, avoidable distress, course drop-out, and in some cases, clinical anxiety or depression.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of higher education, the increasing popularity of online teaching offers potential opportunities for supporting student wellbeing in innovative ways. The use of internet-delivered, self-directed wellbeing interventions has seen a radical uptake over the past decade, and findings are overall very promising. In particular, the use of brief mindfulness exercises has demonstrated improvements in student wellbeing across a range of disciplines. Whilst still recognising the need for traditional and effective student support services, HEIs need to support and encourage students to develop the skills needed to manage some of the stressors of everyday student life.

This study trialled the use of brief mindfulness exercises as a method of self-care and self-regulation for students enrolled at King’s College London and Monash University in Melbourne. Mindfulness exercises (six 1-2 minute audio files) were provided to students via existing virtual learning environments. We evaluated the impact of the intervention using pre- and post-intervention questionnaires (including validated measures and self-report data) and compared these with students from a wait-list control group.

This presentation will describe the mindfulness intervention as trialled at King’s College and Monash University, and discuss early findings regarding its impact and efficacy. We will also discuss some of the issues surrounding the implementation of, and recruitment to, internet-based interventions of this nature.

Keywords:

Mindfulness, stress, wellbeing, mental health.