Effects of a brief mindfulness-based intervention on emotional regulation and levels of mindfulness in senior students

Abstract

Mindfulness-based interventions have been applied in diverse populations and achieved mental health benefits. This study examined the effects of a brief mindfulness program for emotional regulation and levels of mindfulness on senior students in Brazil. The intervention consisted of six weekly meetings attended by 30 participants. It is a pre-experimental research, with pre-and post-test comparative and correlation measurements. The preliminary results, which relied on parametrical and non-parametrical tests, revealed a reduction in total emotional regulation difficulties (p = 0.0001; r = − 0.55). Also, there was an increase in the levels of mindfulness in the subtests for both dimensions under evaluation: "Awareness" (p = 0.0001; d = 0.77) and "Acceptance" (p = 0.048; d = 0.37). By associating the amount of meditative practices performed by students with the variables, a significant positive correlation was found with the mindfulness dimension "Awareness" (r P = 0.422; p = 0.020), and there was a significant negative correlation with Difficulties in emotion regulation (r S = − 0.478; p = 0.008) and with its respective subscales "Nonacceptance" (r S = − 0.654; p = 0.0001) and "Clarity" (r S = − 0.463; p = 0.010). In conclusion, the application of a brief mindfulness-based intervention is promising in Brazilian university contexts; moreover, it can bring benefits to students, e.g., an increase in emotion regulation as well as in levels of mindfulness. We suggest that further research should use an experimental design and follow-up.

Effects of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Senior Students

“…Another hypothesis which explains the lack of association between the number of practices performed and the effects on depression, anxiety, and stress is related to the fact that meditation tends to increase self-awareness and makes individuals more aware of their behaviors, patterns of thinking, and emotions. In a similar study, Chiodelli et al (2018) found correlations between the amount of meditative practices and the mindfulness dimension "awareness" (r p = 0.422; p = 0.020), as well as with difficulties in emotion regulation (r s = − 0.478; p = 0.008). Cardaciotto, Herbert, Forman, Moitra, and Farrow (2008) indicate "present-moment awareness" as a fundamental dimension of mindfulness, which refers to individuals' monitoring of internal or external experience as they occur.…”

“…The space and time available for interventions in an academic environment need to be considered, as undergraduates are in a demanding context due to their curricular activities. Accordingly, studies with adapted and brief interventions have been shown to be as effective as interventions using the traditional duration protocol (Gu, Xu, and Zhu 2016;Chiodelli, Mello, Jesus, and Andretta 2018).Therefore, the objective of the present study was to identify possible effects of a brief MBI on depression, anxiety, and stress in senior students. Another aim was to assess the association between the amount of formal meditative practices performed by the participants and the results.…”

Social climate in university classrooms: A mindfulness‐based educational intervention

“…This finding is an important one, given the need to understand the mechanisms through which mindfulness-based interventions influence outcome variables. A growing body of evidence has suggested that one such mechanism is the enhancement of attention regulation skills, which are implicit in mindfulness (Andreu & García-Rubio, 2019;Canby et al, 2015;Chiodelli et al, 2018). This is one of the few studies that includes group variables such as shared flow.…”

Percepções Subjetivas De Mudanças De Vida Atribuídas À Prática Da Meditação Por Estudantes Universitários

“…É possível perceber algumas semelhanças nas dificuldades e limitações em outros estudos semelhantes, como a pouca participação dos estudantes e que muitos não chegaram ao final da pesquisa (DANILEWITZ, BRADWEJN, KOSZYCKI, 2016;RIET et al, 2015;SCHWIND et al, 2017;EFTHIMIADIS-KEITH, LINDEGGER, 2014;CHIODELLI et al, 2018;VLIET, JONG, JONG, 2018;GRÉGOIRE et al, 2018;LOLLA, 2018), sendo esses problemas experienciados na etapa de intervenção desta pesquisa. Vale apontar que o fato de o grupo A ter que lidar com o barulho externo do local por ser horário de almoço não afetou os resultados, pois os dois grupos relataram benefícios semelhantes.…”