Beyond Individual Stress Reduction - The Mindful Students Program Benefits University Students and Their Environment

Abstract

Objectives: While mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for university students usually aim at stress prevention and reduction, MBIs have the potential to also have societal benefits. In the present study, we introduce an MBI, the Mindful Students Program (MSP), which aims at developing an ethical perspective of interdependence between the individual and its social and ecological environment. We hypothesized that the MSP fosters not only mindfulness and individual stress reduction, but also prosociality and pro-environmental behavior as primary outcomes.Methods: The MSP was delivered to university students as an elective course within their curriculum. Across three semesters, university students (N = 203) were surveyed in a pre-post design, in comparison to two control groups (N = 302), one with an interest in mindfulness, waiting for an online intervention (referred to as waitlist) and a passive control group without any specific interest in mindfulness (referred to as passive). Acceptance and adverse effects were also monitored.Results: In comparison to the control groups, students receiving the MSP experienced decreases in stress, and increases in mindfulness and pro-environmental behavior. Contrary to expectations, levels of prosociality, which were already high at the beginning of the intervention in the MSP group, did not change. Students were highly satisfied with the MSP, even when adverse events occurred, which were, however, mostly mild in nature.Conclusions: The MSP appears to be an effective and safe means of helping individuals to improve their own well-being within the university context, whilst also fostering pro-environmental action which may benefit society at large.