The efficacy of a limited mindfulness-based intervention inpromoting positive student mental health

摘要

Mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) have become more popular overthe last three decades, showing efficacy for a variety of physical and mental health issues. As aresult, there is a potential for MBIs to be implemented across university campuses to address thegrowing demand placed on universities’ mental health services. However, the problem with theaverage MBI is the time investment required, generally between 30-50 hours over 8 weeks. Thepresent study attempted to produce a novel mindfulness-based intervention, which was less timeand practice intensive, while still producing the outcomes seen in the average MBI. Students’were randomly assigned to either undergo the MBI or act as a wait-list control group. Bothgroups completed a series of pre- and post-intervention surveys measuring levels of mindfulness,self-compassion, decentring, affect, rumination, worry, depression, anxiety, and stress. Postinterventionlevels for the treatment group across all measures were in the predicted directionand significantly different compared to the wait-list control group. The findings demonstrate theefficacy of a limited MBI in producing comparable outcomes to the average MBI. The presentstudy adds to the small body of research on limited MBIs and suggests that a limited MBI has thepotential to be adopted and implemented across campuses to promote positive student mentalhealth.