MINDFULNESS MEDITATION: TOP MOST RECENT RESEARCH ON 18–24 YEAR STUDENTS

Mindfulness meditation has met increasing interest as a therapeutic strategy for anxiety disorders, but prior studies have been limited by methodological concerns, including a lack of an active comparison group.

This is the first randomized, controlled trial comparing the manual Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program with an active control for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, a disorder characterized by chronic worry and physiological hyper arousal symptoms.

These results suggest that MBSR may have a beneficial effect on anxiety symptoms in GAD, and may also improve stress reactivity and coping as measured in a laboratory stress challenge.

Mindfulness Research

Mahmood and Staten (2012), in their research indicate that young adult college students experience increased levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. It is less clear what strategies college health care providers might use to assist students in decreasing these mental health concerns. In this paper, they examined the relative importance of coping style, life satisfaction, and selected demographics in predicting undergraduates’ depression, anxiety, and stress.

A total of 508 full- time undergraduate students aged 18–24 years completed the study measures and a short demographics information questionnaire. Coping strategies and life satisfaction were assessed using the Brief COPE Inventory and an adapted version of the Brief Students’ Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale.

Depression, anxiety, and stress were measured using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relative influence of each of the independent variables on depression, anxiety, and stress. Maladaptive coping was the main predictor of depression, anxiety, and stress.

Adaptive coping was not a significant predictor of any of the three outcome variables. Reducing maladaptive coping behaviors may have the most positive impact on reducing depression, anxiety, and stress in this population.