Mindfulness intervention to reduce stress and increase resilience in university students, a pilot study

Aim: University students face with many significant challenges, changes and experiences that could affect their behaviour and social development. Stress levels are rising dramatically in this type of population and appears relevant in determining quality of life and academic success particularly during this post-pandemic period. There is an increasing need of stress-reduction interventions that can help and support students in the delicate transition from adolescence to adultness; at this regard, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) represent an easy-to-apply intervention, providing training in both group and individual contexts. The purpose of the present study is to observe changes in psychological variables, including defense mechanisms, in a sample of college students facing a mindfulness intervention included in their college curriculum. Methods A mindfulness-based intervention was administered in January 2022 to 69 Italian university students attending their third-year bachelor’s mixed-mode class. The intervention was performed by an experienced psychotherapist and lasted thirty-two hours in total, in a time range of fifteen days, including both the psychoeducational aspect of mindfulness and stress and the experiential meditative and yoga aspects. Pre-Post measures of perceived stress (PSS), defense mechanisms (DMRS-SR-30) mindfulness (FFMQ; MAAS), anxiety (STAI), depression (BDI-II), sleep quality (PSQI), self-compassion (SCS) and resilience (RS-14) were administered to the students via an online google form. Results Our hypothesis is that students will benefit from this mindfulness intervention in terms of reducing anxiety, stress and depression levels; we also expect to find improved sleep quality and awareness levels. Our other hypothesis is that students with higher levels of resilience, self-compassion and more mature defense mechanisms will present greater improvement in general awareness levels at the end of the course, demonstrating that these variables may represent protective factors for the clinical aspects such as anxiety and depression. Finally, the results of the qualitative questionnaire administered will be presented, in the hypothesis of finding a benefit reported by the students and their willingness to continue along the mindfulness-based practices. Conclusions College students can benefit from mindfulness-based psychoeducational interventions, which are simple to propose and can make a difference in their personal and social development.