Emotion Regulation, Stress, and Well-Being in Academic Education: Analyzing the Effect of Mindfulness-Based Intervention

Abstract

Recent studies point to an increase in psychological distress among graduate students. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of mindfulness practices on emotion regulation, on the perception of stress, and on the psychological well-being of graduate students. Forty-five (45) graduate students participated in the study, divided into an intervention and a control group. Questionnaires were applied for self-assessment of mindfulness, perceived stress, and psychological well-being, in addition to qualitative interviews in the pre- and post-timeframes of a mindfulness-based intervention. Quantitative data were analyzed using ANOVAs for repeated measures, while the interviews were analyzed using the thematic content analysis technique. The results indicated increases in the levels of mindfulness and psychological well-being, and a reduction in perceived stress in the intervention group, post-intervention. The interviews indicated the presence of ambivalent emotions in relation to graduate studies and the development of new strategies to cope with the stress in this work context. The main contribution of the study was to present empirical evidence of the effectiveness of mindfulness practices in the graduate-level education context, allowing students to become more capable of dealing with the challenges of an academic career. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43076-021-00092-0.

The Effect of Mindfulness on Well-Being in Education: A Systematic Review

“…Students exposed to the programme were less distracted and more aware of everything going on around them than students in the control group. Other research with this population of students showed that levels of academic stress and anxiety decreased in all university students who participated in the different mindfulness programmes (Alvarado-García et al, 2018; Santos et al, 2022;Silva and Ifanzón, 2015). They also found statistically signi cant differences, both by time of assessment (pretest/post-test) and by group to which they belonged (experimental group/control group).…”

EFL Teachers’ Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation in Language Context

“…Mindfulness has been regarded as a supporter of emotion regulation process ( Santos Alves Peixoto et al, 2021 ). Mindfulness is defined as the consciousness arising from deliberate attention in the current time, without judgment as to the unfolding of moment-to-moment experiences ( Kabat-Zinn, 2004 ).…”