Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Test Anxiety Phenomena among University Nursing Students
Egyptian Journal of Health Care May 25, 2026 Nagwa Ahmed Mohamed Souilm, Fatma Ata Abd El-Salihen
An open-label randomized trial with 200 undergraduate nursing students compared two meditation techniques—Vipassana and Shamatha—for reducing test anxiety. Before the intervention, both groups had high test anxiety scores (medians of 3.0 or higher), low positive automatic thoughts, and high negative affect with low positive affect. After one month of small-group sessions, both techniques significantly decreased test anxiety and negative affect while increasing positive automatic thoughts and positive affect. Multivariate analysis identified meditation technique as the main predictor of improvements. Shamatha had a slightly better effect on test anxiety scores. Both techniques are easily taught and acceptable to students.