The effect of meditation on physical and mental health in junior college students: a quasi-experimental study.
Ke-Ping Yang, Whei-Ming Su, Chen-Kuan Huang
The journal of nursing research : JNR December 2009 DOI: 10.1097/jnr.0b013e3181c17f77 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Quasi-experimental design Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 242 |
| Population | Freshmen from a junior college in Taiwan |
| Intervention | Meditation |
| Dose | 2 hours per week |
| Duration | 18 weeks |
| Measures | Life Adaptation Scale |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Meditation significantly reduced physical and mental distress symptoms in the experimental group compared to the control group, after controlling for pretest scores, suggesting meditation helps students adapt to life stressors. |
Abstract
Physical stress and mental stress are increasingly common phenomena in our rapidly changing and stressful modern society. Research has found meditation to produce positive and demonstrable stress reduction effects on brain and immune functions. This study is grounded in traditional Chinese philosophical mores that teach a process summarized by the keynote activities of "calm, still, quiet, consider, and get" and the potential of this process to reduce stress in adolescents. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of meditation on the physical and mental health of junior college students. This research employed a quasi-experimental design. Participants included 242 freshmen from a junior college in Taiwan selected using a convenience sampling technique. Participants were then randomly separated into experimental (n = 119) and control (n = 123) groups. The project duration was 18 weeks, during which the experimental group received 2 hours of meditation treatment per week, for a total of 36 hours. Both groups completed pretest and posttest Life Adaptation Scale forms, which included questionnaires addressing information on physical and mental distress and positive and negative coping strategies. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance. Findings showed that the effect of the experiment treatment was significant when student physical and mental distress pretest scores were controlled. Physical and mental symptoms in the experimental group were lower than those in the control group. Meditation can help students to adapt to life stressors. This study also provides support for traditional Chinese wisdom, which promotes meditation as one way to improve health.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
Cites 12
- Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation Psychosomatic Medicine July 1, 2003
- Effects of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Transcendental Meditation on Components of the Metabolic Syndrome in Subjects With Coronary Heart Disease Archives of Internal Medicine June 12, 2006
- Meditation and consciousness: an Asian approach to mental health. American Journal of Psychotherapy 1976
- Optimizing learning and quality of life throughout the lifespan: a global framework for research and application. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences August 1, 2009
- The role of mindfulness in positive reappraisal. Explore 2009
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