Practice of mindfulness training to reduce anxiety in college students

Abstract

Objective To explore the effect of mindfulness training on anxiety symptom of Chinese college students with high anxiety and its internal mechanism. Methods A total of 2 416 college students from two universities in Beijing were evaluated and recruited according to their scores. They were divided into intervention group and control group with twenty in each. All students were pre-tested by State-trait Anxiety Inventory Questionnaire (STAI) and the Five-factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). After that, students in the intervention group received an 8-week training of mindfulness cognitive therapy. After the training, all students were post-tested with the same scales. Results Mindfulness training reduced state anxiety (F=6.21, P＜0.001) and trait anxiety scores (F=6.15, P＜0.001) in the intervention group, improved their total score of mindfulness (F=6.26, P＜0.001), observation (F=5.21, P＜0.01), description (F=6.24, P＜0.001) and non-response(F=5.80, P＜0.01). Conclusions Mindfulness training effectively reduces the anxiety symptoms of college students with high anxiety.

Keywords

• mindfulness training|college student|state anxiety|trait anxiety