Education Commons^™

Peace Guardians, Watts Bears And The Maori Haka, Zachariah Fisher

The STEAM Journal

In the summer of 2017, Peace Guardians carried out a summer school program for twenty inner city kids ranging from 8-13 years old in Watts Los Angeles. The program was part of the annual Watts Bears summer school. The Watts Bears are group of student football and track athletes coached by the Los Angeles Police Department. Working in conjunction with the Watts officers and coaches, Peace Guardians and guest teachers spent four hours a day with the students facilitating mindfulness exercises and the Haka as wellness tools to incorporate into their lives in and out of the classroom and football …

Mindfulness And Acceptance-Based Trainings For Fostering Self-Care And Reducing Stress In Mental Health Professionals: A Systematic Review, Myriam Rudaz, Michael P. Twohig, Clarissa W. Ong, Michael E. Levin

Psychology Faculty Publications

This review summarizes the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to foster self-care and reduce stress in mental health professionals. Twenty-four quantitative articles from PsycInfo and PubMed were identified that focused on mindfulness, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, stress, burnout, or psychological well-being. All MBSR and MBCT studies lacked active control conditions, but some of the ACT studies and one MSC study included an active control. Most studies support evidence that all training programs tend to improve mindfulness and some also self-compassion. In addition, psychological flexibility was measured in …

Contemplative Practices And Post-Secondary Well-Being: Potential Methods For Reducing Test Anxiety, Shannon S. Hayden

MSU Graduate Theses

Students encounter numerous sources of stress in college from school work to examinations. A proposed method for reducing test related anxiety is contemplative practice (namely, mindfulness meditation and expressive writing). These interventions were used immediately prior to an exam to determine effectiveness on students’ mood and test grade. Although the study produced few statistically significant results, a promising trend in utilizing these interventions for increasing exam grades, increasing positive mood, and decreasing negative mood was uncovered. Each intervention appears to have dissimilar effects on different types of students (i.e., varying degrees of dispositional mindfulness and cognitive test anxiety; for example, …

Yoga And Mindfulness In The Inclusion Classroom, Maria Petruzzelli

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the effectiveness of implementing mindfulness and yoga techniques in two sections of fourth grade inclusion language arts classes. More specifically, this paper examines the effectiveness of yoga and mindfulness techniques on the frequency of off-task behaviors and academic achievement. It was hypothesized that off-task behaviors would occur less frequently and that academic performance in writing would improve after a yoga and mindfulness intervention was implemented.

Using a pre-post no-control design, thirty-six students, eighteen per class, from a public elementary school in Southern New Jersey participated in this investigation. Baseline and post implementation data were collected using On-Demand …

The Interaction Of Mindful Awareness And Acceptance In Couples Satisfaction, Jennifer Krafft, Jack Haegar, Michael E. Levin

Psychology Faculty Publications

Past studies indicate that the awareness and acceptance facets of trait mindfulness both independently predict relationship satisfaction. However, this study hypothesized that the combination of awareness and acceptance might be a stronger contributor to relationship functioning than either in isolation. Regression analyses were used to test whether mindful awareness and acceptance interact in predicting couples satisfaction in a sample of dating or married college students (n = 138). Acceptance was positively associated with couples satisfaction, while awareness was unrelated. These two mindfulness facets interacted such that greater awareness was related to poorer satisfaction when acceptance was low, but was …

Evaluating An Adjunctive Mobile App To Enhance Psychological Flexibility In Acceptance And Commitment Therapy, Michael E. Levin, Jack Haegar, Benjamin G. Pierce, Rick A. Cruz

Psychology Faculty Publications

The primary aims of this study were to evaluate the feasibility and potential efficacy of a novel adjunctive mobile app designed to enhance the acquisition, strengthening, and generalization of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) skills being taught in therapy. A sample of 14 depressed/anxious clients receiving ACT used the ACT Daily app for two weeks in a pre-post, open trial design. Participants reported a high degree of program satisfaction. Clients significantly improved over the two-week period on depression and anxiety symptoms as well as a range of psychological inflexibility measures. Analyses of mobile app data indicated effects of …

The Relationship Between Mindfulness And Stress Among College Students, Elizabeth Marie Vonderheyde

Theses and Dissertations

College students who have high levels of stress have reported difficulties with functioning on a daily basis, whether it be high anxiety due to classes or an increase in unhealthy habits like smoking or overeating. Studies have shown that those who practice mindfulness every day learn how to live with accepting the stresses in their lives (Siegel & Allison, 2016). This study explored the relationship between mindfulness and stress in college students from a medium size public university in the northeast. Two self-report measures were used to collect data though an online survey. Data were subjected to descriptive and inferential …

Examining The Differences Between University Students' Levels Of Resilience On Mindfulness, Psychological Distress And Coping Strategies, Aileen M. Pidgeon, Louisa Pickett

Aileen M. Pidgeon

University students can face numerous stressors which can contribute to the development of psychological distress shown to be associated with decreasing completion and retention issues throughout Australian universities (Willcoxson, Cotter, & Joy, 2011). A positive predictor and outcome of successful student coping and adjustment to university and retention outcomes is resilience, the ability to cope in difficult situations and bounce back from adversity. Mindfulness has also been shown to be promote resilience. The present study examined differences in psychological distress, mindfulness, and coping strategies (adaptive vs. maladaptive) in university students (N = 122) with high and low levels of resilience. …

Mindfulness Meditation Practice By Individuals With Substance Dependent Behavior, Quyen Ho

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many people in the United States suffer from substance dependence, which leads to depression, anxiety, work impairment, difficulties in interpersonal relationships, crime, and health care problems. Mindfulness meditation has been applied in many aspects of mental health treatment and all belief systems. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore substance dependents' experiences related to their mindfulness meditation practice of at least 6 months and up to 3 years. A constructivist conceptual framework, which states that human beings create systems for understanding reality based on their individual beliefs, emotions, and interpretations, was used for this study. Research questions focused …