The Effects of Meditation in Reducing Student Stress

The effects of meditation in reducing student stress 1
THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION IN REDUCING STUDENT STRESS
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The effects of meditation in reducing student stress 2
The effects of meditation in reducing student stress
1 Introduction
Stress management is a critical phenomenon in day to day life especially for people
whose daily activities depend on the full-length capacity of thinking. Students experience a great
challenge in finding ways to manage their stress especially in their early time in school due to
high expectations in academic. On their minds, they think that the classes are challenging and the
workloads are unmanageable. As a result, they get stressed, hence affecting their overall
performance in personal and academic activities1. Universities have realized this challenges and
created a social support to help the students fight stress. However, due to self-esteem issues and
embarrassment, not all students are comfortable to seek help whenever they are faced with
stress-related issues. To solve this persistent issue, research has been conducted seeking to
unveil a better and effective method to stress management to help such students.
According to Shapiro et al. 2, mindfulness is an effective way to reduce stress. Also, it
was observed that medication would reduce psychological distress, self-reported state, and
anxiety. They also found that students who exercised mindfulness would have higher levels of
empathy and score of spiritual experiences. In a similar study conducted by Jain et al.3 found that
exercising relaxation and meditation was associated with low levels of distress. Kabat-Zinn and
others4 conducted a study to determine whether medication would effectively contribute to
reducing the sign of anxiety disorders. In their study which included 22 participants screened
with anxiety disorders found that mindfulness mediation effectively reduces symptoms of panic
and anxiety. Therefore, in this study, we will focus on determining whether medication would
significantly reduce student stress levels.
1.1 Research Question
Does meditation significantly reduce stress levels among first-year environmental science
students at Murdoch University?
1.2 Hypothesis
Null hypothesis: There is no difference in stress reduction levels between those who were in the
meditation group compared standard group.
Alternative hypothesis: Meditation group is significantly better in reducing stress compared to
the standard group.

The effects of meditation in reducing student stress 3
2 Methods
The study was designed for treatment and control groups – treatment group medicated
daily and the control group visited a counsellor. Their stress levels were recorded at entry and
subsequently after 3 months for a period of one year. This observation was meant to check which
method was better in reducing stress levels for the students.
2.1 Data analysis plan
The data will be analyzed by obtaining averages of stress per individual and comparing
the two groups using independent samples t-test method.
3 Results
3.1 Descriptive statistic
Statistic Standard Meditation
Mean 7.215 5.3
Standard Error 0.173 0.158
Median 7.3 5.4
Mode 7.6 5.6
Standard Deviation 1.091 0.999
Sample Variance 1.191 0.999
Range 4.2 4.4
Minimum 5.2 2.8
Maximum 9.4 7.2
Confidence Level (95.0%) 0.349 0.320