A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Meditation Techniques on Stress Reduction among College Student Harivandana College at Rajkot

 

Ms. Asmita Vala¹, Mrs. Vijaya Nancy Rani², Mr. Jeenath Justin Doss. K³

¹II^ND Year M.SC Nursing, Shree Anand Institute of Nursing, Opp. Ghanteshwar Park, B/H Sainik Society, Jamnagar Road, Rajkot

²HOD, Psychiatric Department, Shree Anand Institute of Nursing, Opp. Ghanteshwar Park, B/H Sainik Society, Jamnagar Road, Rajkot

³Principal, Shree Anand Institute of Nursing, Opp. Ghanteshwar Park, B/H Sainik Society, Jamnagar Road, Rajkot

 

ABSTRACT:

Every new school year offers new challenges for students as they promote into the next grade. There’s excitement and maybe even a little bit of anxiety about the new school year, the new goals and challenges that each student starts to anticipate. Parents do their best to prepare their kids, no matter what the age. But there might be one student category that has a bit more anxiety and needs just a little more support that would be the college freshman. The research design is Pre Experimental research design. (One group pre-test - post test design)Conceptual Framework based on general system theory modified Ludwig vonbertalanffy’s. The study had been conducted in Harivandana College, Rajkot. The samples were selected for this study by adopting purposive non probability sampling technique. The sample size was 40. As an intervention I administered the Educational Stress Scale for adolescents (ESSA) to measure the level of stress among college students. After that introduced meditation technique 1 month daily 30 minutes in early morning for reducing stress. After 1 month again check the level of stress with same scale. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics (Frequency, percentage, standard deviation), and inferential statistics. Result of pre-test score of stress from the 40 total students 12 (30%) having mild stress, 18(45%) were having moderate stress, and the remaining 10 (25%) were having severe stress. Result post-test score of stress from the 40 total students 8(20%) having no stress, 16 (40%) were having mild stress, 13 (232.5%) were having moderate stress and the remaining 3(7.5%) still having severe stress. The data shows in this study that there was a significant reduction in the post test scores. Pre-test score mean was 48.5 and post-test score mean was 37.7. The reduction in stress score is significant (‘t’ = 16.469) for Stress since calculated value is higher than the table value (3.5581) at 0.001% level of significance. Chi-square test was used to check the association and found significant between the pre-test score and variable such as a monthly family income, stay, extra classes and feeling burden.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Man's expectations or desires make his life physically and mentally strenuous. The obstacles which prevent him from achieving them, which may be personal or environmental in nature, can make life stressful. Goldstein introduced a new definition, that is, “Stress is a condition where expectations genetically programmed, established by prior learning or deduced from circumstances do not match the current or anticipated perceptions of the internal or external environment.”

 

Many people experience stress as they combine busy lives and the demands of study and or work while trying to also save time for friends and family. For some people, stress becomes almost a way of life. We know that stress – over a prolonged period of time– can have increase certain health risks, saying nothing of the wear and tear that happens to relationships and general wellbeing.

 

College freshman have some different challenges that other students may not. Since most college freshmen are typically between the ages of 17 and 19 they have an interesting and possibly difficult situation to navigate. When we think about this age group, leaving home likely for the first time, they basically have one foot entering adulthood and one foot just leaving adolescence. Even if the college freshman is not moving away, still living at home with mom and dad, it can be an emotionally slippery time. Leaving the family home, feeling intense pressure to obtain high grades in connection with carrier aspirations, taking final exams, trying to establish a romantic/social life, dealing with (often very high) costs of college and possibly working at a job during the school year.

 

The results of continuing stress may cause disruption in one or more of the following areas of health: physical, emotional, spiritual and/or social. Stress is a process that builds. It is more effective to intervene early in the process rather than later. Try to become aware of the signs that suggest the process has begun. Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realize some benefit or for the mind to simply acknowledge its content without becoming identified with that content, or as an end in itself.

 

Mindfulness stress reduction Meditation is a mind-body process that uses concentration or reflection to relax the body and calm the mind. It is defined as ―It is a technique that promotes relaxation through the non-judgmental awareness of moment to moment sensation experiences and relaxation. Meditation is one of several relaxation methods evaluated and found to be of possible benefit by an independent panel convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), (2005).

 

NEED FOR THE STUDY:

The stressful college environment often compounds student mental health issues. The National Alliance on Mental Illness's survey, college students speak: A survey report on mental health, revealed that almost two-thirds (64%) of the students who drop out of college do so for mental health reasons.

 

Recently, an expert panel from the National Institutes of Health reported compelling evidence for meditation leading to better patient outcome (Lane, 2007; Oman, 2008).Growing evidence suggests that yoga practice provides a relatively low risk, high Yield option for improving emotional and physical health. Meditation and yoga practices like coherent breathing can modulate maladaptive sympathetic nervous system arousal (Brown, 2009; Elliot, 2006).

 

Meditation has been linked with improved academic performance, concentration, perceptual sensitivity, reaction, time, memory, self-control, and self-esteem. Meditation may lead to neurological changes and foster physiologic health benefits through improved immune function and reduced arousal, measured through blood pressure, heart rate, cortisol, and other neurotransmitters. The practice of meditation has also been reported to reduce anxiety and modify personality characteristics through increased measurement in areas of extraversions, agreeableness, openness to experiences, and emotional stability It is also postulated that mediation may reduce measures of stress such as anxiety and depression while enhancing life satisfaction, empathy, self-compassion, calm, self-acceptance, and self-actualization (Lane, 2007; Oman, 2008).

 

An article published in the New York Times on January 26, 2011; presented results from an annual survey that has been distributed to college freshmen over the past 25 years. In Fall 2010, these students self-reported their levels of emotional health as the lowest on record. They rated themselves 52% above average on emotional health as compared with74.64% when the survey was initiated in 1985 (Pryor, 2010).

 

In 2005, the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) surveyed 17,000 college students. Twenty-five percent of the students reported they have “felt so depressed it was difficult to function” three to eight times in the past 12 months. Twenty-one percent of the students reported that they “seriously considered suicide”. The most important causes of stress reported by the students were financial, lack of sleep, and family problems. Stress is a natural body reaction to difficult or challenging situations. ^.meditation has been proven effective for reducing stress. Recently healthcare providers of multiple disciplines are overwhelmingly turning to the practice of meditation as a useful tool in building a self-care routine. Meditation has several benefits such as deeper level of relaxation, builds self-confidence, helps to control own thought, Improve learning ability and memory, increase emotional stability, increase productivity, develop will power, react more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event, more sociable behaviour, increases listening skills and empathy, helps make more accurate judgments, greater tolerance, more balanced personality, develops emotional maturity. Experience an inner sense of “assurance or knowingness”, increases the synchronicity in your life.

 

OBJECTIVE:

·      To assess the level of stress among college students at selected college.

·      To assess the effectiveness of meditation technique in reducing stress among                                                       college students.

·      To find the association between pre-test level of stress with the selected demographic variables.

 

HYPOTHESIS:

1.      H₁:

There will be a significant effectiveness of meditation technique among college students.

 

2.      H₂:

There will be a significant association between pre-test levels of stress with the selected demographic variables.

 

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

Research Approach:

Quantitative Approach

 

Research Design:

Pre Experimental research design

 

Target Population:

All first year female students of  Harivandana College Rajkot. Age between 17 to 19 year.

 

Accessible Population: 4

0 students who had stress and their age between 17 to 19 year at Harivandana College Rajkot.

 

Sampling Technique:

Purposive Sampling Techniques

 

Data Collection Procedure:

Educational Stress Scale for Adolescent.

 

Group: 40

Data Analysis:

Descriptive and Inferential Statistics

 

Criterion Measure:

Level of  stress among  adolescent.

 

MAJOR FINDINGS:

·        Regarding age of the adolescent majority 40(100%) belongs to the age group of 18-19 yrs. family income of the student’s majority 23(57.5%) were Rs 10001-Rs 15000, the parental factors majority 23(57.5%) were no drunker and smoke. chosen course by majority 25(62.5%) was chosen by self. previous medium of study majority 30(75%) was Guajarati. Regarding stay majority 19(47.5%) was staying at hostel. the source of money for college fees majority 23(57.5%) was paid by parents. All of having same working hours were 40(100%), 6-7 hours. Academic performance of students, majority 24(60 %) were average regarding the going for extra classes majority 23(57.5%) going for computer class. the recreational activity majority 16(40%) was Listening music. the feeling burden majority 17(42.5%) was about their study. Health status of the students 26(65%) were majority have some physical problems and remain 14(35%) has no any physical and psychological problems.

·        Regarding pre-test score of stress from the 40 total students 12 (30%) having mild stress, 18(45%) were having moderate stress, and the remaining 10 (25%) were having severe stress. post-test score of stress from the 40 total students 8(20%) having no stress, 16(40%) were having the mild stress, 13(32.5%) were having moderate stress, and the remaining 3(7.5%) were since having some of severe stress.

·        The data shows in this study that there was a significant reduction in the post test scores. Pre-test score mean was 48.5 and post-test score mean was 37.7. The reduction in stress score is significant (‘t’= 16.469) for Stress since calculated value is higher than the table value (3.5581) at 0.001% level of significance, therefore the research hypothesis is accepted. Hence findings revealed that meditation technique is effective for stress reduction.

 

CONCLUSION:

The current study shows that, first year students are highly affected with stress, which affects their academic performance as well as their all aspects of health and day to day activities also. Based on the findings of the study the conclusion was drawn that meditation was effective on stress reduction. Therefore it’s highly recommended for all the college students for cope up with stress and maintains quality of life. Meditation will help them to cope up with stress.

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Received on 20.10.2016          Modified on 30.10.2016

Accepted on 21.12.2016          © A&V Publications all right reserved