Summary: | 碩士 === 玄奘大學 === 應用心理學系碩士班 === 104 === The purposes of this study are to understand international college students’ life stressors and how they cope with these stressors, and to evaluate whether participating in a mindfulness-based self-practice group has any effect on the process of coping with stress. This study adopted an experimental design in which a total of 17 international college students were recruited. Nine students voluntarily participated in an experimental group in which a 6-week mindfulness-based self-practice group was conducted, while eight students were put in the control group without any mindfulness practice intervention.
Both the experiment and the control groups accepted a semi-structured interview before and after the 6-week mindfulness-based self-practice group. Both the experiment and the control groups also filled out questionnaires before and after the 6-week mindfulness-based self-practice group.
Qualitative analysis shows that all participants have the following stressors: academic, self-demands, economic, interpersonal, verbal communication and family concerns. Quantitative results reveal that after the 6-week mindfulness-based self-practice, the experimental group significantly improved their negative statements of the stressors, while the control group did not show any difference on the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale and the Perceived Stress Questionnaire.
This study adopted multiple research methods to examine the stressors of international college students and how they coped with stress in life. In addition, this study compared the differences between the students who practiced mindfulness and who did not. Future research directions may include longer follow-up studies which recruit students from various backgrounds and specific variables that help promote mindfulness-based programs.
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