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Quasi-Experimental Study on the Effectiveness of Guided Mindfulness Meditation

on Reducing the Stress of the Psychology Student Sample

by

Magallanes, Ashley Jamaeca O.

Ocampo Sherwin A.

An Experimental Research Study

Presented to

Ms. Angelica Irah Pallasigui

From the Faculty of

College of Arts, Science, and Technology:

Department of Psychology

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the subject of

Experimental Psychology

A.Y. 2020 – 2021

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Introduction

After a year of declaring coronavirus-19 as a pandemic, people stayed in their

homes having high hopes to themselves that the virus will vanish in just a week. One year

later, a massive number of reports around the world about the confirmed cases;

coronavirus filled with fear, stress, and a large number of deaths and active cases. In an

article by CNBC entitled “More than half of Americans say they’re more stressed than

they were before the Covid-19 pandemic” of July 1, 2020, it is stated to an article that a

group of researchers supervised a study on the second half of May; they were from

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and Harvard Medical School. The result of the

study was that 55% of people testified that they are more stressed than in January--

before the virus was declared as pandemic and a threat to everyone. As a result of the

pandemic, it affects their emotional, social life, and psychological aspect (Yasmin et al.,

2020). Malls, restaurants, churches, amusement parks, and schools are required to close

in order for their security against the virus. The World Health Organization (2020) stated

that, as a result of the pandemic, many students experienced psychological problems like

stress that influence their academics and but all over their personality. To define more

about stress, it is stated that stress is a situation in which an individual is forced to act,

and can’t bear the received mental tension (Behnoudi, 2005). Stress is a very common

problem that people encounter. It can be defined as a feeling created by the situation.

Being stressed affects people’s work-life badly. It makes people feel tense. Furthermore,

a previous study emphasized that stress is a repercussion of an asymmetry among the

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demands; established by one’s environmental context and the degree to which one is able

to engage those demands (McGrath, 1970). As a result of that, in a systematic review

entitled, “Stress: Facts and theories through literature review,” it is stated that one of the

stress outcomes is difficulties in respiration. Acute stress like the death of beloved keens

can end in an asthma attack in which the passage of air between the nose and lungs is

blocked. Besides that, Chronic stress can create problems in hearts and veins

(Shahsavarani et al.,2015).

“Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that

demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize”

according to (Selye, 1956). In a study entitled “A Study of Causes of Stress and Stress

Management among Youth” by Dr. Deepti Bhargava & Heman Trivedi, 2018, they stated

the causes of stress among students. It is stated first that academics is the source of stress.

According to Morehouse State University, youth have poor study habits and usually do

cramming at the last minute of studying the night before exams. Stress among students is

due to workloads and being scared to take exams. Alsp, the university students’ first

source of stress is a lot of assignments. The next cause of stress is financial. Bhargava &

Trivedi, (2018) stated that most young people do not have a stable job or a job that does

not focus as much as they would like for them. Furthermore, they want to preserve a

lifestyle and achieve the challenge of articles like mobile, bikes, and cars, etc. With that,

it creates stress when the youth do not meet their expectations and goals for themself

(Bhargava & Trivedi, 2018). Lastly, lack of time or having misguided priorities causes
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stress--whether secondary or tertiary. Moreover, balancing academics, different activities,

and home can be crucial in suffering stress.

Stress is continuous--everyone goes through this experience no matter what age,

gender, or race you are. Also, stress is not avoidable but it can be supervised with

different techniques. One of the examples that can help regarding stress is Guided

Mindfulness Meditation. The American Psychological Association (2019) defined

Mindfulness Meditation as one of the most popular meditation approaches. It has been

theoretically and empirically identified with psychological well-being. Furthermore,

mindfulness is particularly the awareness and nonjudgemental consent of one’s moment-

to-moment experience. It is considered as a potentially effective remedy against any

forms of psychological distress—anxiety, worry, fear, and so on—many of which involve

the maladaptive tendencies to dodge, to quench with one’s distressing thoughts and

emotions (Hayes & Feldman, 2004). The Mayo Clinic website published an article

entitled, “Meditation: A simple, fast way to reduce stress.” It indicates that For thousands

of years, people have practiced meditation. Meditation was designed to assist people to

gain a better understanding of life's sacred and mystical powers. Meditation is now

widely utilized for stress relief and relaxation and it can result in a deep level of

relaxation as well as a calm mind.

Studying human behavior and the study of mind according to American

Psychological Association (n.d) defines psychology. Through psychology, it aids those

people who are suffering from mental illnesses. Those students who enrolled as
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psychology majors play a role in society and in order to gain knowledge. Tons of

paperwork, buying a thick book to study different theories, and analyzing the different

concepts are psychology students do. A study titled “Mindfulness training for stress

management: a randomized controlled study of medical and psychology students” by

Solhaug et al., (2013) stated to their background of the study that medical and psychology

students experience distress and based on the commonly reported and have indications

for the quality of patient care delivered. Furthermore, the result of the study shows that

the psychological well-being of the psychology student affects them. Students are

concerned about the virus and becoming infected, their performance in the field of

academics, and uneasiness of losing loved ones because of the widespread of the virus.

Many reported that the increment time alone at home resulted in ‘overthinking’ and

enormous rumination about themselves. A number of actual complaints were reported

that they were often channeled to stress, anxiety, and depression. With that, the

researchers want to know the difference before and after doing the guided mindfulness

meditation. Likewise, this study would be beneficial to the Psychology students for the

reason that they will know how guided mindfulness meditation can affect their stress,

especially in this situation, wherein online classes have their downside like internet

connection problems, financial problems, limited resources, etc. Lastly, this study will

benefit future researchers to get information that might guide their study and answer their

questions.

Research Gap
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There are numerous studies about stress and guided mindfulness meditation. However,

based on the search review of related literature found in Google Scholar, there were no

studies conducted that guided mindfulness meditation was supervised in an online set-up.

In addition, there were no studies conducted that their sample is psychology students.

Statement of the Problem

1. What is the demographic profile in terms of:

I.1. Age

1.2. Sex

2. What is the initial level of stress of the participants before conducting the

guided mindfulness meditation?

3. What is the terminal level of stress of the participants after conducting the

guided mindfulness meditation? 

4. Is there a significant difference before and after undertaking the guided

mindfulness meditation to the stress level of the Psychology student sample?

Hypothesis

Alternate Hypothesis (H1) revealed that there is a significant difference between the

posttest and pretest of the Psychology student sample when subjected to guided

mindfulness meditation.

Null Hypothesis (HO) = revealed that there is no significant difference between the post-

test and pretest of the Psychology student sample when subjected to guided mindfulness

meditation.
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Theoretical Framework

This research was premised on concepts, and principles of effectiveness in using

guided mindfulness meditation. The past theoretical development has revealed that

Mindfulness is an awareness by focusing in a precise way, that is in the present moment,

non-reactively, non-judgmentally, and as open-heartedly as possible (Kabat-Zinn, 2006).

Davis & Thompson, (2015) stated that meditation indicates the category of practices

including the attention-training techniques that helped directly in preparing positive

states.

In a study entitled “Testing the Mindfulness-to-Meaning-Theory: Evidence for

mindful positive emotion regulation.” According to the study, the Mindfulness to

Meaning Theory (MMT) was introduced as a mindful positive emotion regulation to fill

the missing portion of formalized theory; in bridging the mindfulness into more enduring,

concrete markers of health such as eudaimonic well-being. In addition to this, the

Mindfulness Meaning Theory asserts that Mindfulness allows one to draw away from the

stress into metacognitive awareness, resulting in expanded consciousness to novel

information that contains reappraisal of life (Garland, n.d).

Lastly, according to Garland (n.d), the Mindfulness Meaning Theory (MMT)has two

key hypotheses: a) It generates meaning by promoting appraisal (mindfulness reappraisal

hypothesis; and b) mindfulness develops meaning by boosting savoring.

Conceptual Framework

Psychology Students
Sample
 Reduced
mindful
Stress Level
breathing
meditation
8

7-days
Meditation

Figure 1.0 Represents the Conceptual Diagram of the

Study

In fig.1., Audio-guided mindful breathing meditation represents the independent variable

that pertains to an effective way of reducing the stress level (dependent variable) of the

sample population. According to Mayo Clinic, “Mindfulness involves breathing methods,

guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress.”. 

Mindfulness meditation lets the subject focus on their thoughts through audio-guided

meditation.

In figure 1.0 the mediator variable is the 7-days consecutive meditation that

shows a relationship to be able to achieve the desired result of the experiment. In the

study of Lam et.al. (2015), wherein the participants had been subjected to a 7-days

meditation, the result showed that five-minute mindfulness meditation could be an

effective method in decreasing stress in this mental health care professional sample. Also,

Wu et. al., (2019) study demonstrated that JW2016 BMM (15 min a day for 7

consecutive days) was able to improve emotion processing including emotion intensity,
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emotional memory, and emotional attention bias, without any negative effect on the

emotions of health practitioners.

Methodology

Research Design

The researchers will employ a Quantitative-Quasi-Experimental Research design

using the Pretest and Posttest methods. Quantitative research (Creswell, 2013) focuses on

collecting numerical data through questionnaires, surveys, or forming pre-existing

statistical data by applying computational techniques.  Quasi-experimental research is

similar to experimental research in that there is a manipulation of an independent

variable. It differs from experimental research because either there is no control group, no

random selection, no random assignment, and/or no active manipulation (Abraham &

MacDonald, 2011). The researchers will conduct pre-test and post-test wherein the

participants will take a test before and after the intervention; to reveal if there will be an

effect on reducing the stress level of the Psychology students with the use of audio-

guided mindfulness meditation. After a week of intervention, a delayed posttest was

administered in order to measure if there is still an effect of guided mindfulness

meditation among the stress of psychology students after a week of session.

Population of the Study

The participants for this study were recruited from the De La Salle Araneta

University, College of Arts, Sciences, and Technology, Department of Psychology.

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Inclusion criteria describe the participants (1) as a bona fide Psychology student of

DLSAU, (2) ages 18 above, (3) can understand English, and (4) naïve in performing

mindfulness meditation or does not practice mindfulness meditation regularly. Exclusion

criteria include (1) no existing illness. Participants should also have a comfortable and

peaceful environment (e.g., bedroom) where they can have the intervention done. Further,

in order to gather the sample population of the study, the researchers employed the

convenience sampling method, a type of nonprobability sampling in which people are

sampled because they are convenient sources of data for researchers (Lavrakas, 2008).

All participants were given informed consent and were informed about the study.

Instrument

To ensure the validity of the study, the participants who will not emblematize the

criteria for inclusion and exclusion, as well as the requirements of the intervention, will

not be able to proceed with the intervention. Further, to properly assess the influence of

the audio-guided mindfulness meditation in stress reduction, the researchers will use the

Perceived Stress Scale in assessing the hypothesis of the study.

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et. a., 1983)

The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is the most widely used psychological

instrument for measuring the perception of stress. It is a measure of the degree to which

situations in one’s life are appraised as stressful. Items were designed to tap how
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unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded respondents find their lives. The scale also

includes a number of direct queries about current levels of experienced stress.

Audio-guided Mindful Breathing Meditation (Katatagan, n.d.)

The audio is a 5-minute breathing meditation exercise that includes breathing

exercises. Mindful breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is your

body’s “rest and digest” system (Amalie, n.d.). Regularly engaging in it can provide

benefits such as a reduction in stress, increased calm and clarity, as well as the promotion

of happiness (Catherine, 2010; Kar, Shian-Ling, & Chong, 2014).

[SAMPLE QUESTIONS OF A 10-ITEMS PSS]

1. In the last month, how often have you been upset because of something

that happened unexpectedly?

2. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control

the important things in your life?

3. In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and “stressed”?
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4. In the last month, how often have you felt confident about your ability to

handle your personal problems?

5. In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your

way?

6. In the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with

all the things that you had to do?

7. In the last month, how often have you been able to control irritations in

your life?

8. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on top of things?

9. In the last month, how often have you been angered because of things that

were outside your control?

10. In the last month, how often have you felt difficulties were piling up so

high that you could not overcome them?

Ethical Consideration

The respondents were given informed consent (including the concrete and clear

explanation of the experiment that the researchers will conduct) verifying their voluntary

participation in the experiment. The continuing participants shall be the legal age ones.
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All of the information that the participants will provide will be treated with the highest

confidentiality.

Data Gathering Procedure

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After the validation of the consent form, the researchers immediately

disseminated the forms to their respective emails. Upon completing the forms, the

researchers briefed the participants about the 7-days schedule of the intervention (see

figure 1.0). The experiment was conducted online after their classes. Before the first

session started, the participants were being asked to complete answering the pre-test

survey which included the Perceived Stress Scale. After completing the pre-test survey,

participants were instructed to open their cameras, asked to wear earphones/headphones,

find a comfortable place where peace and silence are present and, thereupon, participants

were subjected to the 5-minutes of audio-guided mindful breathing meditation. Upon the

completion of the first session, participants were reminded about the schedule of the next

meetings. The same process was done during the following 6 consecutive days. On the

completion of the seventh day, participants were asked to complete the post-test survey:

Perceived Stress Scale. After a week of intervention, the participants were instructed to

answer the same tool for the delayed posttest.

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Figure 1.0 Represents the Scheduled diagram for the 1-week experiment

Fig 1.0., represents the scheduling of a 1-week Guided Mindfulness

Meditation experiment. It included the Psychology Students’ class schedule. The

researchers scheduled their experiment starting October 26, 2021, on Tuesday

up to November 1, 2021, on Sunday. In addition to that, it is scheduled from 4:55

to 5:15 pm on Tuesday and Sunday due to the given allotted time to answer the

pretest and posttest. Whereas Wednesday to Sunday scheduled the session will

be at 4:55 to 5:10 pm.

Statistical Analysis

The researchers used the dependent t-test or paired sample t-test in evaluating the

gathered data from the questionnaire. With this statistical tool, it will be easier for the

researchers to recognize the difference in results of the questionnaires since a dependent

t-test is a statistical tool used to identify the difference between the two variables. Also,

the researchers employed one-sample t-test wherein it is used to arbitrate whether an

unknown population mean is dissimilar from a precise value. Statistical analyses were

computed using PSPP.

Results

Table 1.0 Characteristics of the Participants

Age
Mean (SD) 18.6363636 (0.6742)
Range 18-20
Age Bracket — n, %
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18 5 (45.5%)
19 5 (45.5%)
20 1 (9.1%)
Sex — n, %
Male 4 (36.4%)
Female 7 (63.6%)
A total of 11 participants partook in the experiment who had never practiced

guided mindfulness meditation. In the study, 4 or 36.4% were male, and 7 or  63.6% of

them were females. Participants’ age are ranging from 18-20 with a mean age of

18.6363636 (σ = 0.67). Five (5) participants were 18 years old (45.5%). Equally, 5

participants were 19 years old (45.5%), and 1 was an age 20 (9.1%).

Table 2.0 Statistics from One-sample t-test: Pretest,

Posttest, and Delayed Posttest results
PRETTEST POSTTEST DELAYED
POSTTEST
Sc Mea 21.9 Sc Mea 19.1 S Mea 1
or n 1 or n 8 co n 9.
es es re 0
0
24 Sta 5.84 14 Sta 6.75 1 Sta 3.
nda nda 7 nda 5
rd rd rd 2
Dev Dev Dev
iatio iatio iatio
n n n
24 df 10 23 df 10 2 df 1
1 0
18 t 6.20 22 t 4.02 1 t 7.
6 5
3
19 p- .000 19 p- .002 1 p- .
valu valu 9 valu 0
e e e 0
0
25 N 11 23 N 11 2 N 1
2 1
10 Deci Sign 8 Deci Sign 1 Deci
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sion

ifica sion ifica 3 sion

nt nt
22 20 1
8
23 24 2
3
19 14 1
6
23 12 1
9
34 32 2
5
Note: *p < .05; two-tailed
The participants were first assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale to measure

the initial, stress level of the participants before to undergoing on the sessions. A one-

sample t-test was used to run to evaluate the scores of the pretest results and scores

showed a statistically significant heightened stress level with a p value of .000 (M =

21.91, sd = 5.84, t =- 6.20). After a week of session, posttest result showed, likewise, a

heightened stress level with a p value of .002 (M = 19.18, sd = 6.75, t = 4.02). Also,

delayed posttest was conducted using the same statistical tool, Perceived Stress Scale.

The delayed posttest results showed a constant heightened stress level with a p value of .

000 (M = 19.00, sd = 3.52, t = 7.53).

Table 3.0 Paired Sample Differences of Pretest and Posttest

Sources Mean SD Df t p Decision
Pretest- 2.73 4.45 10 2.03 .070 Not
Posttest significant
Note: *p < .05; two-tailed; N=11
A paired t-tests were used to evaluate the results of the pretest and posttest scores

(M = 2.73) to determine if audio-guided meditation can decrease the stress level of the

Psychology students sample. The result showed a weak significant difference from the
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pretest and posttest scores which suggests to accept the null hypothesis (p = .070, N = 11,

sd = 4.45).

Table 4.0 Paired Sample Differences of Posttest and Delayed Posttest

Sources Mean SD Df t p Decision
Posttest- .18 4.26 10 .14 .890 Not
Delayed significant
Posttest
Note: *p < .05; two-tailed; N=11
Likewise, table 4.0 showed no significant difference from the posttest results

which signified unchanged heightened stress level of the participants (M = .18, p = .890,

sd =4.26)

DISCUSSION

This study proposes to show if audio-guided mindfulness meditation can decrease

the stress level of the Psychology student sample. The participants engaged in a 1-week

intervention; along with answering a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest were executed

to identify if there will be a significant difference. The analyses revealed no significant

differences were found.

During the preliminary test, the participants scored significantly high which

suggests that the participants engaged in the experiment were evidently stressed, this can

be brought by (Ross, S.E., Niebling, & B.C., Heckert, T.M., 1999) stress related to

changes in lifestyle, increased workload, new responsibilities, and interpersonal

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relationships. This heightened level of stress was constant up until the results of the

delayed posttest.

Only a few studies were found that show no significant effect in reducing the

stress level using audio-guided mindfulness meditation. In a study entitled, “Distress

reduction for palliative Care patients and Families with 5-minute Mindful breathing: A

Pilot Study”, according to Tan Seng Beng et al., (2016), the result of their study showed

that it is insufficient to reduce the distress of the participants by using the 5-minute

Mindful breathing. Moreover, reported by the participants that they experienced relief

every after sessions this added a thought that the intervention might help to ease the

feeling of stress but in a short time only.

The limitation of the study is the span of the sessions administered in the study.

Given its limited time, it may not have provided sufficient aid to decrease the stress level

of the participants, likewise with the length of the audio-guided mindfulness meditation.

Further, the sample size of the study is too little to generalize the whole population which

might probably affect the result of the analysis (N = 11).

Another limitation of the study, this study was conducted online which results in

the incapability of the researchers to contain and control the possible extraneous

influences that affected the results of the study. Also, the absenteeism of participants

during the sessions could perhaps affect their own progress in the session, however,

adjustment to their schedule made them complete the 1-week session.

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Conclusion:

In an everyday life, people experience stress. It is the bodily reaction to an

adjustment that needs to respond, regulation in a psychological, physical, or emotional

adaptation according to Silverman et al., (2010). Moreover, it can develop from any

circumstances, condition, speculation or state just need to cause dissatisfaction, irritation,

nervounsess, and doubt.

In a 1-week intervention of 11 participants; measuring if the pre-test, post-test,

and delayed post-test has its significance to the stress level of psychology students, the

researchers concluded that the result of the intervention showed no significant effect on

the stress level of the psychology students.