Medical students report high levels of psychological distress compared to the general population, yet they also underutilize mental health services. Our Mindfulness-Based Art Workshops (MBAW) combine two established, formal interventions: (a) Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, an 8-week group series teaching mindfulness practices, shown to reduce…

The aim of this study was to assess whether a music intervention, compared to no music intervention, influences stress and anxiety levels and academic performance of undergraduate nursing students enrolled in their first semester of nursing coursework. Nursing students experience higher levels of stress than students in any other health science…

This mixed-method Writing-for-wellbeing pilot study used a pre-post-follow-up design with 20 adults in two groups (10 in a bereaved group and 10 in a non-death/living losses group) to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of a longitudinal writing intervention in helping participants to work through their grief.…

Previous studies have reported that adolescents were at higher risk for mental health disorders during and after the COVID-19 pandemic due to the characteristics of their developmental period and to the impact of social and mobility restrictions on their daily routines. In response to these reports, we designed, implemented, and evaluated the…

Student mental health disorders have seen an uptick in prevalence in the United States within the past five years. The current study explores the idea of improving student mental resilience as a way to combat the rising percentages of students who suffer from mental disorders. The study uses a mixed-method design that quantitatively includes an…

Internalizing problems may be associated with poor academic performance and school absenteeism among youth. This study investigated the impact of the EMOTION: "Coping Kids" Managing Anxiety and Depression Program on academic achievement and school adaptation in children. Data were collected in a national cluster-randomized controlled…

We used Allport's (1954) intergroup contact theory as a framework to test the effectiveness of 2 vicarious contact interventions on improving attitudes toward undocumented immigrants. The first intervention was DREAMzone, a 4-hr ally certification workshop. The second intervention was a 30-min documentary film chronicling the stories of 5…

This experimental study examined the validity of 3 underlying mechanisms that have been proposed in the research literature to explain the anxiety-reducing effect of coloring mandalas: distraction, structure, and centering. Four conditions were tested: (a) freely coloring a mandala, (b) coloring a mandala with preset colors, (c) freely drawing a…

Purpose: To investigate the efficiency of a single-session character-strength-based cognitive intervention on enhancing freshmen's adaptability. Method: A randomized trial, pretest, posttest, follow-up intervention was employed using repeated-measures analyses to evaluate the effect. This 90-min intervention contained four activities with 52…

Background: Parenting behaviors have consistently been shown to be associated with elevated anxiety symptoms and disorders in children. However, this literature is limited as most studies have focused on global rather than specific parenting behaviors, failed to consistently account for the influence of parental anxiety, and omitted examining…

This study examined the effects of an intuitive eating (IE) text messaging intervention on the IE habits, perceived stress, and perceived self-efficacy of college students in comparison to an electronically emailed handout with the same information. Undergraduate students at a Midwestern university (n = 300) completed a pre-intervention survey…

An educational intervention using forgiveness as the goal was implemented with 10 at-risk adolescents attending an alternative school in a Midwestern city. The adolescents ranged in age from 15 to 19 years of age. A randomized experimental and active control group pre- and post-test design was used. Twenty-one participants were randomly assigned…

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of an interdisciplinary program of Greek folk dance music and sociology on 8th grade Middle school student satisfaction and anxiety level. To evaluate students' anxiety and satisfaction the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 and Duda and Nicholls' Satisfaction questionnaire were used…

Social skills training is a long-standing intervention for adolescents with social anxiety, while self-esteem is often ignored. However, there is little evidence suggesting that those with social anxiety require social skills training or interventions associated with self-esteem. The aim of the research was to investigate whether social skills and…

Increased anxiety and stress are frequently found in children with autism spectrum disorder and are associated with social challenges. Recently, we reported changes in social competence following peer-mediated, theatre-based intervention. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the intervention on reducing anxiety and stress.…