Effect of short-term mindfulness intervention on anxiety and perceptual stress among senior high school students / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the internal mechanism of short-term mindfulness intervention in reducing individual anxiety and stress perception. Methods Totally 134 subjects were recruited and ran-domized into attention group ( n=53),acceptance group ( n=41) and control group ( n=40). Attention group received observation of breathing intervention program,acceptance group received acceptance of nega-tive emotions intervention program and the control group did not intervene mindfulness and read the social science materials of history. Before and after intervention,cancelled tasks were used to stimulate anxiety and stress perception,and self-rating anxiety scale and Chinese perceived stress scale ( CPSS) were used to measure anxiety and stress perception level,and the results of cancelled tasks were recorded. Variance analy-sis and multiple linear regression were used for data statistics. Results The changes of anxiety in attention group and acceptance group((-1. 44±2. 42)and(-1. 06±2. 58)) were significantly higher than that in con-trol group(0. 08±2. 56) (both P<0. 01). On the basis of controlling the changes of gender,age,number of cancellations and pre-test anxiety,the differences between groups had no significantly predictive effect on pre-cancellative anxiety(P>0. 05). The attention group had significant predictive effect on anxiety in post-projec-ted cancellative task compared with the control group (t=-2. 84,P<0. 01),while the acceptance group had no significant predictive effect on anxiety in post-projected cancellative task compared with the control group (P>0. 05). Conclusion Attention and acceptance play different roles in short-term mindfulness training. Attention factor in mindfulness plays a key role in reducing anxiety level in individual tasks.