Mindfulness, Resilience and Psychological Distress among Youth in a University Setting

ABSTRACT

Background: University students experience psychological distress during their first year of joininguniversity and this can have a negative impact on their physical and mental health. Resilience andmindfulness can reduce stress and can help to enhance their coping and wellbeing. To investigate therelationship between mindfulness, resilience and psychological distress among first year undergraduateuniversity students.Methodology: The cross- sectional study was conducted at Tezpur University, Assam and the University ofScience, Technology and Management, Meghalaya. Purposive sampling was used to select the universities.A total of 300 participants were selected for the present study using convenience sampling technique. Sociodemographic data sheet, the Resilience scale, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21, and Freiburg MindfulnessInventory was administered.Results: In the study, 9.5% were having moderate level of depression, 6.7% had a severe level of anxietyand 1.4% had extremely severe level of anxiety. 15.4 % had moderate level of stress. 3.2% had a very lowlevel of resilience. Psychological distress had significant negative correlation with mindfulness (r= -0.229; p> 0.01) and resilience (r = -0.325; p > 0.01). Resilience (Beta= -0.283, t= -4.857; p= 0.0001) and Mindfulness(Beta= -0.149; t= -2.566; p= 0.01) strongly contributed to the variance on the overall psychological distress(depression, anxiety & stress).Conclusion: The findings show resilience and mindfulness are significant predictors of psychologicaldistress among university students. There is a need for resilience and mindfulness-based training programmefor the university first year students