Awareness As a Vehicle for Well-Being: College Students’ Lived Experiences Participating in a Mindfulness-Based Intervention During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

College students are experiencing increasing rates of mental health problems, with difficulties exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) has demonstrated efficacy in treating psychological problems and promoting well-being within this population. Less well-understood, however, are MBSR participants’ perceptions of the mechanisms underlying this therapeutic change. The current qualitative study examined nonclinical college students’ experiences participating in a randomized controlled trial of an online adaptation of MBSR, administered during the fall 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants who had recently completed the MBSR course. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants described greater self-awareness, relational awareness, present-moment awareness, and body awareness as resulting in improved emotion regulation, empathy, communication, and well-being, while reducing anxiety and physical pain. These findings support and extend other theoretical models of change in mindfulness-based interventions. The results further suggest that online MBSR adaptations may be beneficial in promoting mental health for college students and that cultivating greater awareness may help in bolstering psychological well-being within this population.

KEYWORDS:

• Awareness
• college students
• MBSR
• mindfulness
• qualitative

Acknowledgments

This research was generously supported by funding from the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation. We are grateful to all the students who participated in the MBSR program, and for the research assistants involved on this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The dataset analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation.