Effectiveness of a Stress Management Program in Reducing Anxiety and Depression in Nursing Students

Abstract

This study sought to develop a stress management program based on the arousal-attribution stress model and to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in reducing anxiety and depression experienced by nursing students. Forty-two sophomore and 34 senior nursing students in a private, sectarian, liberal arts college were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. All subjects were given pre- and posttests consisting of the State form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Institute for Personality and Ability Testing Depression Scale. Posttest analysis indicated that the experimental group had significantly lower anxiety and depression than the control group (p < .05). These results support the use of the arousal-attribution stress model as a theoretical framework for stress management training.

Key Words:

• Anxiety
• depression
• stress management