Imagine taking a course entitled “Writing your undergraduate thesis under less stress.” It’s a real course offered at a Brazilian university in order to study the effects of meditation on scholastic success.

By teaching 34 students how to meditate, the researchers saw significantly less incidents of depression in 31 of them, reduced anxiety in 23 of them, and lowered stress in 21 of them. Other measures had produced less effective results, lowering the incidence of each disorder by 20, 15 and 9 students. 

The students also reported having less severe symptoms. The university in Rio Grande du Sul was inspired to find an effective intervention after noting that a surprisingly high number of senior students struggled with depression, anxiety, and stress. These symptoms arise from academic pressure to perform, tight deadlines, lack of confidence when making presentations, tension to find the right career path, the burden of producing a thesis, and worries about investing time and money in school without a guarantee that it would lead to a job.

Meditation offered the students an affordable way to manage their stress levels, rather than turning to medication or therapy. Researchers teamed up from Portugal and Brazil to determine how much meditation would be required to see worthwhile results. Ultimately, they determined that the number of meditation sessions didn’t really matter; even brief periods of mindfulness helped the students cope better. 

The next step would be to determine why it works in so many students but not all. In terms of helpful intervention, universities can offer this type of training to students to help them find greater success as they quell the stress that can undermine their confidence and performance.

Resources: https://www.psypost.org/2021/02/brief-meditation-shown-to-reduce-depression-anxiety-and-stress-in-senior-students-59848

“Effects of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Senior Students”, Trends in Psychology, July, 2020.