Self-Guided Mindfulness Reduces College Student Anxiety: A Scalable, Preregistered Pilot Study

Abstract

Objectives

Undergraduate and graduate students have reported rising rates of anxiety that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, possibly related to heightened intolerance of uncertainty. The present preregistered pilot study investigated whether psychoeducational wellness programs based on behavioral activation or mindfulness were associated with greater improvement in anxiety relative to a survey-only control condition over 8 weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moderating or mediating effects of intolerance of uncertainty were tested.

Method

University students (n = 298) were recruited in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic and randomly assigned to one of three groups: one of two psychoeducational wellness programs (based on mindfulness or behavioral activation, respectively) or a survey-only control. Symptoms were assessed longitudinally over 8 weeks. Analyses tested for group differences in anxiety over time, as well as the moderating effect of intolerance of uncertainty at baseline and group differences in changes in intolerance of uncertainty over time.

Results

Results showed that anxiety significantly improved across all groups (p < 0.01, η_p² = 0.18). Participants in the mindfulness psychoeducational group reported a significantly greater decline in anxiety over the 8 weeks than participants in other (survey-only control or behavioral activation-based) groups (p-values ≤ 0.04, η_p² ≥ 0.01). Higher engagement (frequency) in either mindfulness or behavioral activation was associated with reduced anxiety (p < 0.01, η_p² = 0.25). Intolerance of uncertainty neither moderated nor mediated these effects.

Conclusions

Results suggest that scalable, psychoeducation-based programming may reduce anxiety among students, representing a promising option to augment other campus resources.

Preregistration

Analyses were preregistered on Open Science Framework (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/WX25V) following the completion of data collection; no data visualization or analysis took place prior to the analysis preregistration.