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Impact of a Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Course and Application of Related Modern Contemplative Practices on College Students’ Psychological Well-being: a Pilot Study

Mindfulness volume 8, pages 911–919 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

The intent of the current research was to explore the impact of a specific Tibetan Buddhist meditation course containing a lab for applied practice of modern techniques upon psychological well-being in college students. We evaluated the impact of a semester-long undergraduate Tibetan Buddhist meditation course on the psychological well-being of 205 students and assessed whether changes in well-being were mediated by mindfulness. The course was composed of two weekly lectures regarding the tradition and modern applications of meditation, respectively, and a weekly lab in which the students were taught a survey of related modern contemplative techniques to practice. Students were assessed at the beginning, middle, and end of the course, and their time spent practicing the exercises were prospectively recorded. Participants reported statistically significant increases in self-reported mindfulness, self-compassion, and positive coping and significant decreases in self-reported anxiety. Mindfulness was a significant predictor of changes in self-compassion and anxiety. These results suggest that a large lecture course with weekly meditation practice can have a positive impact on the psychological well-being of students and that some of these changes are mediated by mindfulness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Virginia School of Medicine, Box 800623, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Jennifer Kim Penberthy, Susanna Williams, Ngan Le & John Schorling

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia School of Medicine, PO Box 800623, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Jennifer Kim Penberthy

  3. Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Joshua N. Hook & Jacob Bloch

  4. University College Cork School of Medicine, Cork, Ireland

    Justin Forsyth

  5. Department of Psychology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Jennifer Morgan Penberthy

  6. Department of Religion, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    David Germano & Kurtis Schaeffer

Authors
  1. Jennifer Kim Penberthy
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  2. Susanna Williams
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  3. Joshua N. Hook
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  4. Ngan Le
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  5. Jacob Bloch
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  6. Justin Forsyth
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  7. Jennifer Morgan Penberthy
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  8. David Germano
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  9. Kurtis Schaeffer
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  10. John Schorling
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer Kim Penberthy.

Ethics declarations

This study was approved by the UVA Institutional Review Board-Social and Behavioral Sciences and has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. All persons involved participated voluntarily and provided their consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Penberthy, J.K., Williams, S., Hook, J.N. et al. Impact of a Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Course and Application of Related Modern Contemplative Practices on College Students’ Psychological Well-being: a Pilot Study. Mindfulness 8, 911–919 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0665-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0665-y

Keywords

  • Mindfulness
  • College students
  • Well-being
  • Meditation
  • Buddhist