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- Title
Therapeutic psychological and biological responses to mindfulness‐based art therapy.
- Authors
Beerse, Megan E.; Van Lith, Theresa; Stanwood, Gregg
- Abstract
Stress and anxiety pose a threat to college students' academic performance as well as their long‐term mental and physical health, but the time constraints of a rigorous academic schedule make it difficult to offer even brief mental health interventions. A convenience sample of full‐time students at a public university was recruited for a 5‐week study conducted mostly using an online platform. Participants were randomly assigned to a Mindfulness‐Based Art Therapy (MBAT) intervention or a Neutral Clay Task (NCT). Anxiety, perceived stress, and salivary cortisol outcomes were measured. A total of n = 77 participants completed the study. The MBAT group experienced significant reductions in anxiety and perceived stress compared to the NCT group. Significant reductions in salivary cortisol were observed, but only time could be identified as a confounding variable. Art making alone is not enough to induce significant positive responses, but this study suggests MBAT can, and that an online intervention could offer feasible and accessible mental health services on college campuses. Further refinement of biological data collection and analysis is needed to determine what the mediating effects MBAT could have, if any, at the molecular level.
- Subjects
SALIVA analysis; ANXIETY; ART therapy; PSYCHOLOGY of college students; HYDROCORTISONE; STATISTICAL sampling; PSYCHOLOGICAL stress; RANDOMIZED controlled trials; TREATMENT effectiveness; MINDFULNESS
- Publication
Stress & Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 2020, Vol 36, Issue 4, p419
- ISSN
1532-3005
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/smi.2937