The role of mind-body bridging-based university psychology course for students’ well-being

Abstract

A high incidence of stress has been observed among university students, leading to a decrease in their well-being. A vast body of research highlights the importance of stress management, and a line of studies has emerged on mindfulness-based interventions. The present study examined university students’ well-being in the context of a psychology course based on mind-body bridging (MBB), an evidence-based treatment to reduce stress when the origins of the dysfunctional behavior lie in an overactive biopsychosocial mechanism called the Identity-System (I-System). MBB’s objectives in recognizing and resting the I-System are twofold: to enhance present-focused awareness of the body, thoughts, and emotions and to promote metacognitive strategies through awareness and understanding of thought processes. The data set consisted of 35 students’ learning diaries, which included reflections on the MBB approach. Thematic analysis identified the key dimensions of students’ wellbeing, i.e., stress awareness and active coping; optimistic future-orientation; and self-knowledge and self-compassion. The findings reveal the significant meaning of MBB on all these dimensions of students’ well-being. This article concludes by discussing the use and usefulness of the MBB approach in the higher education context.

Keywords:

• well-being
• university students
• Mind-Body Bridging
• stress management

Acknowledgements

The current research was conducted as part of a stress management program in the psychology curriculum at the Faculty of Education at the University of Oulu in collaboration with the authors of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics approval

The data were collected in line with the protocol of Finnish National Board of Ethics in Research, which does not require institutional review board approval. Written consent to use the data was obtained from the participants, who were informed about the research publication.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to sensitivity of the individual privacy of the participants and neither therefore openly available.

Author’s contribution statement

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Virva Siira. Analysis was performed by Maria Petäjäniemi as a main analyst regularly assessing the process with Sonja Lutovac, Raimo Kaasila and Virva Siira. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Virva Siira and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

Author’s work was supported by the Academy of Finland (grants 307672 and 332232). Academy of Finland exercised no oversight in the design and execution of the research, nor the writing of this article.