Mindfulness and Anxiety: Comparing Meditation and Coloring as Stress- Reducing Activities Victoria Cheske Gennifer Durham Daniel McMaster Dimitrios Kritikos

Why do people get “stressed”?

About Stress Future-oriented thinking Psychological and physiological Two types of stress: State anxiety Trait anxiety  perfectionism

About Perfectionism Higher predispositions to anxiety are found in students that report high levels of perfectionism (Kandemir 2013) Have a very difficult time with stress management (Klibert et al. 2014) Is perfectionism another more definitive, specific way to look at trait anxiety?

Coping With Stress 1) Maladaptive 40% of college students binge-drink at least once each year (Comer 2014) 2) Positive Mindfulness

What is Mindfulness? Complete awareness of the present moment Allows individuals to monitor and adjust their stress response (Christopher & Maris 2010) One of the four therapeutic principles in dialectical behavior therapy

What are some examples of mindfulness activities?

Meditation Focusing attention on thoughts, feelings, and sensations Goal: reach some sort of self-awareness and concentration on the present moment

How is Meditation “Mindful”? Form of self-regulation Intentionally activate the body’s relaxation responses (Edenfield & Saeed 2012).

Coloring and Drawing Channels creativity and attention to detail Goal: create or express something that represents some experience or idea

How are Coloring and Drawing “Mindful”? Coloring promotes relaxation and stress-relief; Different types of coloring can yield different amounts of stress reduction (Curry and Kasser 2005) Making art can significantly decrease anxiety levels (Sandmire, Gorham, Rankin, & Grimm 2012)

So far, we can deduce… 1.Perfectionism is related to anxiety 2.Mindfulness leads to reduced anxiety 3.Meditation and coloring are mindfulness activities Which leads us to…

Research Questions How do different mindfulness practices influence state anxiety levels? How do differing levels of perfectionism interact with this effect?

Overview of Procedure 1. First Survey – predispositions to trait anxiety; current levels of state anxiety (Time 1 – Pre-Test) 2. Mindfulness Activity – coloring or meditation for 10 minutes 3. Second Survey – current levels of state anxiety (Time 2 – Post-Test) 4. Cognitive Task (Cover Story) – math test for 15 minutes

Cover Story: Explained Informed participants that we were measuring state of mind on cognitive abilities This way, participants would not predict the purpose of our experiment Administered a math test which evaluated basic arithmetic knowledge

Participants Recruited by convenience sampling 20 males, 20 females Holy Cross students

1. First Survey First survey, which consists of questions which aim to measure the following: Perfectionism – 5 questions State anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) – 5 questions Scale of 1-5, maximum score of 25 for each quality measured Sample question: 1 = Not noticeable, 5 = Extremely noticeable I feel calm

2. Mindfulness Activity Randomly assigned to one of four activities: Meditation 1) Formal Meditation (FM) 2) Informal Meditation (IM) Coloring 3) Formal Coloring (FC) 4) Informal Coloring (IC)

Meditation Groups Formal “Mini Break for Work or Study” by Mary and Richard Maddux Informal “Yoga, Meditation, and Relaxation Music” by Deep Sleep Music Delta Binaural 432 Hz

Coloring Groups FormalInformal

3. Second Survey Second survey, which consists of 5 State Anxiety questions (STAI) Scale of 1-5, maximum score of 25 Measures the changes in state anxiety from Time 1 (First Survey) to Time 2 (Second Survey)

4. Cognitive Task (Cover Story) 15 minutes of a math test (entry-level placement review test taken from a community college) Sample question: A movie theater has seats arranged in 25 rows with 30 seats in each row. How many seats are in the theater? A) 55 B) 110 C) 750 D) 562,500

Variables and Design 2 x 2 x 4 mixed factorial, repeated measures design Independent variables (IVs): 1)Predispositions to anxiety – perfectionism (high or low – between-subjects) 2)Mindfulness activities (FM, IM, FC, IC – between-subjects) 3)Time series (before and after – within-subjects) Dependent variable (DV): state anxiety levels from Time 1 (T1) to Time 2 (T2)

Other Interactions to Consider Gender Which gender is indicative of higher trait anxiety predispositions? Which gender performed better on the cognitive task? Cognitive task How do state and trait levels influence cognitive abilities? Which mindfulness activity correlates with higher scores?

What we thought would happen Guided meditation would provide highest stress relief Informal/free coloring would provide lowest stress relief Could not hypothesize how participants with high/low perfectionism scores would benefit from mindfulness activities (no previous research) Guessed that those with high perfectionism would show more stress reduction over time than those with low perfectionism

What really happened…

Which activity reduced stress the most? Main Effect of Time P=.000 Time X Activity P=.137 Contributing to Time Guided Meditation Free Coloring Coloring Mandalas Contributing to Interaction Free Meditation

How did perfectionism affect stress relief? Median Split Split at 17 Perfectionism and Before Scores p=.043 Perfectionism x Time p=.085

What does it mean? One part of our hypothesis was right – guided meditation provided the most stress relief Other part was incorrect – free coloring was second most beneficial, not least beneficial Higher perfectionism groups showed greater stress relief than lower perfectionism groups Perfectionism acted as a predictor of trait anxiety

Applications College-promoted and –hosted mindfulness-based study breaks for students Art and music studios made more available to students who would like to take advantage of these opportunities

Moving Forward – Future Research Larger samples (>10 participants per condition) Better sampling (more random) A better, more even distribution of high and low perfectionists per group Find out more specifically why low perfectionism scores yielded an increase in state anxiety levels with only free meditation Work toward the systematic development of mindfulness programs to college students

Thank you!