Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jan 13, 2024
Date Accepted: Jul 24, 2024
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jul 24, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Exploring the Impact of Self-Care Program on Anxiety, Loneliness and Satisfaction with Life in High School Community: Results from a Randomized Survey Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
High anxiety levels have been found at increasing numbers after the COVID-19 global pandemic, negatively impacting the lives of many. The 4-week virtual Self-Care program, offered by the Heartfulness Institute, is designed to develop social-emotional skills through stress management and self-observation.
Objective:
This global study examined the effectiveness of the program on anxiety, loneliness, and satisfaction with life in high school students and staff in a randomized, wait-list control trial with baseline and post-intervention assessments.
Methods:
The sample consists of a total of 203 high school students and staff randomized into a control-waitlisted group (Students: n=57 and Staff: n=45) and a Heartfulness group (Students: n=57 and Staff: n=44) from three schools. Both the groups completed online surveys at weeks 0, 4 and 8, assessing their anxiety, loneliness, and satisfaction with life scores. Survey responses were each individually analyzed via a repeated measures ANOVA.
Results:
The virtual program was a positive intervention that offered support to the students and staff to build specific skills, such as reflection, observation, positivity, time management, and goal setting. There was a significant three-way interaction between Time, Group, and School showing a decrease in anxiety and loneliness scores and increase in the satisfaction with life scores (p <0.05).
Conclusions:
The pandemic brought severe educational and social changes that triggered a decline in mental health in schools. This study showed the effectiveness of noninvasive self-care tools used virtually to significantly decreased anxiety and loneliness scores and increased satisfaction of life scores in the participants. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05874232; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05874232
Citation
