Research

The impact of mindfulness practice on reducing anxiety in

college students
Introduction
College students’ mental health issues have become increasingly
serious over the past few years, attracting more attention. At the
same time, it has also been found that depression and anxiety are
common psychological problems in this group [1], especially when
students in a constant state of anxiety and depression eventually
become depressed [2]. Depression often manifests itself in the
form of lack of motivation, reduced will, sleep disturbance, and
low academic efficiency, and in severe cases, even self-harm and
suicidal ideation or behavior [3]. According to the American
College Health Associa tion, the rate of college students
diagnosed with depres- sion has exceeded 15% since 2008 [4]
and college students are gradually becoming more susceptible to
suicide [5].Depression among college students has been
increasing over the past decade [6]. In China, the current depres-
sion detection rate among college students is also as high as
31.35% and is on the rise [7], therefore it has become particularly
important to seek the causal mechanisms or methods to prevent
and address depression problems. In this article, we explored
psychological resilience as a pops- sable mediator of
mindfulness’s effect on depression and gender. Mindfulness is an
attribute of consciousness that origin anted in Eastern Buddhism
and enhances physical and mental health [8], and is defined as
non-judgmental, intentional attention and awareness of the here
and now [9]. The principles and methods of mindfulness were first
applied in practice in 1979 [10] and are now widely used
Worldwide as a method for maintaining mental health In addition
to being a skill, mindfulness is a way of life (12). Mindfulness has
a strong therapeutic effect emotional well-being, and the higher
the level of mind fullness, the less distress an individual
experiences (13).Due to its ability to increase emotion and
attention regulation through awareness, stress, depression, and
subjective well-being have been positively influenced by
mindfulness in adolescents [14]. Research has also shown that
interventions based on mindfulness effective for emotional and
behavioral regulation in adolescents. Benefiting pro-social
behavior and mental health, reduce- in anxiety and depression
symptoms, for example [15]. It has also been suggested that
mindfulness exercises can be used as a means of preventing
depressive mood while increasing college students’ mindfulness
[16]. Some related studies even found that students depressive
moods were lower when they were mindful [17]. That is, a high
level of mindfulness in college students allows them to focus
positively on the problem they’re facing and on the problem itself,
enabling individuals to disengage from negative emotions and
avoid depressive moods. It has also been found that after a period
of mindfulness park- tice, college students in a depressed state
can divert their attention from events that cause negative
emotions and actively regulate their negative emotions, which
can help reduce depression and anxiety [18]. In summary, this
study hypothesized that mindfulness negatively predicted
depression in college students.
The mediation of psychological resilience
Psychological resilience refers to one’s ability to adapt to
challenges and adverse events [19], such as trauma, threats, or
other significant stressors. In addition, it is a defense mechanism
for thriving in adversity [20] and pre- venting depression [21].
Individuals with low psychology- call resilience are more likely to
be unable to cope with adversity and thus react pathologically,
while people who are strong psychological resilience escape it
more easily Mindfulness, an important element of psychological
protection, not only enhances levels of psychological resilience,
but also significantly and positively predictions Psychological
resilience [23]. A study of mindfulness interventions with college
students found that mindful- ness practice not only increased
levels of psychology- call resilience but also correspondingly
improved their depression [9]. A foreign meta-analytic study
found that trait mindfulness can positively and positively predict
psychological resilience [24], while mindfulness train- in can also
enhance the level of psychological resilience [25]. By testing 431
Chinese medical students, Xu Xin et al. [26] found that
mindfulness helped medical stub dents better cope with stress
and improve depression by enhancing their levels of psychological
resilience. It has also been demonstrated that psychological
resilience may also be beneficial for individuals struggling with
depres sion, anxiety and other emotional disorders [27]. In this
study, psychological resilience was hypothesized to be a
mediating factor between mindfulness and depressed mood in
college students.
The present study
Mindfulness may be one of the most important predict- tors of
depressed mood among college students, so how mindfulness
influence depressed mood among college students? The
underlying mechanisms investigated are inadequate, and little is
known from previous research. Existing research suggests that
mindfulness has a positive effect on depression, for example,
positive psychology takes a perspective to explain that positive
resources and volition can act as protective factors to reduce the
inch dance of depression. Our study investigated the mediate in
effect of psychological resilience in the association between
mindfulness and college student depression, as well as the
moderating role of gender. We hypothesized that psychological
resilience would mediate the asocial tion between mindfulness
and depression among college students. Gender might moderate
the first half of the pathway of mindfulness
Study hypothesis
Our study focused on the link between mindfulness and
depression among college students, as well as the internal
mechanisms at work. Mindfulness, psychological resell- fence and
depression among college students were mesa rued in an online
questionnaire. Based on these research objectives, we formulated
3 hypotheses: (1) H1: Mind- fullness has a significant predictive
effect on depression in college students. (2) H2: Psychological
resilience is a mediator between mindfulness and depression in
college students. (3) H3 gender might moderate between mind-
fullness and psychological resilience. In summary, a substantial
percentage of college stub dents struggle with depression, and an
attempt to find and discover some factors and their mechanisms
that can better resist and reduce the risk of depression from the
perspective of positive psychology may provide practical
references and guidance for the prevention and intervene tion
related to college students’ mental health problems. In order to
comprehensively explore the effects of mind- fullness on college
students depression levels and its mechanisms, this paper aims to
build a moderated media- action model based on previous studies
(See Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 Hypothesstening model
Methods and instruments

Subjects College students from three universities in Jiangxi Prove

nice, China were recruited using a stratified sampling method
between April 20 and May 1, 2023. The recruited students were
freshmen to seniors, and all participants were asked to complete
the questionnaire anonymously on Questionnaire Star (a
smartphone and web-based questionnaire platform). The
questionnaire was com- pelted by 936 of the 1000 college
students recruited for this study, yielding a valid response rate of
93.6%. The average age of the university students who took part
in the test was 20±1.96, with 512 male students (54.71%) and
424 female students (45.29%). The trial was approved in advance
by members of the Academic Committee of Science and
Technology College, Nanchang Hang Kong University, and every
subject signed an informed consent form.

The questionnaire for this study used a version that has been
used and widely proven, and its validity. And reliability are not in
question. Also, following its administration, we evaluated the
questionnaire’s valid it and reliability, and there were no problems
with the actual test.

Measurements

Mindfulness
The Level of mindfulness Scale was adapted from the Adolescent
Level of mindfulness Scale developed by Greco et al. [33]. The
original scale, which assesses a person’s level of mindfulness, has
10 items with a 5-point Liker scale that range from “never” to
“always.” (e.g., “I have some bad thoughts and I don’t think I
should have them “). The scale is reverse scored, and the higher
the total score, the higher the level of mind fullness. The internal
consistency coefficient of the scale in this study, Cronbach’s a
was 0.91.
Psychological resilience
The Psychological Resilience Scale developed by Block and
Kerman [34] was used. The original measure con sits of 14 items
(e.g., “Most people I’ve met are cute”) and is graded on a range
of 1 to 4 points (1= “not at all”, 4= “completely”), and the
components were added up to create the entire scale score. The
greater the total score, the more psychological resilience was
shown to exist. The scale’s internal consistency coefficient in the
current investigation was 0.92.
Depression
The Depression Self-Rating Scale used in this study was
developed by W.K. Zing in 1965 [35]. The scale has 20 items
(egg.. “I think others would live better if I died”) and uses a 4-
point Likert scale (1= “no or little time”, 4= “constantly”), half of
the items were reverse scored, with higher scores indicating more
severe depression. The internal consistency coefficient of the
questionnaire was 0.84 in the actual test.
Statistical methods Descriptive statistics and a correlation
analysis of the data were performed using SPSS 24.0., and
PROCESS 3.4 was used for mediating and moderating effect
analysis.

Results
Common method bias and test
Because the data for this study were gathered by quest tinnier
using random sampling, there is a possibility of common data
bias, and a bias test is required. For the test, we employed the
Harman single-factor technique and discovered that there were
ten eigenvalues greater than one. The first component explained
23.52% of the variation, which was less than the crucial criterion
of 40%, and there was common technique bias.
Descriptive statistics of each variable
The descriptive statistics and correlations of each. Variable are
shown in Table 1 mindfulness were sig- militantly positively
correlated with psychological resell- lance try = 0.22 p < 0.01 )
and significantly negatively. Correlated with depression among
college students iota*r = - 0.36 p < 0.01 ) psychological resilience
was signify- cantle negatively correlated with depression among
col loge students (r = - 0.45, p < 0.01)

Mediation test of psychological resilience The mediating

effect of psychological
Resilience on mindfulness on depressed mood in college students
was. Analyzed while controlling for gender and grade vary- bales.
The data were processed using PROCESS model 4, and the results
showed (in Table 2) that mindfulness had a significant negative
effect on depression in college students( beta = - 0.37 p<0.001);
After putting in the medi ating variable psychological resilience,
mindfulness still had a significant positive effect on psychological
resil ience (6=0.21, p<0.001) and considerably and negatively
influenced collegiate depression beta = - 0.4L p < 0.001 )
Psychological resilience significantly and negatively influenced
depression among college students ( beta = - 0.29 ,p<0.001). The
results of the mediation analysis showed that the mediation effect
of psychological resilience in mindfulness on depressed mood of
college students held with a mediation effect value of 0.08 and
with a media- tion effect of 22.22%, its 95% Bootstrap confidence
inter- vale was -0.12,-0.05).

Tests for moderating effects of gender

Positively predicted psychological resilience signify cantle
(p=0.09, p<0.01), demonstrating that gender has a moderating
effect on the impact of mindfulness on psychological resilience. To
further understand the gender difference of mindfulness on
psychologi cal resilience, a simple slope analysis was conducted.
(as shown in Fig. 21. The results showed that when the gender
was male, the level of mindfulness mod- generated psychological
resilience significantly (simple slope = 0.22, 14.92, p<0.001);
when the gender was female, the level of mindfulness also
moderated pay- chological resilience significantly (simple
slope=0.34. t=2.83, p<0.01). Compared to male students, the
level of mindfulness predicted stronger psychological resil- ience
in female students, which means that female col lege students’
psychological resilience increases as their mindfulness level
increases.
The variables were standardized to test whether der moderated
the relationship between mindfulness, psychological resilience,
and depressed mood among college students, and the data were
processed using Process model 7. The findings revealed (see Table
3) that mindfulness negatively predicted college students
depressed mood significantly (-0.21, p<0.001) and positively
predicted psychological resilience (0.22, p<0.001). The product
term of mindfulness and gender
Table 1 Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis
P<0.001

Discussion

This study examined the process by which mindfulness affects

college students’ depressed mood and its mecha nism of action,
as well as the mediating roles played by psychological resilience
and gender. The study’s findings help us better grasp the
connection between mindfulness and depressed mood of college
students and its internal mechanism of action. This study’s
findings, which are consistent with earlier studies, indicate that
mindfulness has a predictive effect on depressed mood among
college students [36]. In other words, the higher the level of
mindfulness, the lower the depressive mood of college students
will be. The reason for this is that, conscious awareness,
mindfulness training enhances college students’ attention and
cogni- tive functions, avoiding falling into rumination, nega tive
thinking [37] and paying more attention to positive stimuli [38].
Positive attention leads to increased emo tional regulation in
individuals and college students are less likely to become
depressed. This suggests that in order to present an empirical
basis for the detection and treatment of depression in college
students, focus should be directed to the practice of positive
attention levels in students.
Through the mediating role of psychological resil ience, mediation
analysis demonstrated that mindful- ness can also affect college
students’ depression. Previous researchers have also concluded
that practicing mind fulness can strengthen people’s capacity for
activity motivation, regulation, and cognition as well as their
psychological resistance to stress [24]. As a psychologi cal
protective factor, psychological resilience is indeed able to
recover individuals from bad moods quickly [39], When faced with
a difficult situation, people who have Greater psychological
resilience are more likely to over- come negative emotions while
maintaining more positive, objective, and optimistic psychological
qualities [40], and to avoid depression, reduce de-automation and
avoid- ance behaviors, and quickly adapt to their environment.
Because this study discovered a function for psychologi cal
resilience in moderating the relationship between mindfulness
and depression among college students, practice implies
increasing the amount of psychological resilience. Strengthen the
external protective support. For college students, such as social
support from family and school [41, 42], while concentrating on
the devel opment of college students themselves, such as enhanc
ing self-awareness, self-control, and self-confidence [43, 44), to
create a benign external atmosphere. Therefore, a school
administrator, when intervening in the psy chological problems of
college students, we should not only concentrate on the training
of mindfulness level of college students, but also on function of
“bridge” of pay chological resilience, so as to reduce the
generation of depressive mood.
Furthermore, this study found that the first half of the mediating
effect between mindfulness on depressed mood among college
students was moderated by gen- der. Although the level of
mindfulness significantly pre- dicted psychological resilience in
both male and female university students, yet compared with
male students, this study finds that mindfulness exert a more
appar ent influence on the psychological resilience of female
students. Gender could moderate the influence of psy- chological
resilience on depression. The mindfulness. Stress Model theory
suggests that after positive cog- nitive appraisal, individuals’
attention spans expand, reconstructing their perceptions of
stressful events and enhancing levels of psychological resilience
(45). Girls are therefore more likely to benefit from mindfulness
traits. It has also been shown that a group of adolescents who
underwent a 6-week positive meditation intervention. Had a more
significant increase in positive emotions in girls compared to boys
(28), which reinforces the gender differences in the effects of
positive meditation interven- tions. The psychological resilience of
female university students is more influenced by the effect of
mindfulness level compared to male students, and the reason for
this is that both females and males may show improvement in
positive emotions after training in mindfulness [46], but females
are significantly higher than males in terms of emotional self-
acceptance and a larger cognitive range [47]. Therefore, when
individuals face stress, female col lege students’ mindfulness
practices are a more power- fully beneficial predictor of
psychological resilience. This result enlightens educators to
conduct different strategies of mindfulness training according to
gender differences and the different personal and physiological
characteris tics of male and female college students, which will
help to enhance the level of psychological resilience and thus
more effectively prevent and intervene in depression among
college students.
Implications and shortcomings of the study This study found
the effects of mindfulness on college students’ depression, as well
as the mediating role of psy chological resilience and the
moderating role of gender through a survey study of 936 current
college students. Introducing the related theory of psychological
elastic- ity to the field of college students’ depression further
expands the theory of college students’ depressed mood. On the
one hand, it helps to guide college students to strengthen the
training of mindfulness traits to alleviate depression, on the other
hand, school administrations can appropriately offer courses on
mindfulness training. Emphasize the cultivation of psychological
resilience, and provide different support for male and female
college stu- dents to alleviate depression among college students.

This study also has certain shortcomings. First, the research

methodology used a self-assessment model of college students to
collect information from question- naires, and subjective reports
may have errors, so mul- tiple sources of data collection can be
considered in the future. Second, this study used a cross-sectional
study, but it is not possible to predict the long-term validity of the
results over a period of time, and a longitudinal study could be
considered. In addition, college students depressed mood is
influenced by a variety of factors, and there are many other
factors that affect the mediating or moderating variables, so more
factors can be explored in depth in the future. Finally the
sampling range can be expanded so that the sample can be more
representative.
Conclusion
This study investigated the underlying mechanisms of the
association between mindfulness and college student depression
and constructed a structural model of mind- fulness,
psychological resilience, gender, and college stu dent depression.
This study suggests that mindfulness may not only have a direct
effect on college students’ depression, but may also have an
indirect effect on depression through psychological resilience. At
the same time, gender plays a moderating role in the direct
predic- tive effect of mindfulness on psychological resilience, in
other words, mindfulness has a greater effect on psycho- logical
resilience in female college students.
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i
Submitted to : Mam tahmina
Submitted by : Rizwana Aslam
Superior group of college shahpur
sadar