Abstract

Rates of depression, anxiety, and stress have been increasing and college students are especially at risk. College counseling centers often have long waitlists and have difficulty addressing the growing need for psychotherapy. Researchers have suggested that depression and anxiety may arise because of low levels of eudaimonia and self-compassion. Depression and anxiety not only have a toll on mental health but on physical health as well, as researchers have observed decreased HRV in individuals with depression and anxiety. To address the disparity between available resources and treatment need, applied mental health classes were developed to see if teaching psychotherapeutic principles in the classroom setting would lead to decreases in depression, anxiety, stress, and improvements in eudaimonia, gratitude, self-compassion, and HRV. Data was collected from students in the applied mental health classes and were compared to a control group of students who were not in those classes. HRV was measured twice (beginning and end of the academic semester), and questionnaire data was collected three times (beginning, middle, and end of the academic semester). A total of 44 students (86% female) were recruited from the applied mental health classes with 34 completing the whole study and 190 students (62% female) were recruited for the control group with 76 completing the study. SEM was used to analyze change across time for each of these variables. There were not significant changes in distress, eudaimonia, gratitude, self-compassion, or HRV across the semester in both the experimental and control group. More specifically, the students in both the applied mental health class and control group were not significantly distressed at baseline and had high HRV. There were many ceiling and floor effects in this sample which left little room for improvement. Testing this class in a more distressed sample will help elucidate the impact that these classes can have.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Psychology

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/