Reduced stress among COVID-symptomatic undergraduates: act with awareness, nonjudgment, and nonreactivity as key
Zoe Sirotiak1,2, Jenna L Adamowicz1, Emily B K Thomas1
1University of Iowa, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
Objective:
Associations between mindfulness and improved physical and psychological health have been established, but COVID-19 presents a novel context. This study examined the relation between individual mindfulness facets and general stress among college students experiencing at least one symptom of acute COVID-19 infection in the context of the pandemic.
Methods:
Five hundred sixteen university students experiencing at least one CDC-identified COVID-19 symptom completed measures of general stress, mindfulness, and somatic symptoms in 2020-2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic following IRB approval and informed consent.
Results:
The act with awareness, nonjudgment, and nonreactivity facets of mindfulness were associated with general stress. In total, the model accounted for over half of the variance in general stress (R2 = 0.51, p < 0.001).
Conclusion:
Mindfulness may be particularly important in explaining general stress among college students reporting a symptom of COVID-19. Mindfulness may benefit college students as the pandemic continues to unfold and monitoring of one's physical health remains a primary mitigation strategy. These results may also inform understanding and responses to future public health emergencies in which monitoring somatic symptoms is encouraged by public health officials to contain spread.
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