Project Archive

Abstract:

According to the World Health Organization the most common mental disorders as of 2019 are anxiety disorders (World Health Organization, 2023). Furthermore, there was a 50 percent increase in severe anxiety among college students between the years 2012 and 2016 (National Education Association, 2019). With anxiety disorders on the rise it is critical to find easy, affordable, and accessible ways for people to alleviate anxiety that occurs in their daily life. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine if a 5 minute self-compassion exercise can reduce students' anxiety. Fifty-six community college students, with their age ranging from 18 to 32 years, participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to three different conditions: words of affirmations with a brief meditation exercise, self- love notes, and a control condition. Participants were given different exercises based on their assigned conditions. The Self-Compassion Short Form and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory was used to measure participants' self- compassion and anxiety before and after the intervention. While self-compassion remained unchanged throughout the three conditions there was a reduction in anxiety when comparing the self-love notes condition to the control condition. The findings of the study demonstrated that administration of self-compassion through writing self-love notes can help alleviate feelings of anxiety. These findings indicate that college students should use brief self-compassion exercises to reduce their anxiety. However, future studies should replicate the experiment in other populations and over a longer time frame.