The Effects of Mindfulness Exercises on the Psychological Health of Active and Inactive Girl Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: In the face of stressful situations, people can be helped with purposive exercises that enhance cognitive functions but don’t reduce social performances. The present study seeks to examine the effects of mindfulness exercises on the psychological health indices of active and inactive girl students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on three major indicators of psychological health including attention, concentration, and stress. Methods: To this end, 80 girl students ranging from 15 to 18 years of age were selected from some schools in the city of Yazd, Iran. The selection was based on the international physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ). In the pre-test phase, the students filled out a questionnaire about concentration and a stress questionnaire (DASS-21). They were then randomly classified into experimental active, experimental inactive, active control, and inactive control groups. The test groups attended 45-minute mindfulness training sesseions once a week for four weeks, while the control groups did their life routines. At the end of the last training session, the students took a post-test, and the results were recorded. The data were analyzed through repeated measures multivariate ANOVA in the SPSS software version 26. Results: The mindfulness exercises could significantly affect the active and inactive students’ attention, concentration, and stress (p < 0.05). Also, a comparison of the groups showed that the attendants in the test groups outperformed those in the control groups (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Based on the findings, mindfulness trainings seem to be useful to improve girl students’ psychological health indices.