Description/Abstract
Research identifies considerable prevalence of stress among the college-aged population, requiring the need of effective coping strategies. The present research experiment investigated the effect of mindfulness coloring on college-aged students’ blood pressure and heart rate. College-aged participants from a women’s athletic team and sorority (N = 20) were randomly assigned to a control or experimental group. Prior to each intervention blood pressure, heart rate, and STAI scale responses were collected. Following the pre-intervention data collection, each group was instructed to begin their intervention, mindful coloring or talking amongst themselves without devices for 10 minutes. Following the intervention participants’ blood pressure, heart rate, rate of perceived stress, intervention’s effectiveness, and future use of intervention were collected. Each participant was also classified as either a somatic, cognitive, or cognitive somatic stressor. There were strong correlations that those who perceived lower stress levels found their intervention effective and would continue to participate in said intervention. There were no statistically significant findings that mindful coloring was more effective than the control group. Given the small sample size, more research should be conducted on the effectiveness of mindful coloring in relation to the type of stressor a participant is, as this present research was limited by the number of volunteer participants from each organization.
