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    J Am Coll Health. 2008 Mar-Apr;56(5):569-78.

    Meditation lowers stress and supports forgiveness among college students: a randomized controlled trial.

    Oman D, Shapiro SL, Thoresen CE, Plante TG, Flinders T.

    School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, USA. dougoman@post.harvard.edu

    OBJECTIVE AND PARTICIPANTS: The authors evaluated the effects on stress, rumination, forgiveness, and hope of two 8-week, 90-min/wk training programs for college undergraduates in meditation-based stress-management tools. METHODS: After a pretest, the authors randomly allocated college undergraduates to training in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR; n = 15), Easwaran's Eight-Point Program (EPP; n = 14), or wait-list control (n = 15). The authors gathered pretest, posttest, and 8-week follow-up data on self-report outcome measures. RESULTS: The authors observed no post-treatment differences between MBSR and EPP or between posttest and 8-week follow-up (p > .10). Compared with controls, treated participants (n = 29) demonstrated significant benefits for stress (p < .05, Cohen's d = -.45) and forgiveness (p < .05, d = .34) and marginal benefits for rumination (p < .10, d = -.34). CONCLUSIONS: Evidence suggests that meditation-based stress-management practices reduce stress and enhance forgiveness among college undergraduates. Such programs merit further study as potential health-promotion tools for college populations.

    PMID: 18400671 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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