the effects of yoga on student mental health

Scientific News by Irina are back: after a break of almost a year, I return to my small but beloved project — scientific news for Network Yoga Therapy. I will write about the latest research on yoga, yoga therapy meditation, and other mind–body practices. Every week I scan through 50–100 new articles on these topics, and try to filter out the most interesting and high quality ones.

STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH

So, today we look at student mental health in a Norwegian yoga study. Why students? Young people often experience mental difficulties, but rarely seek help. To prevent them from slipping into depression and other severe conditions, it is essential to find effective preventive interventions that reduce stress and maintain mental health.

Students who did yoga showed significant reductions in stress levels and statistically significant improvements in quality of life and mindfulness. The number of students in the yoga group with high-stress scores decreased by a third. Moreover, the effect was noticeable even three months after the end of the intervention.

The Norwegian study involved 202 university students (87% women). The students were randomly divided into two equal groups. One group did yoga twice a week for three months; the other/control group was on a waiting list. The effect of the exercises was measured three and six months after the start, using standard psychological questionnaires.

Yoga study

I like this article because it has a reasonably large sample for a yoga study. The more participants there are in a study, the better you can trust the statistical results. Like in many other psychological studies, the effect of yoga was moderate — which means that yoga did not necessarily help all students in the group. But those who did yoga were more likely to improve their condition. 

I also like that the students in the control group were invited to start the same yoga course once the study ended. It's a fair (and a very yogic) way to organise such a study.