Recruitment for the study was done via broadcast email and posted notices online. 372 students filled out screening questionnaires and indicated their intention to participate the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course. We selected 120 students according to the participant criteria. Of the 120 participants, 60 were randomly assigned to the MBSR or control groups. However, 8 participants were absent more than two courses in the MBSR group, and 24 participants did not complete the post-test. Eventually, we enrolled 52 participants in the intervention group and 36 participants in the control group.
We designed a questionnaire survey on the internet to collect data. Two trained psychology teachers organized the survey at three time points: baseline (T0), the immediate postintervention (T1), and 1 month postintervention (T2).
Independent samples t-test and c2 analyses were used to test for possible group differences in demographic variables at baseline (T1).
Next, 2 (group) × 3 (time) mixed-model repeated-measure analysis of variance ( ANOVA) was conducted to determine the effect of MBSR. Effect sizes were reported as partial η² (ηp²) coefficients. To further interpret any time-by-group interactions, a series of t tests examined possible differences among baseline, post intervention and 1 month later after intervention.
