Publication Date

Spring 5-1-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology (MA)

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Elizabeth Terrazas-Carrillo

Committee Member

Elizabeth Terrazas-Carrillo

Committee Member

Ediza Garcia

Committee Member

Desi Vasquez

Committee Member

Bernice Sanchez

Abstract

Researchers have extensively studied mindfulness as a promising intervention that can aid college students in managing stressors. Unfortunately, researchers have underrepresented minority populations like Latinx college students in mindfulness literature. The Mindful Way (TMW) is a culturally responsive psychoeducational group program that aims to close the gap in the literature. The pre-test and post-test of TMW program measures student’s tendency to practice mindfulness, their personal and academic resilience, degree of self-compassion, emotion regulation skills, problematic alcohol consumption, and symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, before and after participating in the program. The hypothesis of the present study is that students will display a significant difference in the aforementioned variables before and after participating in TMW program. TMW program consisted of seven weekly sessions with groups of 7-8 members led by two group facilitators. The sample consisted of 42 Latinx undergraduate students between the ages of 18-25 enrolled in a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the U.S.-Mexico Border. The results suggested a statistically significant difference in participant’s ability to regulate their emotions, self-compassion, coping abilities, level of resilience and a decrease in their problematic alcohol consumption as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression. This study presents the effects that a culturally responsive intervention has towards Latinx students’ abilities to cope with stressors.

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