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Is There a Biofeedback Response to Art Therapy? A Technology-Assisted Approach for Reducing Anxiety and Stress in College Students

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posted on 2021-06-07, 03:22 authored by ME Beerse, Theresa Van LithTheresa Van Lith, GD Stanwood
College students are exposed to daily stressors throughout their academic careers, which can have lasting consequences to their health and well-being. Mindfulness practices, art therapy, and the simple act of manipulating clay have independently demonstrated positive effects on stress and anxiety, but there is little research on the feasibility of incorporating these into an online resource for students to proactively address their mental health. In this pilot study, full-time university students (N = 15) were randomly assigned to a mindfulness-based art therapy (MBAT) program that used clay for all art directives or an unstructured, undirected neutral clay-manipulating task (NCT) for 10 weeks. Anxiety symptoms, salivary cortisol concentrations, and perceived levels of stress were assessed. Within-group analysis demonstrated significant decreases in anxiety symptoms and cortisol concentrations for MBAT participants, with no significant decrease in perceived stress. NCT participants experienced a significant decrease in cortisol concentrations on Week 1 but not on Week 10, with no other statistical significance in outcomes detected. Between-group analysis generated no significant interactions between variables. Based on these results, the structure of a therapist-directed online MBAT program using clay has the capacity to elicit anxiety-reducing benefits and may produce a trained biofeedback response for combating stress, offering a feasible strategy for addressing the mental health crisis on college campuses.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was supported by the Florida State University Council on Research and Creativity (Project ID 041680).

History

Publication Date

2019-04-01

Journal

SAGE Open

Volume

9

Issue

2

Pagination

(pp. 1-12)

Publisher

Sage Publications, Inc.

ISSN

2158-2440

Rights Statement

The Author reserves all moral rights over the deposited text and must be credited if any re-use occurs. Documents deposited in OPAL are the Open Access versions of outputs published elsewhere. Changes resulting from the publishing process may therefore not be reflected in this document. The final published version may be obtained via the publisher’s DOI. Please note that additional copyright and access restrictions may apply to the published version.

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