According to the annual health survey of SMEREP (the mutual fund responsible for managing the student social security scheme) conducted with OpinionWay, 9 out of 10 French students suffer from stress, both in high school and at university. Thus, 60% say they have already felt “overwhelmed, even overwhelmed by their daily lives” and, more worryingly, 22% have already had suicidal thoughts (27% among young women).
How to fight stress among students? Researchers at the University of Washington (in the United States) offer a solution: art therapy and mindfulness meditation. They worked with a group of 8 young female students (aged 14 to 17) suffering from stress-related headaches: at the start of the experiment, the participants estimated the severity of their headaches at 7.38 on a scale of 10.
Breathing exercises and oil painting
For 3 weeks, the students were treated to two weekly sessions (50 minutes) combining mindfulness meditation and art therapy. Results ? At the end of the experiment, the young women felt that the severity of their headaches rose no higher than 4.63 on a scale of 10 – these good results persisted up to 7 weeks later.
More specifically, the researchers observed good anti-stress results with oil painting and pastels (on the art therapy side) and with breathing exercises (on the mindfulness meditation side). More than to try with our teenagers!
This work was published in the specialist journal Art Therapy.
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