Effect of a Single Bout of Yoga on Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, and Happiness of College Students

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a single bout of yoga on happiness, self-esteem, and self-efficacy for exercise in a volunteer sample of 25 college students from a public university in the southeastern United States. Previous research explored long-term effects of yoga on mental health, but the effects of a single bout of yoga are unclear. Volunteers from a summer-session yoga course completed 26 items on demographics, happiness, self-esteem, and self-efficacy for exercise before and after their first 30-minute yoga session. Dependent t-tests showed no significant differences in pre- and post-test scores of measured variables: % happy (M = 62.7; M = 62.9; p = -0.031), % unhappy (M = 23.2; M = 25.1; p = -0.442), % neutral (M = 33.5; M = 30.6; p = 0.459), self-esteem (M = 28.8; M = 29.6; p = -0.362), self-efficacy to exercise (M = 16.0; M = 17.4; p = -1.077). Although no significance was found, future research should focus on the impact of yoga (both single-bout and long-term effects) on health variables in a larger sample and within diverse populations. Future research should also consider the effects of other exercise protocols, including steady-state aerobic, high-intensity interval training, and resistance training