Teaching College Foster Youth How to Use Mindfulness to Cope with Stress

Research has found that all foster youth face some sort of trauma at least once in their life, leading them to experience mental stress, emotion dysregulation, and depression during the transition to adulthood (Valdez, Bailey, Santuzzi, & Lilly, 2014). Many of the youth are not aware of the effects of stress on mental and physical well-being and how to cope with the stress they are feeling. Also, many of them are not aware of their mental state or how to cope with the stress they are feeling. College youth are not only affected mentally by stress, but also physically. They face a lack of sleep, body clenching, tiredness, weakened immune system, with the effects varying with the individual. According to a meta-analysis based on mental health interventions done at several universities, “highly publicized reports have revealed that approximately half of university students report moderate levels of stress-related mental health concerns including anxiety and depression. Other research reveals that university health services are only providing services to a small percentage of these students” (Regehr, Glancy, & Pitts, 2013). Because of the minimal amount of resources for coping with mental health concerns such as stress, mindfulness training may be one inexpensive and accessible intervention that can positively impact this area. The project was a one-day Mindfulness workshop that informed students about stress factors, how to identify them, and how to use mindfulness strategies to cope with the stress. The project involved a collaboration with Hartnell Community College’s Guardians Scholars Program, a support program that gives current and former foster youth access to resources, provides academic support and personal development, helps them transition to adulthood and the working world