The Effects of Meditation in College Students

Research has been conducted on young student age groups (ages 13-18) and the effects that meditation elicits on anxiety, stress and academic performance, but that is where the age is capped (Beauchemin, Hutchins, & Patterson, 2008). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of meditation on a previously understudied age category: undergraduate college students ages 18-22. All participants had their age, gender, height, weight, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and resting heart rate measured before and after the study, and completed a 19-Item Body-Image Questionnaire (Koleck, Brunchon-Schweitzer, Cousson-Gélie, Gilliard, & Quintard, 2002). Results revealed a statistically significant difference in weight change (p = .001) and body mass index change (p = .001) between the control group and the intervention group, and a change in the 19-Item Body-Image Questionnaire (p = .032) (Koleck, Brunchon-Schweitzer, Cousson-Gélie, Gilliard, & Quintard, 2002) between gender