Stress Interventions for First-Year Undergraduate Students

Previous research has found that first-year undergraduate students experience the highest level of academic stress compared to students in upper years. As well, additional research on stress interventions has found that utilizing a cognitive behavioural component and a relaxation technique will result in the lowest levels of stress. The present study provided first-year undergraduate students with a stress intervention where the goal was to reduce their overall academic stress levels. Participants were recruited through an introductory psychology course at Huron University College in London, Ontario. A 2 X 2 design was used in this study with relaxation and video type as the independent variables and stress level as the dependent variable. Contrary to expectations, the results showed that participants who received the stress intervention program with both the cognitive behavioural component and the relaxation technique did not have the lowest stress levels. However, stress was reduced when participants utilized a relaxation technique compared to when they did not. Implications of the findings are discussed