A mindfulness and thinking course helped students put off schoolwork less
Who it’s about: Students
- Helped
After a four-week course on mindfulness and unhelpful thoughts, students put off schoolwork less than the group that waited.
- Action: Practise mindfulnesstested
- Action: Challenge unhelpful thoughtstested
- Rule: Practise with a groupused
- Rule: With a coach or therapistused
Small randomised trial of 43 Muslim university students in Indonesia · vs students still waiting for the course · they rated themselves · ⚠ numbers unreliable; only counted people who finished
The study
Who took part
43 Muslim university students in Indonesia who put off schoolwork a fair amount or a lot. They were picked from 392 who filled in a questionnaire. Three didn't finish, so 40 were counted, 20 in each group.
What they did
One group had eight 90-minute group sessions over four weeks, two a week, led by a psychologist. They practised mindfulness, like breathing and body scans, and spotted and questioned unhelpful beliefs about assignments, with practice at home. The other group waited and got nothing during the study.
What happened
Students in the course rated themselves as putting off schoolwork less than the waiting group at the end and two weeks later. The paper doesn't print the group scores, and several of its numbers don't match each other, so we can't give sizes. Only students who finished were counted.
Source
Mindfulness Based-Cognitive Therapy for Procrastination (MBC-P) to Decrease Muslim University Students’academic Procrastination: Mixed Methods Research (2024)
DOI: 10.19109/psikis.v10i1.22623 (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Action5
Challenge unhelpful thoughtsCognitive restructuring of beliefs such as perfectionism or catastrophising.
