The Effect of Tai Chi Exercise on Stress, Anxiety, Depression, and Self

Students in medical sciences, especially nursing students, deal with many stressful factors. Stress-related psychological outcomes include anxiety, depression, and low self-confidence. Nowadays, sports exercises play a crucial role in improving lifestyle to prevent and manage stress and its consequences. The present study intended to investigate the effect of Tai Chi exercise on the levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and self-confidence of nursing students. To this end, about 64 nursing students were selected and randomly divided into two 32 case and control groups in this clinical trial study. The case (experimental) group received 40-minute Tai chi training sessions three times a week for 8 weeks. Both groups completed DASS-42 questionnaire and Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) as a pre-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up. The results of the present study indicated that unlike the control group, the total mean score of stress, anxiety, and depression significantly decreased in the case group (P < 0.05), while self-confidence significantly increased in the case group during the pretest, post-test, and one-month follow-up (P < 0.05). According to the results of the present study, it can be concluded that Tai Chi had a significant effect on reducing the stress, anxiety, and depression while enhancing the self-confidence of the intended nursing students. Furthermore, Tai Chi is recommended as a simple and inexpensive way to reduce students’ stress, anxiety, and depression, whereas improves their selfconfidence.