The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program on Academic Resilience and Self-Esteem in High School Girl Students

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction program on students' academic resilience and self-esteem in the academic year 96-97. The research was applied in terms of purpose and in terms of method, experimental and pretest-posttest with control group. The study population consisted of all female first and second grade high school students in Bam and Safi Abad region of Esfarayen. The sample consisted of all students whose scores on resiliency and self-esteem questionnaires were lower than average, among which 40 students were randomly selected and divided into experimental and control groups (20 each). Research instruments were the Samuels Academic Resiliency Questionnaire (2004) and Cooper Smith Self-Esteem Questionnaire (1967). The mindfulness-based stress reduction program was administered only to the experimental group during eight ninety-minute sessions. Data were analyzed using multivariate covariance test. Results showed that mindfulness-based stress reduction program had a positive effect on academic resilience and its components as well as on self-esteem and its components (except for family self-esteem component) (P <0.001). As a result, mindfulness-based stress reduction program was effective in increasing self-esteem and academic resiliency.