The effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention on cognitive avoidance of students with test anxiety

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention on cognitive avoidance of students with test anxiety. The research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-post-test design ad a control group. The statistical population included all Meshkinshahr students who were referred to school counseling centers. Among them, 30 people with test anxiety were selected by purposive sampling. Data collection tools were test anxiety questionnaires (Abolghasemi et al., 1996) and cognitive avoidance (Sexton and Dogas, 2008). The experimental group received a mindfulness-based stress reduction program (John Kabat-Zayn) for 8 weeks (one week of a 2-hour session). The collected data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance. The results showed that mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention significantly reduced cognitive avoidance in students with test anxiety (P <0.001). According to the present study, the use of mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention in the pre-exam period can be effective in reducing the cognitive avoidance of students with test anxiety.