Poster Sample: Mindfulness Practice and Exam Stress in Undergraduates

Type: Academic Poster  |  Subject: Psychology  |  Level: Masters  |  Word Count: ~1000 words

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The Brief

Design an A1 conference poster reporting a brief empirical study that tests whether a two-week guided mindfulness intervention reduces self-reported exam stress in undergraduate students, for a Postgraduate Research Methods poster-presentation assessment.

Does a Brief Mindfulness Intervention Reduce Exam Stress in Undergraduates?

R. Ashworth, School of Psychology, University of Fenwick

Introduction & Aims

Exam-period stress is widely reported among undergraduates and is associated with poorer sleep, reduced concentration and lower academic performance. UK student wellbeing services routinely see a spike in demand during assessment periods, yet many evidence-based interventions, such as eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction courses, are too lengthy for students to complete before an approaching exam. Briefer, app-guided formats have shown some promise in reducing perceived stress among student populations, but their effectiveness specifically within the exam window is reported less consistently across the literature.

This poster reports a small pre-post evaluation with two aims: first, to test whether a short, app-guided mindfulness programme reduces self-reported stress across the fortnight before a major assessment relative to a waitlist control group; and second, to assess whether such a brief format is feasible and acceptable enough for students to complete alongside revision commitments. Assessment-related anxiety can be especially pronounced for students juggling part-time work, caring responsibilities or first-in-family status, who may have less capacity to attend longer in-person stress-management programmes, so a self-paced, app-based format may be particularly well suited to reaching these groups.

Methods

• Design: a two-group, pre-post quasi-experimental evaluation, approved by the departmental research ethics committee prior to recruitment.
• Participants: 64 second-year undergraduates (48 female, 16 male; mean age 20.3, SD = 1.4), recruited via course email and allocated to a mindfulness group (n = 32) or a waitlist control group (n = 32) by seminar group to reduce contamination between conditions.
• Sample size: an a priori power calculation indicated that 30 participants per group would provide 80% power to detect a medium-to-large effect at α = .05, informing the recruitment target.
• Intervention: a 10-minute audio-guided mindfulness session, delivered through a free app and completed daily for 14 days immediately before the examination period; sessions combined breath-focused attention with brief body-scan practice.
• Measure: the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), a widely used 10-item, 5-point Likert measure with good internal consistency, completed one week before and on the final day of the intervention window.
• Adherence: session completion was logged automatically by the app; the mindfulness group completed a mean of 11.2 of 14 scheduled sessions (80%).
• Ethics: all participants gave written informed consent after reading a plain-language information sheet, and were told of their right to withdraw at any point without academic consequence.
• Analysis: baseline scores were compared using an independent-samples t-test to check group equivalence, and change scores were then compared using a further independent-samples t-test.

Results

Baseline PSS-10 scores did not differ significantly between groups, t(62) = 0.47, p = .64, confirming reasonable equivalence at the outset. The mindfulness group showed a substantially larger reduction in stress scores over the two-week window than the waitlist group, and the between-group difference in change scores was statistically significant, t(62) = 4.85, p < .001, d = 1.21, a large effect by conventional benchmarks. By the end of the intervention window the mindfulness group’s mean score had fallen below general population PSS-10 norms, while the control group’s mean remained above them. No significant difference in change scores was found between male and female participants within the mindfulness group, t(30) = 0.91, p = .37.

Discussion

A brief, low-cost mindfulness programme was associated with a meaningfully larger reduction in self-reported exam stress than no intervention, consistent with earlier classroom-based mindfulness research, though the effect size observed here is larger than is typical in longer-format trials. Plausible mechanisms include improved attentional control and reduced rumination about upcoming assessments, both of which are theorised targets of mindfulness practice. The 80% adherence rate suggests the format was broadly acceptable within a busy revision period, addressing the secondary feasibility aim.

Several limitations temper these conclusions. Reliance on self-report leaves open the possibility of demand characteristics, particularly as participants were aware of their allocation. The absence of an active control condition means gains cannot be fully separated from expectancy or attention effects, and the single-cohort, single-department sample limits generalisability to other year groups and disciplines. A longer follow-up beyond the exam period would also clarify whether gains are maintained once assessment pressure subsides. From a service-planning perspective, the marginal cost of distributing an existing app-based programme is low compared with staffing a drop-in stress-management clinic, which strengthens the case for a larger, adequately powered trial before any wider rollout is considered.

Conclusion

• A two-week guided mindfulness programme was linked to a significantly larger reduction in exam-period stress than no intervention, with a large effect size.
• Short daily mindfulness sessions embedded within pre-exam study weeks appear both feasible and reasonably well-adhered to as a student wellbeing measure.
• Wellbeing services could pilot brief, app-guided mindfulness alongside existing exam-stress support as a low-cost, scalable addition.
• Given the low delivery cost relative to face-to-face support, a larger trial evaluating cost-effectiveness alongside clinical outcomes would help justify wider adoption.
• Future research should use randomised allocation, an active control condition and physiological stress markers, alongside a post-exam follow-up, to strengthen causal claims.

Key References: Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein (1983, Journal of Health and Social Behavior); Kabat-Zinn (1990); Khoury et al. (2015, Clinical Psychology Review); Bamber & Schneider (2016, Educational Research Review).

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