Background: Teacher and students' stress has been a challenge in education. An approach to stress reduction is mindfulness training. The Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been used to improve the condition of individuals with various health outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine whether MBSR may improve depression, well-being, and perceived stress of Brazilian college faculty and students.
Methods: MBSR was performed with college faculty and students from Centro Universitario de Belo Horizonte (UniBH). Participants answered questionnaires (Psychological General Well-Being Index, Perceived Stress Scale, and Beck Depression Index) at the beginning and end of the intervention. A control group of teachers also answered the questionnaires but did not participate in the MBSR intervention. Statistical analyses were performed using paired Student's t-test (P < 0.05 significance).
Results: The MBSR intervention positively impacted all conditions measured in the questionnaires in faculty and students who attended the intervention. Faculty and students in the control group had shown conditions being maintained or worsened.
Discussion: The MBSR was effective as faculty and students from the experimental group exhibited improvement in general well-being, depression levels, and perceived stress after attending the intervention.
Keywords: College faculty and students; depression; mindfulness; stress; well-being.