Worldwide, studies on the well-being among college and university students report high rates of students experiencing stress and being at‐risk for developing mental health disorders, including anxiety, depression and other stress‐related conditions. In Denmark, surveys among students from 2015 till 2020 reveal, that the proportion that experience stress to any extent has increased from 83% to 90%, and that during the same period, the proportion experiencing stress most or all of the time has increased from 23% to 36%.
These worrying findings underlines a need for our societies and education systems to take responsible actions for systemic improvements in study environments and education systems in ways that better support student mental health.
At the same time, perceived stress does not depend only on the education system and the study environment. On the contrary, large inter-individual variation exists for perceived stress among students, and novel measures for improving individual student’s mental health are equally important. The extent to which the study environment is appraised as stressful may depend on several individual factors such as past life-experiences, and variation in mental skills including awareness, emotion- and self-regulation, and the ability to calm and nourish oneself in the midst of challenging experiences.
To examine novel measures for empowering and improving individual student’s mental health we offered a short mindfulness retreat for students to reduce stress and promote self-compassion, exploring an indoor and a natural outdoor retreat setting. Here, we present both quantitative and qualitative data on student mental health and selected students experiences at the end of the program and 3 months after.
About
Dr. Jesper Dahlgaard is docent at VIA University College where he heads the Research Programme for Mind and Body in Mental Health, at Research Center for Health and Welfare Technology. He is Associated professor at Research Unit for Molecular Medicine, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University. He is trained in molecular biology (PhD) and psychology (Master) from Aarhus University and has extensive CME training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) from Massachusetts Medical School, USA, in addition to training in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), from University of Oxford UK and from Aarhus DK. He has worked on stress, physical- and mental health, and associated psychological- and molecular mechanisms for over 25 years. He has been involved in several randomized clinical trials within e.g., personalized medicine and evidence-based interventions for improving mental health. Dr. Dahlgaard has also served as associate- or guest editor on several journals including BMC Research Notes, Healthcare and Frontiers in Psychology, and is on the European Cooperation in Science and Technology management committee for the COST ACTION Researcher Mental Health.
