Effect of Mindfulness on Empathy and Self-Compassion: An Adapted MBCT Program on Filipino College Students.

Reginald Paul R Centeno,Karina Therese G Fernandez

doi:10.3390/bs10030061

Reginald Paul R Centeno, Karina Therese G Fernandez

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10030061

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Abstract

Attending college is meaningful for many young adults. This period is marked by physical, emotional, and psychological changes that can have both positive and negative effects on college students. The last two decades have seen an alarming increase in the number of college students who suffer from mental health conditions, such as depression, suicide, anxiety, and alcohol abuse. It is recommended that actions to support the students’ wellbeing must be creative and evidence-based. Research suggests that a mindfulness-based intervention may be an effective strategy to address mental health conditions among college students. This study was done to examine the efficacy of an adapted mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) program that was implemented in a classroom setting in the Philippines and to explore how mindfulness practice can affect empathy and self-compassion on senior Filipino college students aged 19–22 years old. Two classes were used to compare the effects of mindfulness intervention. One class underwent the adapted MBCT program while the other class underwent the same kind of class without mindfulness interventions. Self-report measures of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, Perspective Taking subscale and Empathic Concern subscale of Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and Self-compassion scale—short form were administered before undergoing the adapted MBCT and after the program. After going through the adapted MBCT, college students’ mindfulness significantly improved. Empathy and self-compassion also significantly improved after undergoing the program. This corroborates previous studies done on mindfulness and its efficacy with adolescents and suggests how practicing mindfulness can improve empathy and self-compassion with Filipino college students. It provides a promising groundwork for the emerging interest and research in Asia, particularly in the Philippines, on how the practice of mindfulness can help with the mental health of college students.

Highlights

Research on mindfulness is constantly expanding, and findings suggest numerous positive outcomes
This study was done to examine the efficacy of an adapted mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) program that was implemented in a classroom setting in the Philippines and to explore how mindfulness practice can affect empathy and self-compassion on senior Filipino college students aged 19–22 years old
There was a significant difference in the scores on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) (Table 2) before the mindfulness program (M = 2.86, SD = 0.52) and after the mindfulness program (M = 3.37, SD = 0.39); t (19) = −4.74, p < 0.05 with an increase of 0.51 (SD = 0.49) and a large effect size (d = 1.04)

Summary

Introduction

Research on mindfulness is constantly expanding, and findings suggest numerous positive outcomes. From the East, mindfulness has traveled to the West, where Jon Kabat Zinn applied its philosophies to behavioral interventions for medical problems. Mindfulness programs have expanded and have become an intervention of choice for stress, anxiety, depression, optimal performance, and enhanced well-being. While there have been many ways of describing mindfulness, Kabat-Zinn [4] defines mindfulness as the process of bringing a certain quality of attention to moment-by-moment experience [5]. It is a form of mental training to reduce cognitive vulnerability to reactive modes of the mind that may

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