Job Search during COVID-19: How Online Mindfulness Intervention helped to Reduce Stress and Enhance the Self-esteem of the Job Seeker.

Abstract

Background: Immediately after graduation from university, college students needto make significant decisions about starting their careers or pursuing higher studies. They are also pressured to meet the expectations and demands of self, others,and the environment. Owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the aforementioned challenging decisions may become hazardous stressors for college students. Hence, the researchers intended to assist and assess the college studentsinvolved in student placements. The research goal was to investigate the impactof mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on the stress and self-esteem of collegestudents involved in student placements. Methods: One hundred college students participating in the campus placementswere selected using purposive sampling from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University in Coimbatore, India. For evaluation purposes, college students were administered the perceived stress, Rosenberg self-esteem, and Kuppuswamy socio-economic scales. Seventy-five college students were selected for the MBI processand were administered with a pre-intervention and post-intervention without a control group research design. Results: Statistical analysis including analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Bonferroni post hoc test showed a significant increase in self-esteem and a decreasein the stress of the college students involved in placements. Conclusions: Thus, the researchers recommend that policymakers create awareness, include MBI in the curriculum, and allocate funds for training ventures in educational institutions to assist college students in their challenging life journeys.