TPC-Journal-V5-Issue1

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 1 42 Measures The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was developed by Cohen, Kamarck, and Mermelstein (1983) to measure the degree to which one evaluates situations and events in his or her life as stressful. Specifically, the 10-item version of the PSS (PSS-10; Cohen & Williamson, 1988) measures the degree to which one perceives life as uncontrollable, unpredictable and overloading. The PSS-10 typically requires participants to answer questions based on their experiences in the past 30 days. A modification for this study was asking participants to answer the questions based on their experiences and thoughts in the past 7 days, as the study was focused on weekly variability. The PSS-10 has a Likert-type rating scale and is widely used as a measure of perceived stress. It is shown to have internal reliability (coefficient alpha of .78) with established construct validity, as the PSS-10 scores have shown moderate relation to other measures of appraised stress. Scores can range from 0–40, with higher scores indicating greater stress. Roberti, Harrington, and Storch (2006) found the PSS-10 reliable and valid with a non-clinical sample of college students. Mean scores for males were 17.4 ( SD = 6.1); mean female scores were 18.4 (SD = 6.5). Also used in the study was the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), a 15-item scale designed to measure characteristics of openness or receptiveness to what is taking place in the present (Brown & Ryan, 2003). The MAAS aims to assess the level at which one is able to observe what is happening without judgment. The MAAS assesses the absence or presence of mindful mental states over time. For this study, participants were asked to form their answers based on experiences and thoughts over the past 7 days. Normative information is available for college populations (14 independent samples: N = 2,277; M = 3.83, SD = .70). Cronbach’s alphas range from .80–.90. The MAAS also has shown high test-retest reliability, discriminant and convergent validity, and criterion validity (Brown & Ryan, 2003). MacKillop and Anderson (2007) confirmed validity and reliability of the MAAS with internal reliability scores of .89. Procedure Participants volunteering for the study were scheduled individually for an appointment to meet with the researcher to complete a study orientation and start baseline measurements. This 30-minute meeting consisted of an introduction to the study and the researcher, obtaining a brief background of the participant, a definition of mindfulness, completion of the informed consent paperwork, and completion of a short participant demographic form. Additionally, the first baseline measurements with the PSS-10 and MAAS were collected at the end of this meeting, and the final three baseline measurements were scheduled. Each baseline meeting consisted of an informal discussion about academic and personal stress levels and completion of the dependent measures. In total, four baseline measurements were collected over 5 weeks. The intervention phase (B) consisted of six 1-hour sessions conducted over 5.5 weeks starting at the conclusion of the baseline phase (A). Session one began on the first week of classes in a spring semester, and sessions two through five occurred during each subsequent week. The final session, a wrap-up and review, was scheduled for the beginning of week six of the intervention. Each session consisted of 50 minutes focusing on MBCT skills, concepts and homework assignments, and 10 minutes at the end of the session to administer the dependent measures. At the final session, the researcher explained procedures and options for counseling if the participant desired to continue exploring MBCT or other issues that may have come up during the study period. Additionally, all participants received mindfulness resources such as book and Web site lists in order to continue learning and practicing mindfulness exercises. MBCT Intervention MBCT is traditionally an 8-week intervention conducted in group or class settings (Teasdale et al., 2000). Because this study utilized individual counseling, the intervention was reduced to six sessions, and session length was reduced to 1 hour. The individual counseling modality allowed for more focused attention to