If contemplative practices such as mindfulness meditation are to be integrated into university curricula, empirical research is imperative.  Questions regarding the impact of mindfulness on learning, stress, health, and quality of life in educational settings must be addressed.  While anecdotal reports are invaluable, the next phase of progress in bringing mindfulness into public educational settings is going to depend on empirical research that documents the advantages of doing so.  This research will also provide a basis for pursuing external funding for these efforts, and external funding will frequently be necessary during an era of severely restricted resources for many educational settings.

Outcome research associated with the experiential course in mindfulness, Mindfulness Meditation and Health, has already begun.   This research involves a quasi-experimental design in which students in the mindfulness course who volunteer to participate undergo a pre- and post-course battery of tests to evaluate subjective health status, mood, stress, and quality of life.  A control group of students drawn from other university courses in which no meditation or emphasis on mindfulness takes place also complete the same pre- and post-course assessment battery. 

Other research efforts associated with the Mindfulness-Based Campus-Community Health Program include:

An empirical graduate student thesis on predicting physiological relaxation response based on participants’ scores on quantitative measures of mindfulness (Zuzana Ondriasova Gubrij).

Cross-cultural research on assessment of quantitative and qualitative approaches to measuring mindfulness (Holland)

Biobehavioral Laboratory

The Psychology Department has a state-of-the-art biofeedback laboratory that offers many possibilities for conducting research with relevance for mindfulness meditation.  Some of the research activities noted above have employed the biofeedback lab to gain psychophysiological data associated with states of mindfulness. Those interested in learning more about biobehavioral research can contact Dr. David Mastin in the psychology department at dfmastin@ualr.edu.

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