Mental Health Issue
Conditions
Keywords
Brief cognitive-behavioral group therapy, laughter yoga, mental symptoms, nursing students
Brief summary
The presence of high mental symptoms among nursing students in Turkey highlights the need to develop various support strategies in nursing education to preserve and ensure the continuity of the nursing workforce. This study aims to compare the effects of brief cognitive-behavioral group psychotherapy and laughter yoga on mental symptoms in nursing students with mental symptoms.
Detailed description
A randomized controlled trial with a pretest-posttest design is planned to be conducted among 114 nursing students with mental symptoms between April and June 2024. The block randomization method will be used to assign students to the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Group and the Laughter Group. Brief cognitive behavioral therapy (b-CBT) will be applied to one group, and laughter yoga will be applied to the other group twice a week for 3 weeks, with sessions lasting 60 minutes each. Data will be collected through the Brief Symptom Inventory, Psychological Resilience Scale, and Automatic Thoughts Scale. Measurements will be done at baseline, right after the sixth session ends, and four weeks later. During the b-CBT process, techniques such as breath-body awareness and self-identification, coping techniques for emotional and physical symptoms of depression, recognizing the interaction between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, cognitive restructuring to replace dysfunctional thoughts and internal dialogues with functional ones, and future planning will be employed. Laughter yoga will consist of four parts: deep breathing exercises, warm-up exercises, playful activities, and laughter exercises. The results obtained from the research will provide an opportunity to identify methods that may be effective in helping nurses acquire the necessary skills to improve their mental health.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALCBT group
Brief cognitive behavioral therapy
BEHAVIORALLaughter group
Laughter yoga therapy
Sponsors
Mersin University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Outcomes Assessor)
Masking description
Using the block randomization technique, the sampled students will be split into two groups: the CBT group and the laughter group. Six will be the block size. Excel will be used to create blocks (allocation concealment) and random numbers will be generated by an assistant researcher who does not attend therapy sessions. The purpose of the program is to support mental health and evaluate its effectiveness; students will not be informed about which group they are in (participant blinding). Research data will be coded as A and B and entered into the computer database by someone other than the researchers conducting the therapy sessions, and statistical analysis will be performed using this coding (statistician blinding).
Intervention model description
A randomized controlled trial with a pretest-posttest design
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 45 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Currently enrolled in the nursing faculty between April 10, 2024, and June 2, 2024. * Scored within the top 20% on the Brief Symptom Inventory for mental symptom scores. * Voluntarily agree to participate in the study and have signed the Informed Consent Form. * Understand and comprehend Turkish language
Exclusion criteria
* Having received cognitive behavioral therapy previously. * Undergoing psychological or psychiatric treatment. * Underwent surgical procedures in the last three months. * Having chronic illnesses requiring regular medication use. * Having glaucoma or hernia conditions.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The change in mental symptoms will be assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory. | Changing from at baseline (pretest- T0) and right after the end of the 6th season (post test- T1) and and 4 weeks later the end of the 6th season (T2). | The scale consists of 53 Likert-type items. Items are scored on a scale of 0 to 4, corresponding to not at all and very much, respectively. The higher the total score obtained from the scale, the more the individual's mental symptoms increase. It comprises nine subscales, three global indices, and additional items. The subscales are somatization, obsessive-compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety disorder, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism, while additional items relate to eating disorders, sleep disturbances, thoughts of death and suicide, and feelings of guilt. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Psychological resilience will be assessed using the Psychological Resilience Scale. | Changing from at baseline (pretest- T0) and right after the end of the 6th season (post test- T1) and 4 weeks later the end of the 6th season (T2). | The Psychological Resilience Scale (PRS) consists of six items that respondents self-report on a 5-point Likert scale. Higher scores correspond to higher psychological resilience levels. The scores for items 2, 4, and 6 are reversed. The response options on the Likert scale range from not at all suitable (1), not suitable (2), somewhat suitable (3), suitable (4), and completely suitable (5). With an internal consistency score of.83, the scale has a high Cronbach's alpha coefficient. |
| Negative self-evaluations and thought patterns will be assessed using the Automatic Thoughts Scale. | Changing from at baseline (pretest- T0) and right after the end of the 6th season (post test- T1) and 4 weeks later the end of the 6th season (T2). | This scale is designed to measure common thought patterns and negative self-evaluations often seen in depression. The scale is in Likert format and consists of 30 items. For each item, response options range from never (1), rarely (2), occasionally (3), frequently (4), and always (5). A higher score denotes a higher frequency of automatic thoughts linked to depression. The total score ranges from 30 to 150. The Cronbach's α coefficient for the scale is 0.95. |
Countries
Turkey (Türkiye)
Outcome results
None listed