| Stress from external as well as internal demands is a common part of life in America today. When people enter new environments, stress is often exacerbated, and they must learn to cope with stressors to avoid the negative effect chronic stress can have on emotions and physiology. College students experience stressors, not only as they enter the academic world, but also throughout their experiences as they work to succeed educationally and socially. Although the first year of college may be stressful for any student, some students, such as those recruited from migrant farm-working families, face additional stressors including acculturative stress as they enter a new, often very different environment from the one to which they are accustomed. The College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) offers training and support to these students as they enter college. CAMP students are taught various skills to manage the stress throughout their college careers. This is a descriptive quantitative study with pre- and post-tests conducted to examine whether there exist causal effects of demonstrating respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) on personal growth initiative, state-trait anxiety and indicators of academic success. CAMP students received biofeedback-assisted self-regulation training in RSA to shift their heart rate frequency toward a peak frequency of 0.1Hz for 5 minutes. I hypothesized that those students who learned to attain and maintain RSA through biofeedback-assisted self-regulation training would report increased personal growth initiative as measured by the Personal Growth Initiative Scale, would report decreased levels of anxiety, as measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and would require fewer psychological services. |
