The Effects of Psycho-educational Training in Undergraduate Students at the University of Granada (Spain)

The Effects of Psycho-educational Training in Undergraduate Students at the University of Granada (Spain)

Testing the Effects of Two Psycho-educational Programs on Well Being and Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students at the University of Granada (Spain): An Interventional Study

Cívitas-UGR Chair: Sustainability, Innovation and Development, Granada, Spain, Teryos Functional Clinical Medicine, Granada, Spain

The new professional profiles highlight the need to incorporate competences such as self-regulation, communication or growth mindset in the academia. Not only is this important for employability; we need to take a step further and equip learners with knowledge, skills and attitudes that help them become agents of change and shape sustainable futures in our current complex society. Within the framework of an agreement signed between the University of Granada (UGR), Spain, and, one of the leading real state firms in Spain, Cívitas, a course and a parallel study have been launched that will provide research and training in these competences at a degree level. It is part of the Sustainable Human Development Training Pathway of the Vice-Rectorate for Equality, Inclusion and Sustainability, and 3 ECTS will be accredited for the completion of any of the UGR official degrees. The main objective of the study is to test whether participating in a competence-based course can improve students' cognitive, emotional and personal traits as well as academic performance. Together with this main purpose, the present study also aims to compare the effects of two competence-based programs on the students' ability to improve specific aspects of cognition, emotional intelligence, creativity or academic performance among others. Both programs involve training sustained attention and an accepting and open attitude though they differ in several aspects of their methods, intention and aims. Drawing conclusions from the research and outcomes, pedagogies which are best suited to develop theses competences at the Higher Education level will be suggested. Assessment and certification of this kind of competences will also be proposed.

The content of the UGRComp program (Más Presente, Arm 1) was designed in 2021 using the European LifeComp framework, the content of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR, Arm 2) follows the University of Massachusetts and Brown University specifications, and the content of the neuro-muscular stimulation program has been designed for the purpose of this study and is a combination of educational sessions and specific physical exercises to enhance physical wellbeing and prevent neuro-degeneration (Arm 3). Arms 1 and 2 will attend classes at the University of Granada premises. Arm 3 will receive training under the supervision of a Clinic specialized in Sport Medicine, also in Granada (Spain). Instructors of the three arms are fully certified and have more than 10 years of professional experience in the field. All UGR undergraduate students are informed and invited to participate both in the course and in the study. They can choose to participate either in the study alone, in the course alone or in both. However, they are advised that, in the event that there are more applications than places, priority will be given to those who have registered earlier and those who choose to do the study. So that the 3 ECTS credits of the course can be validated for the completion of the Degree as prescribed by the European Higher Education Area, a petition was filed to the Vice-Rectorate for Teaching and Learning of the UGR. This petition was inserted in a broader proposal by the Vice-Rectorate for Equality, Inclusion and Sustainability as part of the Sustainable Human Development Training Pathway. In this petition, the content of the course, design and aim of the study, potential participants, duration and other issues related with the project were included and explained. The UGR grants some facilities (lecture rooms and Administrative and Support Staff's help). Vice-Rectorate for Equality, Inclusion and Sustainability will be responsible of the accreditation and certification processes. The Civitas-UGR Chair is responsible of co-funding and the study members from the Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Center (CIMCYC) of the University of Granada (Spain) are responsible of study design, LimeSurvey management, randomization and data analysis. All participants are asked to fill in an informed consent, a demographic questionnaire to determine eligibility and a battery of tests. Eligible participants are randomly assigned to either group. All questionnaires are uploaded to the UGR LimeSuvey platform, an open source online survey tool specially designed to develop, publish and collect survey responses. This software is the one recommended by the University of Granada to present and collect online data for research purposes as it complies with all current legislation and ensures that all protection data requirements are being effectively met. For specific security guarantees, an institutional email account is created through which all communication related to the project is carried out. In the same line, all the documentation generated within the project is uploaded and shared on a virtual cloud owned by the UGR (www.ugrdrive.ugr.es). It is expected to find improvements in all measures (psychological and academic) in the two experimental groups (students in Arms 1 and 2) after completing the course compared to pre-training and compared to an active control group (students in Arm 3). In order to measure potential specific effects of each mindfulness program, pre-training to post-training psychological measures will be compared once completed the program. Altogether, this applied study might help to elucidate whether these important transversal competences and soft skills can improve with mindfulness-based techniques and ultimately could be recommended as part of the official curricula of degree in Higher Education.

Empathy, Compassion, Attention, Psychological Distress, Life Stress, Anxiety, Creativity, Emotional Intelligence

Sustainable Development, Mindfulness, Curriculum Design, Cognitive Behavioral Training, Learning in Higher Education, Employability

Students are randomly assigned to three groups: the MBSR group that receives an adapted version of the MBSR program, the Más Presente group that receives training on transversal competences following the EU framework, LifeComp, and a third group that receives a neuro-muscular stimulation-based program. All participants are asked to fill in an informed consent and a demographic questionnaire to determine eligibility. Eligible participants are randomly assigned to either group. The three programs are given simultaneously.

Investigator: researchers have no information on participants' allocation in the groups; a research assistant from the Cognitive Neuroscience Group of the CIMCYC is designated for this purpose. None of the participants are students of any of the researchers. For the purpose of communicating with the participants over group allocation, another lecturer from the UGR is appointed. Outcome Assessors: all measures are collected online via the UGR LimeSurvey platform and no recording of group assignment is introduced in the system. Care providers: they are not informed about the outcome measures or specific research hypothesis regarding expected effects for each program. Participants: although it is not possible to blind their assignment to the groups in this type of study, they are not informed about the specific hypothesis regarding the expected outcomes of the programs.

This arm will instruct the students on the Más Presente program. This is a socio-emotional competence-based program which has been designed following the European LifeComp framework. This program is a combination of theory and practice aimed at developing the core elements of personal, social and learning to learn key competences for lifelong learning.

This arm will instruct the students on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. The MBSR is a secular, evidence-based practice originally developed for chronic pain, but which has reported positive results among an array of clinical and nonclinical populations. This program aims to cultivate non-judgmental attention to and awareness of present moment experience while promoting stress reduction.

The students in this arm will receive training on physical wellbeing and neuro-muscular stimulation. Non-specific factors such as number and duration of sessions, or instructor training and qualifications will match the other 2 experimental groups. Active ingredients such as mindfulness or socio-emotional training are not contained in the program.

The MBSR program is a group-based therapy which teaches mindfulness skills through a range of formal and informal mindfulness practices. Created by Kabat-Zinn (1982), in the current study it is taught by an officially accredited instructor and is compliant with the guidelines established by Brown University and the University of Massachusetts, USA. It originally consists of 8 weekly classes, 2 hours each (18 hours direct instruction), together with a day of intensive practice. The program is structured along the following topics: The Underpinnings of MBSR; The Perception of Reality; Power in Being Present; Understanding Stress: The Mind-Body Relation; Responding to Stress; Communication and Personal Relations; Daily Life Management; My Personal Plan: "What lies ahead".

Más Presente, the UGRComp program is based upon the European LifeComp framework (Sala, Punie, Garkov and Cabrera Giraldez 2020) and covers intra and interpersonal, emotional, cognitive and metacognitive aspects. Created at the University of Granada by an interdisciplinary group of experts, it focuses on three core elements (self-regulation, empathy and growth mindset) as they are the pre-requisites for developing all other elements across framework areas. It consists of 8 weekly classes, 2 hours each, together with a day of intensive practice. The program is structured along the following topics: The Underpinnings of Más Presente; Awareness and Concentration: our Body; Managing our Emotional Laberynth; Walking with Directionality, Sense and Conscience; Empathy, Presence and Connection; Empathic Listening and Honest Expression: Non-violent communication; Growth Mindset, Creativity and Divergent Thinking; And Now what? The First Day of the Rest of My Life.

Subjects will receive weekly sessions with a combination of educational sessions and specific physical exercises to enhance physical wellbeing and prevent neuro-degeneration . After spotting the therapeutic targets for each subject, a 4-phase program will be designed for each subject aimed at improving lifestyle habits and general wellbeing.

17 items self-report scale, translated and validated into Spanish, that measures cognitive and behavioural aspects of self-regulation (Garzón et al. 2017). Respondents rate a series of statements on a 5-point Likert scale, with 1 being "strongly disagree" and 5 being "strongly agree"

Scoring in terms of originality, fluency, elaboration and flexibility. The higher the score the better the creativity and divergent thinking.

A 39-item self-report scale, translated and validated into Spanish, that measures mindfulness traits (Baer et al 2006, 2010; Cebolla et al 2012). Respondents rate a series of statements on a 5-point Likert scale, with 1 being "never" and 5 being "very often".

A 21-item self-report scale, translated and validated into Spanish, that measures depression, anxiety and stress levels (Henry and Crawford 2005, Bados et al. 2005). Respondents rate a series of statements on a 4-point Likert scale, with 0 being "not at all true of me" and 3 being "very true of me".

An 8-item self-report scale, translated and validated into Spanish, that measures the levels of the mind wandering trait (Carriere et al. 2013). Respondents rate a series of statements on a 7-point Likert scale, with 1 being "almost never" and 7 being "almost always".

A 20-item self-report scale, translated and validated into Spanish, that measures affective and cognitive empathy (Villadangos et al. 2016). Respondents rate a series of statements on a 5-point Likert scale, with 1 being "strongly disagree" and 5 being "strongly agree"

Assessing whether academic record data provided by the UGR (e.g., grades) improve across the baseline to 12-month assessment period.

This qualitative questionnaire with open ended questions builds directly on the results from the quantitative phase. The quantitative results are interpreted in more detail through the qualitative data.

Every two questionnaires a control question such as "For this question, please select the response number three" will be inserted among the questionnaire items. The aim is to test whether students are adequately answering and paying attention (or in contrast are answering randomly). An ex-post evaluation will be carried out to consider which subjects to include in the final data analysis.

A 24-item self-report scale to assess neuroticism and social conformity and desirability. Respondents rate a series of statements on a yes/no scale.

Inclusion Criteria: Students enrolled at the University of Granada, Degree level Exclusion Criteria: Current psychotherapy or history of psychotic disorder or neurological condition. Established formal meditation prior experience.

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