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Mindfulness, mindful consumption, and life satisfaction: An experiment with higher education students

Sharad Gupta (Delhi School of Business, VIPS – TC, Delhi, India)
Harsh V. Verma (Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, Delhi, India)

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education

ISSN: 2050-7003

Article publication date: 30 September 2019

Issue publication date: 13 June 2020

1625

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of mindfulness meditation sessions on students of higher education in terms of their mindfulness, mindful consumption behavior and life satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

Participants of research were higher education students. The research included two studies. The first (screener) study endorsed that mindfulness was higher in students with higher mindfulness meditation frequency. The second study used difference-in-differences experimental design using a treatment and a control group. These groups participated in pre and post-treatment surveys. The treatment was given as guided short mindfulness meditation sessions as suggested by mindfulness guru – Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn. The treatment group received these sessions at the end of regular subject classes for two months.

Findings

The experiment revealed that mindfulness, mindful consumption and life satisfaction change significantly in the treatment group after treatment as compared to the control group.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations of the study included sample size and attrition. In total, 149 students participated in the screener study. In total, 94 students were given pre-treatment survey as per research design and 80 participated in post-treatment survey.

Practical implications

This experiment demonstrated that important traits and behavior like life satisfaction and mindful consumption behavior of higher education students can be improved significantly. The effectiveness of guided short mindfulness sessions, conducted in the classroom environment, was also confirmed.

Social implications

The inclusion of mindfulness in the regular curriculum by policy makers would benefit students, faculty members and overall quality of learning environment.

Originality/value

Though previous researches have separately investigated relationships of mindfulness with life satisfaction, there is a lack of research to show association of mindfulness, mindful consumption and life satisfaction.

Keywords

Citation

Gupta, S. and Verma, H.V. (2020), "Mindfulness, mindful consumption, and life satisfaction: An experiment with higher education students", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 456-474. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-11-2018-0235

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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