Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Treatment Group
40
Perceived Stress
35
30
25
21.9
20.8
Pretest
Post Test
20
15
10
5
0
Control Group
40
37.3
39.9
Perceived Stress
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Pretest
Post Test
before bed. Each yoga stretch was to be held for three minutes before moving onto the next step
in the sequence. The treatment group filled out a record log that was supplied to them. It
tracked whether they completed their yoga stretching sessions and why or why not. At the end
of the two week yoga stretching program, all data was collected and put into excel datasheets
separated into two categories, treatment pre and posttest and control pre and posttest data. Our
research question focused on the relationship of perceived stress levels of occupational therapy
students at Touro University Nevada and participation in yoga. When we formulated our
hypothesis, we predicted there would be a decrease in perceived stress levels in the treatment
group after completion of the yoga stretching program. The results of our study supported our
hypothesis. The data showed the control groups perceived stress levels increased between the
pretest perceived stress scale they filled out and the posttest perceived stress scale. The data also
showed the treatment groups perceived stress levels decreased between the pretest perceived
stress scale they filled out and the posttest perceived stress scale. Between the pretest and
posttest, there was a two week period of time where the treatment group completed six yoga
sessions.
Our research shows that yoga can decrease stress, but there were many limitations within
our study. The first limitation is the weekly yoga log for the treatment group was a self-reported
document and was done alone. In the future, we would implement a yoga group for
accountability and encouragement among participants. The yoga would be practiced together so
it would be done correctly and we could control the environment so that it is more consistent
among participants. With yoga being done in their own homes, we had a variety of
environments not necessarily conducive to a true yoga experience. In the future study, this would
be done in a professional yoga environment, such as a yoga studio. We also did not teach the
yoga poses, the participants were only given written instruction, encouraging a variation of
correct yoga postures. This would also be remediated by having a certified yoga instructor
leading a class. Another limitation is that all of our control group consisted of cohort 2016 while
our treatment group was a mixture of both cohort 2015 and cohort 2016. We should even out the
groups to include an even mixture from both cohorts in both the treatment and nontreatment
groups. Also, cohort 2015 may have established better stress reduction techniques than cohort
2016 or cohort 2015 may have decreased stress levels because they have different course work
and educational demands than cohort 2016. There were less than 50 participants, which could
decrease the validity of the study. Since the perceived stress level decreased in our treatment
group, the idea of teaching yoga as a part of orientation or the curriculum to the occupational
therapy graduate students would be a great addition to the program/curriculum.
References
Beck, A. R., & Verticchio, H. (2014). Facilitating Speech-Language Pathology Graduate
Students Ability To Manage Stress: A Pilot Study. Contemporary Issues In
Communication Science & Disorders, 4124-38.
Collingwood, J. (2007). The physical effects of long-term stress. Psych Central. Retrieved on
October 12, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/the-physical-effects-of-long-termstress/000935
Rogers, J. C., & Dodson, S. C. (1988). Burnout in Occupational Therapists. American Journal of
Occupational Therapy, 42(12), 787-792. doi: 10.5014/ajot.42.12.787