Effect of a Mindfulness Intervention on Community College Students’ Writing Apprehension and Writing Performance

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Abstract

This experimental study uses a quantitative data collection strategy to examine whether a mindfulness intervention, a three-minute breathing exercise, will affect writing anxiety and writing performance measures. The researcher will compare Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension surveys and narrative writing samples from 300 students enrolled in a freshman composition course at a southeastern community college, half of whom practice the mindful-breathing technique at class onset.
Findings suggest whether the mindful-breathing technique used in this study may reduce writing apprehension and improve narrative writing performance in community college students. These findings may encourage further study of mindfulness interventions in educational settings and wider use of mindful breathing as a technique for managing writing apprehension and improving writing performance in community college students.

Authors

• Megan E. Britt, Old Dominion University

• KaaVonia Mechelle Hinton-Johnson, Old Dominion University

• Shana L. Pribesh, Old Dominion University

• Abha Gupta, Old Dominion University