Abstract:
Academic stress is one form of stress that is essential to address in university students
to improve mental health and academic performance. Mindfulness has been
recognised in the international literature as one of the effective strategies of
minimising stress, yet it is not widely utilised in the context of Sri Lankan higher
education. Accordingly, this study intended to identify the impact of mindfulness on
academic stress among management undergraduates, with special reference to state
universities in Sri Lanka. The research used a quantitative research design where
mindfulness was considered as the independent variable and academic stress as the
dependent variable. The data were collected through a structured questionnaire
distributed physically and via Google Forms to a sample of 209 management
undergraduates from two Metropolitan and two peripheral state universities in Sri
Lanka, namely the University of Colombo, the University of Kelaniya, the University
of Ruhuna, and the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka. The questionnaire measured
respondents’ levels of mindfulness and academic stress using validated Likert scale
items. Statistical analyses, including both descriptive and inferential techniques, were
conducted using SPSS 25 version. The regression model revealed that mindfulness
accounted for 14.3% of the variance in academic stress among management
undergraduates. Accordingly, the independent variable, namely mindfulness (β = -
0.379, p < 0.01), showed a significant negative effect on academic stress among the
management undergraduates. The study's results show that it's important for
universities to include mindfulness-based interventions in their programmes to help
students better manage their emotions, pay attention, and deal with stress.
Theoretically, this finding adds to the body of knowledge regarding the relevance of
mindfulness in the context of higher education in Sri Lanka, along with supporting
practical interventions like incorporating mindfulness-based training into student
development programmes.
