Mindfulness meditation for student veterans experiencing stress related to the transition from the military to the university

Background:  The first part of the study was completed during the fall 2012 semester at a mid-sized state university in the Northeast US. Three hundred-forty of 15,000 students are veterans. A survey of student veterans (response rate ~24%) revealed that 20% of respondants experienced some type of injury while on military duty; 8% of those experience difficulty transitioning to the university because of the injury. 

Significance: Exploration into the type of injuries revealed that among respondants, most referred to physical injuries and did not address psychological injuries. The sense among student veterans was that stress related to both physical and psychological trauma is largely perceived as something with which one must learn to live, despite that it interefered to varying extent with the return to the university setting.  

Methods: The researcher is working with student veterans to design an intervention. Student veterans have expressed interest in also being part of the assessment team, therefore a small group of students will be trained to facilitate focus groups centering on stress reduction and the appropriateness and effectiveness of the intervention. Mindfullness meditation and basic, beginning yoga breathwork and poses will be taught during the spring semester; evaluation will take place over the summer and in the early fall. 

Results: Research results are pending, however, results of the initial inquiry show a high level of interest among student veterans to not only participate in the intervention, but also to be part of the planning and evaluation team.