Effects of Mindfulness Meditation and Aromatherapy on Stress and Anxiety of Company Employees in Bangkok Metropolitan

Abstract

           This research objective is to study the effects of Mindfulness Meditation and Aromatherapy on the Stress and Anxiety of Company Employees in Bangkok Metropolitan. It is a Quasi-Experimental Research, the sample group consisting of regular employees working in companies within the Bangkok metropolitan area. The 100 participants were determined using G*Power, with an effect size of 0.05 and a 5% reserve, resulting in 25 participants per group, consists of 3 experiment group and 1 control group. After the intervention, all 4 groups will complete the DASS questionnaire to assess the differences in stress and anxiety scores. Since the activity involves with mindfulness meditation as a component, and following Buddhist principles and the concepts of Jon Kabat-Zinn, participants will be assessed for their mindfulness levels to reflecting on feelings, thus, the participants will be tested using a mindfulness questionnaire focusing on awareness aspect.

             Collecting data will be quantitative analysis using statistical measures such as Mean, Standard Deviation, and hypothesis testing by using Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures for one factor and One-way ANOVA to explore any significant differences among the groups.

             The research findings that after the experiment all 3 experimental groups showed a significant reduction in stress and anxiety scores, while the control group not only showed no statistically significant differences but a bit increasing of stress and anxiety.

             When comparing within-group scores before and after the activity, all 3 experimental groups demonstrated a significant decrease in stress and anxiety, with statistically significant differences at the .05 level (p < .05, F = 32.45 for stress, and p < .05, F = 48.45 for anxiety). In contrast, the control group showed an increase in stress and anxiety scores. Furthermore, when comparing post-experiment of stress and anxiety scores between the 3 experimental groups and the control group, it was found that all 3 experimental groups had significantly lower stress and anxiety scores than the control group, with statistically significant differences at the .05 level (p < .05, F = 10.70 for stress, and p < .05, F = 2.72 for anxiety). This suggests a statistically significant reduction in stress and anxiety for the experimental groups compared to the control group and show that the activity have the effect on reducing stress and anxiety."