Enhancing Resilience and Reducing Psychological Distress through a Brief Resilience Intervention among University Students

Abstract

University life is characterized as a transitional period accompanied by its own stressors, such as consistent academic pressure, future career insecurity, and familial and personal responsibilities. Lack of adaptive capabilities during this time period can cause psychological distress in university students; population. Therefore, the objective of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the brief resilience intervention program to decrease psychological distress and to improve resilience in university students. The brief intervention consisted of two sessions (45 minutes each) scheduled over two consecutive weeks, with one session per week. Overall, twenty-eight university students were selected through the convenience sampling technique from various departments of Karakoram International University. A single-group repeated-measure design was employed to compare pre- and post-intervention scores.  Findings indicated a significant variance between (a) pre-intervention psychological distress and post-intervention psychological distress scores, and (b) pre-intervention resilience scores and post-intervention resilience scores. Findings of the study underscore the importance and applicability of brief, low-cost, and integrative resilience interventions to reduce psychological distress and promote resilience in the university students’ population.

Keywords: Resilience, resilience intervention, psychological distress, university students, cognitive behavior therapy.