April Powell, Katlyn Alcorn, Kaitlin

Lindsay

TRO Conference 2017

● Introduction of presenters and topic

● Purpose statement and hypothesis

● Results of literature review

● Methodology and data collection

● Audience participation

● Data analysis

● Findings

● Relation to therapeutic recreation

● Wrap up

● Questions

● April Powell

○ Brock University- Bachelor of Recreation and Leisure Studies- Therapeutic Recreation (Honours) with First Class

Standing

○ Nova Scotia Health Authority- Addiction Services

○ CTRS

○ CHATS- Recreation Programmer

● Katlyn Alcorn

○ Brock University- Bachelor of Recreation and Leisure Studies- Therapeutic Recreation (Honours) with First Class

Standing

○ Nova Scotia Health Authority- Inpatient Mental Health

○ CTRS

● Kaitlin Lindsay

○ Brock University- Bachelor of Recreation and Leisure Studies- Therapeutic Recreation (Honours) with First Class

Standing

○ Niagara Health System- Inpatient Mental Health and Addictions

○ Recreation Therapist- Niagara Health System Inpatient and Outpatient Mental Health and Addictions

This research has been accepted by the American Journal of Recreation Therapy and is currently in print

● What is stress?○ Stress is the body’s way of responding to some sort of threat or demand

● Why is stress a concern?○ Can lead to anxiety and depression (Schrade, Tronsky & Kaiser, 2011)

○ Leaves you more vulnerable to mental health problems and emotional problems○ Increases blood pressure, risk for colds/infections, headaches○ Can lead to harmful activities

● Why TR professionals should be looking at ways to combat stress

● Common stressors of university students ○ Exams, assignments, leaving social support systems, forming new relationships, financial obligations (Aaron et al., 2015;

Ksiazek et al., 2015; Sandmire et al., 2o12; Kaya et al., 2015)

● What is colouring?

○ A meditative form of art therapy as it allows the individual to clear their mind, it provides deep relaxation and

increased awareness (Carsley et al., 2015)

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study is to compare pre- and post-intervention stress

assessments in the experimental and control groups to determine the effect of colouring on

self-reported stress levels in undergraduate students, aged 18-21, at Brock University who are

living away from home.

H1: Colouring groups will report lower stress levels post intervention than the control group.

H2: The mandala colouring group will report the largest difference in pre and post- intervention scores.

H3: The control group will report higher stress at the end of the study when compared to their initial scores

● Stress presents itself in a variety of forms and is considered one of the most common problems of the

21st century (Ksiazek et al., 2015)

● How does stress occur?○ Disruption between the individual and environment

● Mandala and other colouring patterns○ Mindful creation allows individual to be fully emerged in the activity

● Why do we need to decrease stress?○ Decreased immune function

● Benefits of colouring○ Allows individuals a chance to escape from daily pressures and recharge

● How are Therapeutic Recreation professionals currently using colouring as an intervention?○ Colouring is being used to assist with budgets in hospital settings as it helps improve mental health

● Quasi-experimental designs are used in place of true experiments when it is ideal for researchers to

control some aspects of the experiment, for example participant assignment (Gay & Airasian, 2003)

● Tool used:

○ State Trait Anxiety inventory (STAI)

○ State: current anxiety

○ Trait: overall states of calmness, confidence, and security

● Data collection procedures

○ Baseline STAI test, stress induction, pre- STAI test, 20 minutes of assigned treatment, post- STAI

test, debrief and resources

● Stress induction procedures

○ Discussion format

● Researchers asked participants questions regarding common stressors for University students

Image coloured by 20 research participants

19 research participants

Image coloured by 20 research participants

● All data was entered into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and was password

protected

● Raw data was securely kept until the completion of the study in case of any technology failures

● Tests completed:

○ Descriptive Data Analysis:

■ Determine the mean of each group

○ Standard deviation:

■ Determining how far the data points fall from the mean

○ Inferential statistics:

■ ANOVA

● Used to make multiple comparisons● Determine the degree of difference or similarity between two or more groups

(Taylor, 2015)

● To determine the reliability of the STAI used for the study a Cronbach’s Alpha Test was completed.

The result was a score of 0.948

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha Based on

Standardized Items N of Items

.936 .948 39

DescriptivesN Mean Std. Deviation

Baseline STAI Sea Turtle 20 77.35 21.109Mandala 20 72.85 11.878Control 19 79.63 20.774Total 59 76.56 18.281

Pre-Test STAI Sea Turtle 20 88.10 23.657Mandala 20 80.45 18.766Control 19 85.79 24.975Total 59 84.76 22.425

Post-Test STAI Sea Turtle 20 69.85 18.097Mandala 20 63.35 13.838Control 19 83.89 26.013Total 59 72.17 21.301

● The descriptives table scores for each test and the standard deviation which indicates how close to the mean the data points lie

Colouring groups will report lower stress levels

post-intervention than the control group

● The descriptives table displays that the mean scores for

both the Mandala and the Sea Turtle colouring group are

lower than the control group in the post-test STAI.

● The graph demonstrates the drop in post-test scores

represented by the green line for the mandala group and

the purple line for the sea turtle group.

DescriptivesN Mean Std. Deviation

Baseline STAI Sea Turtle 20 77.35 21.109Mandala 20 72.85 11.878Control 19 79.63 20.774Total 59 76.56 18.281

Pre-Test STAI Sea Turtle 20 88.10 23.657Mandala 20 80.45 18.766Control 19 85.79 24.975Total 59 84.76 22.425

Post-Test STAI Sea Turtle 20 69.85 18.097Mandala 20 63.35 13.838Control 19 83.89 26.013Total 59 72.17 21.301

The mandala colouring group will report the largest

drop in pre and post- intervention scores

● As demonstrated by the multiple

comparisons table when the mandala

group was compared to the other two

groups the significance was below

0.05 providing statistical significance

that there was a difference between

the mandala pattern and other groups

● The post hoc tukey test further

supported these findings. This test

shows where the significant difference

lines. In column 1 is the mandala

group and in column 2 is the sea turtle

and control group.

The control group will report higher stress at the end

of the study when compared to their initial scores

● As demonstrated by the yellow line on the graph the

post test scores for the control group are higher than

their baseline scores

● The descriptives table shows the mean baseline scores

for the control group are 79.63 and increased to 83.89

for their port-test score.

DescriptivesN Mean Std. Deviation

Baseline STAI Sea Turtle 20 77.35 21.109Mandala 20 72.85 11.878Control 19 79.63 20.774Total 59 76.56 18.281

Pre-Test STAI Sea Turtle 20 88.10 23.657Mandala 20 80.45 18.766Control 19 85.79 24.975Total 59 84.76 22.425

Post-Test STAI Sea Turtle 20 69.85 18.097Mandala 20 63.35 13.838Control 19 83.89 26.013Total 59 72.17 21.301

- Gender became a factor that lead

researchers to look into the

differences between males and

females

- Male participants entered the study

with less stress and did not experience

the same amount of increase in stress

following the stress induction

- However following the intervention

both genders did have a reduction in

stress, although females experienced

a greater amount of stress reduction

Question: Think to yourself...

When planning or running different programs/groups,

what are some examples of the benefits you try to achieve for

your clients/patients?

· Relieve stress

· Explore feelings

· Express emotions

· Increase self esteem

· Outlet for self expression

· Improve mood

· Promote mindfulness

· Provide a sense of accomplishment

· Exercise the brain

· Distraction

· Enhance brain activity

· Encourage positive thinking

Now out of the benefits you thought of, do any appear on the list below?

· Bring out inner child creativity

· Strengthen concentration

· Quiet the mind

· Reduce feelings of hopelessness

· Decrease agitation

· Provide comfort

· Bring us back to a simpler time

· Improve coordination

· Increase confidence

· Provide meditation

· Provide relaxation

These are all different benefits colouring can provide!

Not only do the benefits of colouring apply to the university student population which we explored…

Colouring can be incorporated to populations such as:

● Mental Health & Addictions

● Seniors

● Adults

● Teens

● Children

Colouring can be incorporated into programs/groups at:

● Hospitals

● Retirement homes

● Long term care homes

● Schools

● Rehabilitation centres

● Home

● Day Programs

Ways to implement colouring:

● Individual self care time

● Group settings

● Reflection

● Self- expression

● Managing emotions

● Shift in routines

● Mindful homework

● Stress and anxiety levels have increased significantly over the past 50 years and has become one of

the most common problems of the 21st century (Curry & Kasser, 2005; Ksiazek et al., 2015).

● Now knowing the benefits of the mandala and other colouring patterns aswell, we hope you

incorporate them into your practice in some way.

● Colouring is an activity that is appropriate for us as professionals to incorporate into programs for

individuals of all different ages.

But don’t forget…. We need to take care of ourselves too!

Colouring is a great tool for Self Care.

Think of all of the benefits we touched on earlier that would be helpful for us as professionals as well.

● Look at the colours participants used

● Look at different populations

● Complete study on larger population

● How did participants feel later that day?

● Gender

● Different ways in which TR professionals

could utilize colouring throughout their

practice

● We found statistically significant results showing that the mandala pattern is the

most effective image to colour for stress reduction

○ Thus, providing TR professionals with research to support colouring as a

beneficial intervention

● Even though the sea turtle picture did not provide statistically significant evidence it

was able to reduce stress as the mean post-test scores of the pattern did drop

○ This shows that colouring a non-mandala pattern can still provide some stress

reduction

● Colouring is a beneficial coping mechanism for dealing with stress in the lives of

full-time Brock University students, and as a result we believe it would also work

with other populations that we work with in the field of Therapeutic Recreation

Questions?