Psychological Distress in Racial and Ethnic Minority Students

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Psychological distress among the racial and ethnic minority in the United States. The program is taught in American schools in a seven-step course. Moreover, the students are encouraged to practice it at least twice every day while still in school. In each of school where this research study was carried out, the students volunteered to the program. It was carried out in a period of 4 months whereby two major groups were involved in the study. The actual participants of the Transcendental Mediation program and a control group that did not learn or practice the program helped in ascertaining the difference (Elder et al., 2011). The participants of the study were to be involved in programs such as sitting quietly, resting, reading, and working at home. The psychological distresses were measured using Strengths Difficult Questionnaires (SDQ) of the participants. It was also based on the emotional symptom scale. The scale has 3 points of reference (0-2). A questionnaire entitled “how I feel” containing twenty items to be responded to by the student was used to ascertain the anxiety levels. In addition, mental health was assessed using the Mental Health Inventory (MHI). It employed a six-point response scale (Elder et al, 2011). The variability in the expected outcomes was analyzed using a control group.