Abstract
Student Interests, Needs, and Preferences for Trauma-Sensitive Yoga at a Southeastern U.S. University
by Kelsey M. Dietrich1,2, Aaliyah N. Buford1, Emily Reynolds1 and Christyn Dolbiere1
1Stress and Health Lab, Department of Psychology, East Carolina University
2Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Duluth
Cite as: Dietrich et al. (2024). Student Interests, Needs, and Preferences for Trauma-Sensitive Yoga at a Southeastern U.S. University. THE MIND Bulletin on Mind-Body Medicine Research, x, xxx. https://doi.org/10.61936/themind/202410091
Trauma threatens one’s life or sense of safety and can lead to debilitating symptoms for college students (American Psychiatric Association, 2022; Shannonhouse et al., 2023). Yoga is an emerging trauma treatment (Bisson et al., 2020) and common form of mind-body medicine used by college students (Nowak et al., 2024). Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY; Emerson et al., 2009) is a protocolized yoga intervention for trauma care that focuses on mindfulness, interoception, and empowerment. TCTSY effectively reduces anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress (Price et al., 2017; Zaccari et al., 2023) with feasibility in clinical and community settings (Clark et al., 2014; Zaccari et al., 2022). To our knowledge, this was the first study of TCTSY with college students to document needs, interest, and preferences for TCTSY. Quota sampling recruitment occurred March-June 2024 at a southeastern U.S. public university via flyers, email, and Sona. Qualtrics surveys assessed demographics, trauma exposure (LEC-5, Weathers et
al., 2013), trauma symptoms (PC-PTSD-5, Prins et al., 2016), and yoga preferences (Kabiri et al., 2018). Compensation was Sona credit or gift card. From 339 participants (White 77%, female 68%, Christian 43%, first-year undergraduates 30%; M age = 23.7), 68% previously practiced yoga, and 89% never heard of trauma-sensitive yoga. On average, participants reported direct exposure to 2.96 traumatic events (most common = transportation accident (45%), index trauma = other unwanted/uncomfortable sexual experience (18%)) and subthreshold PTSD symptoms (M(SD) =1.66(1.56). Majority (73%) indicated interest in TCTSY programs, from which most common program preferences were 2 (40%) 45-minute sessions (46%) in-person (41%) for groups (69%) open to all trauma survivors (70%) over 4 weeks (19%). Cost was the top participation barrier. Implications for offering campus TCTSY in acceptable ways for the unique needs of college students will be discussed.
Keywords: yoga, trauma-sensitive yoga, college students, program preferences, PTSD, trauma