Efficacy of a Compassion Program in University Students

University life is a challenging period. College students are exposed to a large number of stressors such as increased workload, multitasking, new responsibilities, changes in sleep and eating habits, social stressors, financial concerns and future employability, unlimited access to technology, etc. The participation of some of them in unhealthy activities should also be noted. There is sufficient evidence to affirm that high levels of stress cause different alterations in students, such as attention and concentration deficits, difficulties in memorizing and solving problems, low productivity and poor academic performance. Due to this, in addition to the psychological and social impact of said mental health problems, the academic functioning of the students decreases and the dropout rates increase, which represents a problem for themselves and for the institutions. On the other hand, students and future professionals in training run the risk of suffering burnout as a consequence of the chronic stress to which they are subjected, with the consequent negative effects on their future professional practice. The main objective of the present research is to evaluate the efficacy of a six-week compassion program for the reduction of psychological distress in university students compared to an active control condition based on relaxation.

Inclusion Criteria: * Age: 18-30 years old. * Study undergraduate or master's degrees at the University of Zaragoza. * Understand perfectly spoken and written Spanish. * Grant informed consent. Exclusion Criteria: * Any diagnose of disease that may affect central nervous system (brain pathology traumatic brain injury, dementia, etc.). * Other psychiatric diagnoses or acute psychiatric illness (substance dependence or abuse, history of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, eating disorders, etc.) except for anxious pathology or personality disorders. * Any medical, infectious or degenerative disease that may affect mood, presence of delusional ideas or hallucinations consistent or not with mood, and suicide risk.