Fielding Anchor Groups Reduce Stress

Clinical Psychology students research groups at national session

Samantha Poling, Dr. Tiffany Field, Dr. Debra Bendell, and Shantay Mines

Fielding Clinical Psychology students conducted a study of students who attended student anchor groups at Fielding’s national sessions, and found that those who did so experienced a significant reduction in their perceived stress level and a high level of satisfaction post-attendance.

The research was conducted — and made into a poster — by students Shantay Mines, Samantha Poling, and Ava GraceField, with faculty members Debra Bendell and Tiffany Field.

Available to Fielding students at National Sessions, anchor groups are 30-minute social support meetings in which students and faculty engage in an open-discussion format.

The Anchor group questionnaire was completed pre and post attendance by 149 students and included 13 items on a four-point Likert scale, measuring the perceived level of stress, core discussion topic, the reason for participation, and perceived satisfaction afterwards. Analyses included repeated measures of ANOVA on pre and post questionnaires.

Results showed that students reported a reduction in stress level and a high level of satisfaction post-attendance. Findings indicated that during meetings, discussion topics included coursework, interpersonal issues, and current events. Contrary to our hypothesis, results suggested that the primary reason students attended Anchor groups was to interact with faculty.