Evaluation and efficacy of psychological vaccine in controlling perceived stress: A longitudinal study

Pages:235-243
S. Bose Veeramachaneni (Department of Psychology, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India)
Radhakrishna M. Kothapalli (Department of Sociology, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India)

A group resilience training program is used as psychological vaccine to control the perceived stress of college students. Volunteer student sample of 32 in experimental group and 39 in open group are studied. Average age of sample is 20.6 years. Experimental group received resilience training program as psychological vaccine, which the open group did not receive. In this nine month follow-up study perceived stress scores (PSS) are measured using Cohen’s 10-item scale, at four different time intervals namely-pre training in case of experimental group and initial rating in case of open group participants. Subsequent measurements are taken three, six and nine months after training for both groups. Results indicated the perceived stress of experimental group has decreased while the same has increased in case of open group who did not receive psychological vaccine. Significant probabilities are considered at 5 % level of significance. Gender differences are discussed in the light of previous studies. Obtained results justified the tested resilience program as ‘psychological vaccine’ to control perceived stress.