Mindful Self-Care Psychoeducation for Emerging Adults: A Pilot Feasibility Study

Abstract

Mindful self-care has emerged as a promising framework for supporting mental health by integrating mindfulness principles with intentional self-care practices. Although mindfulness-based and self-care–oriented interventions have been widely studied, structured psychoeducation programs explicitly targeting mindful self-care remain limited, particularly within emerging adult populations. The present study aimed to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary evidence of benefit of a Mindful Self-Care Psychoeducation Program. A single-arm pilot feasibility study employing a one-group pretest–posttest–follow-up design was conducted. The study group of this research consists of 11 university students who participated in a face-to-face psychoeducation program conducted once a week for 10 weeks. Outcomes were assessed using standardized self-report measures of mindful self-care, perceived stress, coping self-efficacy, and mental well-being across three time points. The results provide preliminary support for the feasibility and acceptability of the program. Repeated-measures analyses indicated a statistically significant change over time on mindful self-care scores, reflecting sustained improvements across the assessment points. Significant changes across time points were also observed for perceived stress, coping self-efficacy, and mental well-being, although post hoc comparisons indicated marginal or delayed changes for these outcomes. Effect sizes ranged from moderate to large across outcome measures, indicating that the psychoeducation program produced practically meaningful improvements in participants’ scores over time. Feasibility was also supported by high session attendance, low attrition, and positive participant feedback. Although conclusions regarding program’s effectiveness are limited by the pilot design and small sample size, the results support the appropriateness of the program for further evaluation in randomized controlled trials with larger and more diverse samples.