Designing scalable micro‑interventions for student wellbeing in higher education: a comparative study of digital and paper colouring

Abstract

Background: mindful activities are recommended to support and improve student wellbeing. Mindful colouring in particular is a low-cost, low-effort intervention shown to improve student wellbeing, mental health, and mindfulness. Less evidence exists about the effectiveness of different colouring formats, such as paper versus digital. This study investigated a self-guided two-week colouring intervention for university student wellbeing, comparing outcomes between paper-based and digital engagement.

Methods: two-hundred and ninety-seven participants completed at least six sessions of self-guided colouring for 10 minutes over two weeks. Participants were assessed using self-report measures of quality of life, stress, anxiety, depression, and dispositional mindfulness pre- and post-intervention. Effects of colouring over time, and between groups were investigated with linear mixed‑effects models.

Results: significant improvements were noted in all outcome measures, with large effects for stress (η²ₚ = .26), depression (η²ₚ = .17), trait anxiety (η²ₚ = .16), medium effects for mindfulness (η²ₚ = .10), and quality of life (η²ₚ = .12), and small effects for state anxiety (η²ₚ = .03). There was a small but significant time x group interaction for dispositional mindfulness, where the digital colouring group experienced a greater increase in compared to the paper colouring group.

Conclusion: digital colouring has notable benefits to dispositional mindfulness. Regardless of format, mindful colouring can improve student quality of life, stress, anxiety, depression and dispositional mindfulness, when carried out regularly over two weeks. Colouring shows promise as a low-cost and accessible way to improve wellbeing in a higher education setting that promotes positive engagement with digital technology.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Emma Claire Palmer-Cooper: orcid.org/0000-0002-5416-1518

ORCID for Rose Seneviratne: orcid.org/0000-0002-5593-9483

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