The Effect of Laughter Therapy on Students in the COVID-19 Pandemic

March 5, 2021 updated by: Canan Eraydın, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University

The Effect of Laughter Therapy on Students' Anxiety, Life Satisfaction and Psychological Well-being in the Covid-19 Pandemic

This study was designed as a randomized controlled, pre-test-post-test control group in order to determine the effect of laughter therapy on anxiety, life satisfaction and psychological well-being of nursing students. Laughter therapy was applied to the experimental group for at least 60 minutes, 10 sessions two days a week. For the evaluation, the state-continuity anxiety scale, life satisfaction scale, psychological well-being scale were applied at the pre-application stage (pre-test) and after the laughter therapy sessions (post-test). The following hypotheses were included in this study;

H1: Laughter therapy given during the Covid19 pandemic reduces the anxiety level of intern students.

H2: Laughter therapy given during the Covid19 pandemic affects the life satisfaction of intern students.

H3: During the Covid19 pandemic process, the laughter therapy given to interns affects the relationship between anxiety levels and life satisfaction.

H4: Laughter therapy given to intern students during the Covid19 pandemic process affects psychological well-being.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Today, all countries are struggling with COVID-19, which typically presents with mild symptoms but causes serious mortality in the world population. In addition to the routine changes due to the pandemic, face-to-face education has been switched to online education. The integration of online education and more technology into the curriculum than ever before has increased students' anxiety towards learning. It was also found to cause high levels of anxiety and stress, characterized by feelings of risk, insecurity, and unhappiness. Studies show that high levels of anxiety negatively affect students' adaptation to daily life and their life satisfaction levels. In recent years, non-pharmacological techniques have been widely used in reducing anxiety and stress. One of them is laughter therapy. Laughter therapy reduces feelings of negative stress, anxiety, and depression by increasing the body's readiness to deal with different types of problems. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of online laughter therapy on anxiety, life satisfaction and psychological well-being levels of nursing students, who have switched to online education during the pandemic process.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

80

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Zonguldak, Turkey
        • Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • A student of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing and enrolled in the fall semester,
  • Who has not studied laughter yoga before or did not do laughter yoga,
  • It will create students who agree to participate in the research.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Being a foreign national,
  • Having a situation where laughter yoga is not recommended (having surgery in the abdominal region in the last three months, uncontrolled hypertension, chronic cough, incontinence, acute back pain, acute mental disorders, consumption of antipsychotic drugs, glaucoma, hernia, epilepsy),
  • Students with simultaneous participation in any complementary treatment methods will be excluded.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Laughter Therapy group
All students enrolled in the laughter therapy group will receive a total of 10 sessions of laughter therapy, 60 minutes, 2 days a week.
Laughter therapy will be applied for 60 minutes, 10 sessions, 2 days a week. The therapy, which starts with the stimulation of the acupuncture points in the palm and acquaintance with hand clapping for an average of 10 minutes, continues with deep breathing and breathing exercises that include diaphragmatic breathing. The childish games section, which is played to reveal and trigger simulated laughter, is the section where laughter starts as "if" and turns into reality. The last part is the part where the group makes eye contact for no reason and for no reason, and laughs for at least 3 minutes unconditionally. In the last part, wish meditation and relaxation sessions are performed.
Other Names:
  • Alternative
No Intervention: Control
No attempt will be made to students in this group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
psychological well-being
Time Frame: 4 months
What are the anxiety levels of the students after the laughter therapy given during the Covid19 pandemic? State and trait anxiety scales will be used to measure students' anxiety levels before and after laughter therapy. The scale is a Likert-type scale that separately measures state-continuity anxiety levels with 20 questions. The scale consists of twenty-item state anxiety and trait anxiety scales, with high scores showing high levels of anxiety, and low scores showing low levels of anxiety. The total score obtained from both scales varies between 20-80. Big score indicates high anxiety level, small score indicates low anxiety level. It is a four-degree scale ranging from "None" to "Totally".
4 months
life satisfaction
Time Frame: 4 months

What is the life satisfaction of the students after the laughter therapy given during the Covid19 pandemic? The life satisfaction levels of the students before and after the laughter therapy will be measured using the 'life satisfaction scale'.

The scale consists of five positive statements. The scale, which aims to measure general life satisfaction, is suitable for all ages, from adolescents to adults. The scale has a 7-point Likert type evaluation. Level of participation in scale items "1 = Not at all appropriate", "2 = Not suitable", "3 = Somewhat unsuitable", "4 = Neither suitable nor not appropriate", "5 = Somewhat appropriate", "6 = Not suitable", It is scored as "7 = Very suitable". A minimum of 5 and a maximum of 35 points can be obtained from scale items. A low score on the scale is accepted as an indicator of low life satisfaction.

4 months
Psychological Well-being
Time Frame: 4 months

What are the psychological well-being levels of the students after the laughter therapy given during the Covid19 pandemic? Psychological well-being scale will be used to evaluate students' psychological well-being before and after laughter therapy.

Psychological well-being scale consists of eight items. The scale is scored between 1-7. The high score to be obtained from the scale indicates that the person has psychological power.

4 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Study Director: Şule Ecevit Alpar, Doctorate, Université

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 1, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 30, 2021

Study Completion (Anticipated)

May 10, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 24, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 5, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

March 8, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 8, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 5, 2021

Last Verified

March 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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