The Effect of Laughter Yoga on Hope and School Burnout

The Effect of Laughter Yoga on Hope and School Burnout Among Secondary School Students: A Parallel Group Randomized Control Trial.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of laughter yoga on hope and school burnout among secondary school (8th Grade) students. The study hypothesized that laughter yoga would have an effect on hope and school burnout scores among secondary school students

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Laughter Yoga; Hope; Laughter Therapy; School Burnout
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Laughter yoga

Detailed Description

Purpose: The aim of the research was to examine the effects of laughter yoga on life hope and school burnout among secondary school (8th Grade) students.

Methods: The study was conducted with 60 (30 in the intervention group, and 30 in the control group) students. The study population consisted of 8th grade students. Laughter yoga sessions were applied to the intervention group twice a week for 6 weeks. No intervention was offered to the control group. Data were collected by a socio-demographic questionnaire, school burnout inventory and Children's Hope Scale.

Results: After laughter yoga, the intervention result showed a significant decrease in burnout (d=0.129; p < 0.001) and increase hope scores (d=0.556; p < 0.001) compared to the control group.

Conclusion: The study reveals that laughter yoga affects students' burnout and hope levels. It is recommended to organize laughter yoga activities in schools to decrease burnout and increase hope of students.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey
  • Ankara, Turkey, 06100
    • Hacettepe University
  • Ankara, Turkey, 60100
    • Hacettepe University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 13 years to 14 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• The inclusion criteria of the study were determined as being an 8th-grade student, speaking and understanding Turkish, and being able to perform daily life activities.

Exclusion Criteria:

• having severe hearing or perceptual deficits that impaired communication; having dementia, Alzheimer's disease, depression, uncontrolled diabetes, hypertensive disease and surgical operations with the risk of bleeding.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental: Laughter yoga; The intervention group received laughter yoga twice a week for three weeks.	Behavioral: Laughter yoga; Laughter yoga program was composed of four steps. The first step, which took 10 minutes, had warm-up exercises including gentle stretching and hand clapping. The second step, which included deep breathing exercises and hand clapping, took 5 minutes. The third step involved children's games and laughter exercises. The sessions included a combination of different laughter exercises. The last step, which included yoga nidra took 5 minutes.
No Intervention: No Intervention: Control group; The control group did not take part in the laughter yoga program.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Children's Hope Scale scores	The Children's Hope Scale (CHS) is self-report measure of children's perceptions that their goals can be met. The CHS consists of six items that are hypothesized to relate to the two underlying factors of agency and pathways. Adding the response values for pathway questions will provide a pathway score ranging from 2-12; higher scores reflect higher pathways thinking. Adding the response values for agency questions will provide an agency score ranging from 2-12; higher scores reflect higher agency thinking. Adding pathway and agency scores will provide an overall hope score (i.e., level of hope). Scores of 4-8 indicate no to very low hope, 9-12 indicate slightly hopeful, 13-16 indicate moderately hopeful, and 17-24 indicates highly hopeful.	up to 6 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
School Burnout Inventory score	Burnout is assessed in accordance with the School Burnout Inventory scale comprises nine uni dimensional items measuring the three dimensions: (1) exhaustion at school (e.g., I feel overwhelmed by my school work; I brood over matters related to my school work a lot during my free time); (2) disengagement or cynicism with regard to the meaning of school (e.g., I feel a lack of motivation in my school work and often think of giving up; I feel that I am losing interest in my school work), and (3) feelings of inadequacy at school (e.g., I often have feelings of inadequacy with regard to my school work). There were three items for each of the three dimensions, all of which were rated on a six-point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). We calculated separate sum scores at each of the four time points for the three dimensions and the overall burnout.	up to 6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Hacettepe University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Nilgun Kuru Alici, PhD, Associate professor

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 20, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 10, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): June 10, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 13, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 22, 2023
• First Posted (Estimate): February 23, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): February 23, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 22, 2023
• Last Verified: February 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological; Burnout, Psychological
• Other Study ID Numbers: D6907

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