Published Paper Details:

College students experience stress as a complex condition which involves multiple areas of their mental and emotional states together with their physical health and social interactions. Researchers currently study stress through combined stress metrics which fail to show how different stressors develop over time. The present study addresses this gap by examining the effects of Rajyoga meditation using a dimension-wise analytical framework. A quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test control group design was employed with 100 college students divided into experimental and control groups. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired samples t-tests, independent samples t-tests, and Cohen's d. The experimental group participated in an 8-week Rajyoga meditation intervention, while the control group received no structured training. The researchers used descriptive statistics together with paired samples t-tests and independent samples t-tests for data analysis, while effect size estimation was conducted using Cohen's d. The experimental group demonstrated significant reductions across all stress dimensions (p < .001). The change magnitude differed among domains because cognitive and emotional dimensions showed maximum decline while behavioral and physical dimensions achieved moderate progress and social stress experienced minimum transformation. The experimental group displayed significantly lower post-test stress scores when compared to the control group across all testing dimensions. Rajyoga meditation functions primarily through internal regulatory mechanisms which include improved thought awareness and cognitive-emotional restructuring, that ultimately affect social and behavioral development. The study establishes that multidimensional analysis functions as vital component for understanding stress reduction which occurs through different processes across various domains.