Date Presented 04/04/2025
This poster presents a capstone examining the use of a multisensory room (MSE) as tool to combat rising stress among college and graduate students. Findings indicated that the MSE may decrease perceived stress and was more effective than participants’ usual stress relief methods.
Primary Author and Speaker: Elizabeth Hsu
Additional Authors and Speakers: Nicole Halliwell
Contributing Authors: Joseph Napolitano
PURPOSE: College and graduate students face increasing stress levels, highlighting a need for improved stress management tools as educational demands increase. A multisensory environment (MSE), a room providing customizable sensory inputs, has been shown to potentially reduce feelings of stress in the research literature (Cavanagh et al., 2019; Lim et al., 2021). This capstone project explored the self-reported effects on college and graduate students’ stress levels after using a MSE and aimed to illuminate their experiences using the MSE as compared to their usual stress management methods.
DESIGN: Capstone project using a concurrent mixed-methods one-group pretest-posttest research design with qualitative interviewing component.
METHOD: Data was collected using a demographic form, pre- and post-test surveys, and a recorded semi-structured interview. Data analysis using paired t-test for pre- and post measures and interviews analyzed phenomenologically in tradition of Moustakas.
RESULTS: Quantitative findings found a statistically significant decrease in self-reported stress levels after using the MSE. Qualitative findings revealed four themes were presented by the qualitative data analysis, with the core theme power of environment encompassing the themes of influences, impressions, and impacts.
CONCLUSION: Overall, participants reported the MSE had a positive impact on stress relief and was more effective than other stress management techniques. This capstone project serves to address this gap in literature by examining the experience of college and graduate students from using the MSE and its effects on stress levels. Findings highlight a potential benefit for students from the MSE to help provide a respite from school stressors. The results of this project may contribute to existing research on the MSE as a stress management intervention and help address the literature gap regarding the MSE’s use with college and graduate student populations.
References
Cameron, A., Burns, P., Garner, A., Lau, S., Dixon, R., Pascoe, C., & Szafraniec, M. (2020). Making sense of multi-sensory environments: A scoping review. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 67(6), 630–656. https://doi.org/10.1080/1034912X.2019.1634247
Cavanagh, B., Haracz, K., Lawry, M., & James, C. (2019). It’s like another world: The perceived beneficial effects of an artistically designed multisensory environment. Medical Humanities, 45(1), 52–59. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2018-011492
Lane, S. J., Mailloux, Z., Schoen, S., Bundy, A., May-Benson, T. A., Parham, L. D., Smith Roley, S., & Schaaf, R. C. (2019). Neural foundations of Ayres Sensory Integration®. Brain Sciences, 9(7), 153–167. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9070153
Lim, J. Y., Kim, J. H., Lee, S. M., & Jang, W. H. (2021). Effects of Snoezelen therapy on stress, anxiety, depression, and quality of life of college students with game addiction. The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy, 33(3), 123–130. https://doi.org/10.18857/jkpt.2021.33.3.123
