stess; contemplative education; Buddhism; adolescence; sense of coherence; self-esteem; Buddhist education; Buddhist teaching on the three kinds of knowing
摘要
This research attempts to determine whether a supplementary school-based contemplative education program, the Orientation to Life Program (OLP), can enhance students' psychological well-being and ability to handle stress. 481 Hong Kong students were divided into: experimental group that studies Religious Studies (Buddhism) (RSB) and participated in the OLP, control group I that took the RSB but not the OLP, and control group II that took neither the RSB nor the OLP. Result indicated that students' ability to handle stress as measured by their sense of coherence (SOC) was correlated to their psychological well-being as measured by General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and Self Esteem Scale (SES). The data also showed that the OLP was only able to enhance a sub-group students' ability to handle stress, while failing to do so with the whole experimental group. The shortfall of the program could come from not being able to become a part of the normal school curriculum with regular class time and authority to assign regular homework. Furthermore, the findings showed that the Buddhist Teaching on the three kinds of knowing (i.e. wisdom consisting of learning, wisdom produced by thinking and wisdom realized by practice) was important and the three wisdoms seemed to be correlated and interdependent. Future programs that aim at enhancing students' ability to handle stress and psychological well-being should consider including both theoretic teachings and experiential workshops in their design.
