Introduction: This research was designed to evaluate the effect of life style-based stress management program on decreasing stress, improving cognitive schemas and increasing self-coherence in highly-stressed university students.
Method: 26 highly-stressed female students with the average age of 32±9.82 years were enrolled and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Both before and after the stress management program (LEARN) subjects were asked to complete the perceived stress scale (PSS), young cognitive schemas and sense of coherence questionnaires.
Results: Our statistical analysis comprised mean, standard deviation, frequency indexes, Leven, Kolmogrov-Smirnov and analysis of variance test with repeated measures. The ANOVA and MANOVA tests revealed a significant difference between pre-test and post-test scores of the two groups in terms of perceived stress scale, some cognitive schemas (emotional deprivation, mistrust/abuse, defectiveness/shame, failure, self-sacrifice and emotional inhibition), and sense of coherence (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The stress management intervention led to decreased stress, improvement of some cognitive schemas and increased sense of coherence in highly-stressed students

Keywords: Stress management, Perceived stress, Cognitive schemas, Sense of coherence

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