the effect of tai chi exercise on stress, anxiety, depression, and self confidence of nursing students

Background: students in medical sciences, especially nursing students, deal with many stressful factors. stress-related psychological outcomes include anxiety, depression, and low self-confidence. nowadays, sports exercises play a crucial role in improving lifestyle to prevent and manage stress and its consequences. objectives: the present study intended to investigate the effect of tai chi exercise on the levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and self-confidence of nursing students. methods: to this end, about 64 nursing students were selected and randomly divided into two 32 case and control groups in this clinical trial study. the case (experimental) group received 40-minute tai chi training sessions three times a week for 8 weeks. both groups completed dass-42 questionnaire and eysenck’s personality questionnaire (epq) as a pre-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up. results: the results of the present study indicated that unlike the control group, the total mean score of stress, anxiety, and depression significantly decreased in the case group (p < 0.05), while self-confidence significantly increased in the case group during the pretest, post-test, and one-month follow-up (p < 0.05). conclusions: according to the results of the present study, it can be concluded that tai chi had a significant effect on reducing the stress, anxiety, and depression while enhancing the self-confidence of the intended nursing students. furthermore, tai chi is recommended as a simple and inexpensive way to reduce students’ stress, anxiety, and depression, whereas improves their selfconfidence.