Background: Personal effectiveness, the capacity to convert personal resources into goal-directed and socially adaptive behaviour, underpins students' academic and interpersonal functioning. Experimental evidence on whether integrated yoga strengthens it is scarce.
Objective: To examine the effect of a 12-week integrated yogic practice programme on overall personal effectiveness and its eleven dimensions in male college students.
Methods: In a randomised pre-test–post-test control group design, 170 male undergraduates aged 18–22 years at a technology institute in Gwalior, India, were allocated to an experimental (n = 85) or control (n = 85) group; 150 completers (75 per group) were analysed. The experimental group attended 60 one-hour sessions (five days a week) comprising Sukshma Vyayama, Surya Namaskar, ten asanas, Deep Relaxation Technique, Bhastrika and Bhramari pranayama, Soham meditation and yogic counselling. Controls continued routine activities. Personal effectiveness was measured with the 39-item Personal Effectiveness Scale (Dhar & Dhar). Data were analysed with paired t-tests and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with pre-test scores as the covariate.
Results: Groups were equivalent at baseline (t(148) = 0.60, p = .55). Scores in the experimental group rose from 141.42 ± 4.69 to 175.48 ± 3.83 (t(74) = 57.45, p < .001), while control scores were unchanged (140.98 ± 4.21 to 141.25 ± 3.75; p = .67). Adjusted post-test means differed by 34.15 points (95% CI 32.95–35.35; F(1, 147) = 3151.15, p < .001, partial η² = .955). All eleven dimensions improved significantly in the experimental group after Bonferroni correction; none changed in the control group.
Conclusions: The integrated yogic programme was associated with substantial gains in self-reported personal effectiveness. Because the observed effect is far larger than those typically reported for yoga interventions, replication with an active control, blinded assessment and intention-to-treat analysis is required before its magnitude is generalised.