The Still Quiet Place

Related Research

Scientific research on teaching mindfulness to children and adolescents is in its infancy. The current research consists mainly of promising pilot studies with small numbers of participants and less than optimal design. For those of you not accustomed to evaluating research, it may be helpful to know that the gold-standard for rigorous research is a randomized controlled trial, with large numbers of participants, assessed by validated measures, published in a peer reviewed journal. For each study reviewed below, the strengths and weakness are compared to this gold standard. While this type of research is absolutely crucial to the development of the field, we would do well to remember that data and statistics may never fully capture the experience of the children, which is often best expressed in their own words and art.

Tai Chi and Mindfulness for Students in Middle School
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for 9-12 year olds
Mindful Awareness Practices for Pre-K children
Mindfulness and Relaxation for 1 st-3 rd Graders
Mindfulness Awareness Practices for Adolescents and Adults with ADHD
Mindfulness for Adolescent Girls
Mindfulness for Adolescents

Tai Chi and Mindfulness for Students in Middle School

Robert Wall, FNP, M. Div. Tai Chi and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in a Boston Public Middle School, The Journal of Pediatric Health Care, Volume 19, Issue 4, pgs 230-237.

In this study a group of six 6 th grade girls and another group of five 8 th grade boys in an urban public school in Boston enrolled in a five-week program which combined Mindfulness and Tai Chi. Statements made by the boys and girls indicate that they experienced less reactivity, increased well-being, calmness, relaxation, self-care, self-awareness, a sense of interconnection or interdependence with nature, and improved sleep.

Strengths and weaknesses: In this published study the sample size was small (N=11). No validated assessment measures were used, and there was no control group.

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for 9-12 year olds

Randye Semple, Ph.D. at Columbia Teachers College , offered a manualized 12-week Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Children (MBCT- C) protocol to 25 nine to twelve year olds. The study found a significant reduction in attention problems as reported on the attention subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist, and Achenbach parent report form. Although they did not meet criteria for statistical significance, consistent trends were found toward fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. Sixty-one percent of parents reported their child having fewer conduct or anger management problems.

Strengths and weaknesses: The study used validated measures; the sample size was small (N=25), and there was no control group.

Mindful Awareness Practices for Pre-K children

In collaboration with Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, Susan Kaiser-Greenland of Inner Kids offered a school-based program of Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs) in the context of a randomized control trial to 44 Pre-K children ages 4-5 years. The program consisted of two 30-minute sessions per week, for eight weeks. Teachers and parents completed questionnaires assessing children's executive function, social behavior, and temperament before and after the program. Analysis of the teacher reports of executive function indicated increased working memory and planning/organizing among children in the MAPs group; this contributed to greater Global Executive Control and Emergent Meta-cognition. Further analyses suggested that there may be a stronger effect of MAPs on children with executive function difficulties.

Strengths and weaknesses: Validated assessment measures were used and the children were randomized to the intervention and control groups. The number of participants is relatively small.

Mindfulness and Relaxation for 1 st-3 rd Graders

In a randomized controlled trial conducted at the Arizona State University College of Public Programs School of Social Work, Maria Napoli, Ph.D., offered a bi-weekly, 12-session integrative program of mindfulness and relaxation to 194 children in first, second, and third grade. Participants showed significant increases in attention and social skills and decreases in test anxiety and ADHD behaviors. Although not included in this paper, repeated measurements found greater improvement three months after the training .

Strengths and weaknesses: This randomized controlled trial used validated measures, had a large sample size, demonstrated a significant benefit of offering mindfulness to children, and was published in a peer reviewed journal!

Additionally, it includes longer term follow-up.

Mindfulness Awareness Practices for Adolescents and Adults with ADHD

In collaboration with Susan Smalley, Ph.D., at the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center (MARC) at UCLA, Lidia Zylowska, M.D.,conducted a study teaching mindfulness awareness practices to 18 adults and 7 adolescents with ADHD. While the study participants were primarily adults, the study is included here because ADHD is increasingly prevalent in our school populations. The program consisted of eight weekly sessions, 2.5 hours in length. The subjects reported significant reduction in ADHD symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. Additionally, performance on a measure of attention (conflict attention), as measured by the Attention Network Task ( ANT ), the Stroop task, and the Trails b task, showed improvement from pre- to post-testing while a measure of working memory (digit span) and two other measures of attention (orienting and selective attention) did not show significant changes.

Strengths and weaknesses: The study used validated measures. However, the number of adolescents in this study is small and the participants were not randomized.

Mindfulness for Adolescent Girls

Trish Broderick, Ph. D., director of the Stress Reduction Center at West Chester University , developed a mindfulness curriculum for adolescents called Learning to BREATHE. A pilot trial designed to assess the program’s impact on affect (emotions) and behavior in female adolescents (N =120) was conducted using a non-randomized pre-test-post-test control group. Participants in the BREATHE program reported reductions in negative affect and increases in feelings of calmness, relaxation, and self-acceptance compared to controls. Within the treatment group, students reported significant reductions in tiredness and decreases in aches and pains after completing the program. Furthermore, among program participants, there was an overall increase in emotion regulation from pre-test to post-test. The process evaluation revealed that 86.5% of participants were satisfied or very satisfied with the BREATHE program, with 64.6% of participants practicing mindfulness techniques outside of class during the program.

Strengths and weaknesses: This study had a solid sample size, and used validated measures, but was not randomized.

Mindfulness for Adolescents

To date the most rigorous research on teaching mindfulness to adolescents has been conducted by Gina Biegel, MA, MFT, from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Kaiser Santa Clara. In this randomized controlled study, 102 adolescents ages 14-18 were referred by their mental health care providers. Participants in the MBSR program reported reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression and somatic (physical) distress, and increased self-esteem and sleep quality. Independent clinicians, who did not know whether or not a particular individual was participating in the MBSR program or not, reviewed all of the study participants’ charts; these blinded clinicians documented a higher percentage of diagnostic improvement and significant increases in global assessment of functioning ( GAF ) scores in the MBSR group (vs. the control group). In layperson’s terms, this means that individuals who were initially diagnosed with clinical depression, anxiety, or other psychiatric diagnoses were no longer depressed or anxious.

Strengths and weaknesses: This randomized controlled trial had a large sample size, used validated measures, demonstrated a clinically significant benefit of offering mindfulness to adolescents, and was recently published in a peer reviewed journal!