Improve Children’s Self-Esteem with Meditation in School

June 1, 2016 psyjdc Leave a comment

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

“In both the public and private sector, schools have found adding mindfulness techniques into the curriculum to benefit student’s overall well-being (with the side benefit of increased student creative productivity).” – Mark W. Guay

Childhood is a miraculous period during which the child is dynamically absorbing information from every aspect of its environment. This occurs almost without any intervention from the adults as the child appears to be programmed to learn. It is here that behaviors, knowledge, skills, and attitudes are developed that shape the individual. But, what is absorbed depends on the environment. If it is replete with speech, the child will learn speech, if it is replete with trauma, the child will learn fear, if it is replete with academic skills the child will learn these, and if it is replete with interactions with others, the child will learn social skills. If the child’s environment, however, is replete with negativity, bullying, criticism, punishment, and failure the child will learn a negative self-image and develop a poor self-concept.

What is developed in childhood has a lasting impact, especially how the child views him/herself. This self-concept will be carried throughout life effecting not only how they see themselves and interact with others, but also their productivity, creativity, and happiness. This is why it is so important for adults to promote the development of a positive self-concept in children. Elementary school is an environment that has a huge effect on the development of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and importantly self-concept. Hence, it is also an excellent time for adults to intervene to insure that this development is positive.

Mindfulness http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/school/ training in school, at all levels has been shown to have very positive effects. These include academic, cognitive, psychological, and social domains. Importantly, mindfulness training in school appears to improve the student’s self-concept. http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2016/01/20/improve-high-level-thinking-with-mindfulness/ Since, this can have such a profound, long-term effect on the child it is important to further study the impact of mindfulness training on the development of self-concept in grammar school children.

In today’s Research News article “.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1241471572543433/?type=3&theater

or below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4776824/

Yo and Lee recruited two third grade classes in different but very similar schools, assigning one class to receive meditation training and the other class to serve as an untreated control. In the meditation classroom the students meditated for 30 minutes, twice a week, for 15 weeks. They found that the children in the meditation classroom increased their self-esteem significantly with a large effect size while the children in the control classroom did not. Similar findings were found with school adjustment but the effect size was considerably smaller. In summary, the study found that the self-esteem and school adjustment of third grade children could be significantly increased by the practice of meditation in the classroom.

It should be noted that this was a quasi-experimental research design and it is not clear whether the differences in the schools or their students might have been important variables. In addition, there were no controls for participant expectations, experimenter bias, placebo effects, etc. So, the conclusions must be viewed as tentative. These results need to be repeated using a much stronger research design, perhaps with the children in the control classroom napping during the equivalent time as the meditation.

But, with these reservations considered, the results are suggestive that meditation training has large effects on children’s self-esteem and adjustment to school. This is potentially very important as this may have profound, long-term, positive effects on the children. It can’t be overemphasized how important it is to help children feel more positive about themselves. This could be a key to the child’s well-being throughout their lifetime, their school success, and their success and happiness in life.

So, improve children’s self-esteem with meditation in school.

“Young people are incredibly stressed. There’s an explosion of mental health problems among young people and it’s going to be incredibly expensive to treat in the future. It’s much cheaper to focus on prevention and building resilience, and mindfulness is the single best tool that you could possibly give them.” – Michael Matania

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

Study Summary

Yoo, Y. G., & Lee, I. S. (2013). The Effects of School-Based Maum Meditation Program on the Self-Esteem and School Adjustment in Primary School Students. Global Journal of Health Science, 5(4), 14–27. http://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v5n4p14

Abstract

Self-esteem and school adjustment of children in the lower grades of primary school, the beginning stage of school life, have a close relationship with development of personality, mental health and characters of children. Therefore, the present study aimed to verify the effect of school-based Maum Meditation program on children in the lower grades of primary school, as a personality education program. The result showed that the experimental group with application of Maum Meditation program had significant improvements in self-esteem and school adjustment, compared to the control group without the application. In conclusion, since the study provides significant evidence that the intervention of Maum Meditation program had positive effects on self-esteem and school adjustment of children in the early stage of primary school, it is suggested to actively employ Maum Meditation as a school-based meditation program for mental health promotion of children in the early school ages, the stage of formation of personalities and habits.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4776824/

Make School More Effective with Mindfulness

May 23, 2016 psyjdc Leave a comment

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

“Before we can teach a kid how to academically excel in school, we need to teach him how to have stillness, pay attention, stay on task, regulate, make good choices. We tell kids be quiet, calm yourself down, be still. We tell them all these things they need in the classroom, but we’re not teaching them how to do that.” – Jean-Gabrielle Larochette

Childhood is a time of tremendous learning. This is not only true in the knowledge and skills spheres, but also in attitudes, inclinations, emotion regulation, and social skills. It is also the time when the child learns self-regulation, moving from spontaneous uninhibited thoughts, behaviors, and emotions to control and restraint. Guiding much of this learning is a class of cognitive abilities called executive functions. These include inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory.

In recent years, drug abuse education has been incorporated into grammar school curricula. Although, at the beginning of grammar school most children have negative attitudes towards drugs, as schooling continues, attitudes become less negative. The idea is to build and reinforce negative attitudes toward illicit substances, alcohol, and cigarette smoking that will help to prevent future drug abuse. The effectiveness of these programs, however, has not yet been established.

Also, in recent years, mindfulness programs in schools have been initiated with positive effects. These include developing stronger executive functions, self-regulation, and social skills. In addition, in adults mindfulness training has been found to be helpful in treating drug, alcohol, and cigarette addictions and in preventing relapse after successful treatment. But, it is not known if mindfulness training might help build anti-drug attitudes in grammar school children. In today’s Research News article “The impact of mindfulness education on elementary school students: Evaluation of the Master Mind Program.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1234924789864778/?type=3&theater

or below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4821437/

Parker and colleagues examined this question. They implemented a 4-week, 15-minute per day, mindfulness training program called “Master Mind” that included meditation, yoga, and body scan components in two American grammar school classrooms with 4^th and 5^th grade children. They measured the children’s executive functions, self-regulation, and attitudes toward drugs before and after training. The results were compared between the “Master Mind” group and wait-list control classroom groups.

They found that after training the “Master Mind” group had higher levels of executive functions This was true both in comparison to before training and to the control group. Teacher ratings of the children’s behavior also indicated that the “Master Mind” group had fewer social problems and less aggressive behavior than the control group. Girls in the “Master Mind” group were found to have significantly lower anxiety levels while boys were found to have greater self-control. There were no significant differences found between the groups in future intentions to use drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes.

These results are quite impressive. They demonstrate that mindfulness training has important positive effects on grammar school children including greater executive function, emotion regulation, and self-regulation. These are important skills for children’s success in school and socially and may suggest greater academic achievement, adjustment, and later success. These results, along with previous findings, suggest that mindfulness programs have important positive effects on school-aged children and that widespread implementation of these programs in schools should be seriously considered.

The lack of effectiveness of mindfulness training on attitudes towards the future use of drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes were disappointing. The students, however, had very low intentions to use these substances to start, with very low scores in pretesting. So there was very little room to show improvement. Hence, the lack of significant improvement may well have been due to a floor effect. It would be interesting to follow these children into later adolescence to see if the training had any long term effects on subsequent drug use.

Regardless, it is clear that schools can be made more effective with mindfulness.

“Once the kids feel that they can actually calm themselves even just through breathing it’s like the ‘wow’ moment. The ultimate goal is self-awareness and self-regulation.” – Rick Kinder

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

Study Summary

Parker, A. E., Kupersmidt, J. B., Mathis, E. T., Scull, T. M., & Sims, C. (2014). The impact of mindfulness education on elementary school students: Evaluation of the Master Mind Program. Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 7(3), 184–204. http://doi.org/10.1080/1754730X.2014.916497

Abstract

Children need to be equipped with the skills to respond effectively to stress and prevent poor decision-making surrounding alcohol and tobacco use. Training and practice in mindfulness is one possible avenue for building children’s skills. Recent research has revealed that mindfulness education in the classroom may play a role in enhancing children’s self-regulatory abilities. Thus, the goal of the current study was to extend existing research in mindfulness education in classrooms and conduct an assessment of the feasibility and effectiveness of a new mindfulness education, substance abuse prevention program for 4th and 5th grade children (Master Mind). Two elementary schools were randomly assigned to be an intervention group (N = 71) or waitlist control group (N = 40). Students in the intervention group were taught the four-week Master Mind program by their regular classroom teachers. At pre- and post-intervention time points, students completed self-reports of their intentions to use substances and an executive functioning performance task. Teachers rated students on their behavior in the classroom. Findings revealed that students who participated in the Master Mind program, as compared to those in the wait-list control condition, showed significant improvements in executive functioning skills (girls and boys), as well as a marginally significant increase in self-control abilities (boys only). In addition, significant reductions were found in aggression and social problems (girls and boys), as well as anxiety (girls only). No significant differences across groups were found for intentions to use alcohol or tobacco. Teachers implemented the program with fidelity; both teachers and students positively rated the structure and content of the Master Mind program, providing evidence of program satisfaction and feasibility. Although generalization may be limited by the small sample size, the findings suggest that mindfulness education may be beneficial in increasing self-regulatory abilities, which is important for substance abuse prevention.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4821437/

Help School-Aged Children with Yoga

May 18, 2016 psyjdc Leave a comment

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

“Students all around the world now stretch in downward dog in a more mindful classroom, one that sheds away the hectic bell schedule frenzy that behavior psychologists say leads to anxiety.” – Mark W. Guay

We, as adults, often have and idealized concept of childhood, remembering all the fun, exploration, learning, and joy of childhood. We forget that childhood can in fact be quite difficult, particularly in modern times. Children in school face stresses with parental pressure and high stakes testing. Children are frequently kept so busy with academic and extracurricular activities that little time is left to just be a kid, be playful and creative, and imaginative. Social pressures can be troubling during childhood which can affect the individual’s developing self-concept. In addition, children are frequently teased and bullied by peers.

Children, when they do have free time, are distracted by media, electronic games, and social media, leaving little time for physical activity. Children have immense energy and modern life doesn’t allow any outlets for that energy. This can be particularly problematic during times, like in school, when they are required to sit quietly. In addition, the lack of physical activity produced by the sedentary lifestyle, can have major impacts on children’s health. Obesity and even adult-onset diabetes, previously unheard of in children, are becoming major health problems.

Yoga training may be helpful. It has been shown to helpful for the physical and mental health of children. Recently, a number of schools have implemented yoga programs during school hours which have produced significant benefits for the children. It makes sense that yoga could be helpful for children as it is a gentle and safe exercise that can help overcome the problems produced by a sedentary lifestyle, it can be an outlet for excess energy and thereby allow for better attention in school, it can help improve cognitive abilities, and it can help develop a more positive physical self-concept. So, it would see appropriate to continue studying whether yoga training in school can help the children.

In today’s Research News article “Yoga Training in Junior Primary School-Aged Children Has an Impact on Physical Self-Perceptions and Problem-Related Behavior.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1231540190203238/?type=3&theater

or below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4763067/

Richter and colleagues implemented a pilot study of either a yoga program or a physical skills training program during a break from school for groups of 6 to 11-year old children. Yoga or physical skills were taught and performed for 45 minutes twice a week for 6 weeks. The children were extensively tested for physical and cognitive abilities, emotional state, and physical self-concept both before and after training.

Both groups showed improvements in executive functions of attention and response inhibition. The two different types of training had different effects on the children’s perceived abilities with yoga improving perceived flexibility while physical skills training improved perceived speed. In addition, the yoga group showed a greater diversity of coping methods for difficult, anxiety provoking, conditions.

This was a pilot study with only a small number of children in each group (~12), a relatively wide range of ages, and generally high scores on all assessments. As a result, there was little room for differences and there was insufficient statistical power to detect differences. So, the task of evaluating these kinds of programs was left unfinished. But the study does demonstrate that these programs can be implemented. It remains for larger and better controlled trials to demonstrate their relative effectiveness.

The potential benefits of yoga programs for children demand that research on their effects be continued and expanded. Yoga is potentially helpful for many of the difficulties encountered by school-aged children. It could, thus be a great help in making childhood more like our idealized concept.

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

“Yoga is one path to a classroom where teachers and students can relax in the face of stress, and love themselves, each other, and their work a little more. As one teacher put it, “I’m glad the yoga class is on Wednesday. By then, I don’t like the children very much anymore. After yoga class, I like them again.”” – Jane Rosen

Study Summary

Richter, S., Tietjens, M., Ziereis, S., Querfurth, S., & Jansen, P. (2016). Yoga Training in Junior Primary School-Aged Children Has an Impact on Physical Self-Perceptions and Problem-Related Behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 203. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00203

Abstract

The present pilot study investigated the effects of yoga training, as compared to physical skill training, on motor and executive function, physical self-concept, and anxiety-related behavior in junior primary school-aged children. Twenty-four participants with a mean age of 8.4 (±1.4) years completed either yoga or physical skill training twice a week for 6 weeks outside of regular school class time. Both forms of training were delivered in an individualized and child-oriented manner. The type of training did not result in any significant differences in movement and executive function outcomes. In terms of physical self-concept, significant group differences were revealed only for perceived movement speed such that yoga training resulted in perceptions of being slower while physical skill training resulted in perceptions of moving faster. Analysis of anxiety related outcomes revealed significant group effects only for avoidance behavior and coping strategies. Avoidance behavior increased following yoga training, but decreased following physical skill training. In addition, following yoga training, children showed an increased use of divergent coping strategies when facing problematic situations while after physical skill training children demonstrated a decrease in use of divergent coping strategies. Changes in overall physical self-concept scores were not significantly correlated with changes in avoidance behavior following yoga training. In contrast, following physical skill training increased physical self-concept was significantly correlated with decreases in avoidance behavior. In sum, exposure to yoga or physical skill training appears to result in distinct effects for specific domains of physical self-concept and anxiety-related behavior. Further studies with larger samples and more rigorous methodologies are required to further investigate the effects reported here. With respect to future studies, we address potential research questions and specific features associated with the investigation of the effects of yoga in a sample of school-aged children.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4763067/

Mindful Motherhood

May 8, 2016June 21, 2016 psyjdc 1 Comment

Mindful Motherhood

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

“There could not be a better time to learn mindfulness than during pregnancy and early motherhood. For one thing, this is a time when most people have a strong motivation to become the best person they can be in a relatively short period of time. When you realize the full enormity of the responsibility you have taken on by becoming a mom, the primary source of care for another whole human being, not to mention one that you love more than you thought you could ever love, there is a really high level of motivation to try your best to get yourself into the best mental and emotional shape possible.” – Cassandra Vieten

Mothers’ Day was basically invented and promoted by the greeting card and florist industries. But, even though its origins were crass, the idea took off, because it hit upon a truth; that we all love our mothers. As a result, Mothers’ Day has become a culturally accepted and encouraged time for the celebration of motherhood and all that it means. The deep bonds and love that virtually everyone feels for their mothers and their mothers for them fuels the celebration of the holiday.

Motherhood is ubiquitous. Everyone has a mother, who in turn, has had a mother, who has had a mother, etc. Many are, or want to be mothers. It plays an immensely important role in our individual and societal existence. The bond that develops between mother and child is a beautiful, virtually unbreakable, thing, perhaps the strongest bond between individuals that exists. It is essential for ensuring the nurturance that is mandatory for the life of the virtually helpless infant and the development of the child. The effectiveness, or lack thereof, of mothering has a major impact on the offspring that continue throughout their lives. It is such an important role that it seems reasonable to explore what goes into successful mothering and child rearing and what might be of assistance in improving mothering. There has accumulated a tremendous amount of scientific evidence that mindfulness, (“awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally”) can be an important asset for mothers, from conception, to pregnancy, birth, nurturing the infant, and childrearing and the mindfulness of the child can be an important asset for its development. So, on this day celebrating motherhood, we’ll explore the role of mindfulness.

Mothering does not occur in a vacuum. It’s been said that “It takes a village” to rear a child. Indeed, motherhood is embedded in a community. There are many people who are either directly or indirectly involved, from the father, to the extended family, the community, the medical profession, teachers, clergy, social workers, childcare workers, and even the government. So relationships become an essential part of mothering from conception, to birth, and family and social life. Mindfulness has been found to be important to becoming a mother in the first place. Mindfulness makes the individual more attractive to the opposite sex, it improves sexual relationships, it helps to relieve infertility, and it improves relationships in general. All of which underscores the importance of mindfulness in improving the likelihood that conception will occur and that childbirth will be born into a supportive social context.

Mindfulness continues to be helpful during pregnancy. It can help to relieve the anxiety and depression that commonly accompany pregnancy and even appears to benefit the neurocognitive development of the infant. After birth mindfulness continues to be of assistance as it improves caregiving and parenting, even in the case where the child has developmental disabilities. Mindfulness not only helps the parents deal with the stresses of childrearing, but developing mindfulness in the child can be of great assistance to helping the kids develop emotionally and cognitively, develop high level thinking, develop healthy self-concepts, develop socially, deal with stress, and cope with trauma and childhood depression. It even improves the child’s psychosocial development and academic performance and grades in school. In addition, it seems to be able to assist children through the troubled times of adolescence.

It should be clear that mindfulness is an important component of motherhood. Why would this be so? There are a number of reasons that mindfulness helps. It reduces the psychological and physical effects of stress on the mother and let’s face it, pregnancy, birth, caring for infants and raising children can be quite stressful. Mindfulness also improves emotion regulation making the mother better able to be in touch with her emotions yet react to them adaptively and effectively. Mindfulness helps the mother maintain her health and well-being, and to recover quicker should she become ill. After all, mothers can’t take sick leave or take vacations.

The essential capacity developed in mindfulness training is paying much greater attention to what’s occurring in the present moment. This can be of immense help to the mother. It makes her better attuned to her child’s and to her own needs. It reduces rumination and recriminations about past mistakes. It tends to diminish the worry and anxiety about the future. It helps her to focus on what needs to be done now, making her much more effective. And it helps her to experience the joys of motherhood to their fullest. In general, by focusing on now, she is tuned into the only time that matters for herself or her child, improving her relationship with reality, dealing with its problems and relishing its wonders.

Hence, mindfulness can make mothering better, both for the mother, and the child. So, on this important day of celebration of mothers, let’s adopt mindfulness and make it a part of our relationship with our mothers and our children. We may all love our mothers but we love mindful mothers even more especially when we ourselves are mindful.

“For me, the program gave me the freedom to be the kind of mom I wanted to be, instead of just reacting automatically. I still have difficult moments, and can get stressed out, but the mindfulness helps me stay centered and stay connected to myself and my baby.” – Cassandra Vieten

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Improve Schools with Yoga

April 9, 2016 psyjdc 8 Comments

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

“Today’s students face tremendous pressure to achieve within a world that is often overwhelming. The tools of yoga and mindfulness offer proven methods of developing the inner resilience needed to navigate physical, mental and emotional stress. . . and can increase their capacity to learn effectively, manage challenging emotions, self-regulate behavior, and achieve personal and academic success.” – Little Flower Yoga

Childhood can be a wonderful time of life. But, it is often fraught with problems that can stress the child. School aged children are exposed to many stressors including problems at home. These can vary from simple disciplinary problems to physical and sexual abuse to familial economic stresses. At school they can be discriminated against, teased, bullied, or laughed at. In addition, modern testing programs insure that these children are constantly exposed to high stakes testing. All of these stresses can occur while the child has yet developed adequate strategies and mechanisms to cope with the stress. So, there is a need to develop methods to assist young children, perhaps even more so than adults, to cope with stress.

Yoga practice has many positive physical and psychological benefits including reducing the physical and psychological responses to stress in adults. But, it would seem to be particularly appropriate for school children. These children have tremendous amounts of energy yet are asked to sit quietly all day in school. Yoga practice can provide a physical outlet for this energy. In addition, yoga practice has been shown to improve attention even in school children. Hence, yoga practice could not only calm school children but improve their ability to pay attention, making them much better students.

Indeed, yoga practice has been shown to help high school students maintain their grades. It is known that mindfulness training has positive effects on 4^th and 5^thgrade children and even with preschool children. In addition, yoga practice has even been shown to reduce stress and even ameliorate the effects of trauma on children. These positive benefits suggest that there is a need for further exploration of the effects of yoga practice in schools.

In today’s Research News article “Yoga in school settings: a research review”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1205952566095334/?type=3&theater

Or see below

Khalsa and Butzer review the published literature on the effects of yoga practice on school aged children. They find that research on yoga in schools is a very new but a rapidly growing area of study with most work having been performed since 2010. As such, much of the work is preliminary research lacking the tight controls demanded by rigorous scientific study. As a result, strong, firm conclusions cannot be reached. Given this caveat, however, the published research is very encouraging.

Students self-report that yoga practice has produced a wide variety of positive psychosocial and physical benefits. These include improved mood state, self-control, aggression and social problems, self-regulation, emotion regulation, feelings of happiness and relaxation, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, social and physical well-being, general distress, physical arousal, and hostility, rumination, emotional arousal, and intrusive thoughts, alcohol use, self-concept, tolerance, nonviolence, truthfulness, overall, general, and social self-esteem, positive health, self-adjustment, and working-memory capacity, ability to focus, control behavior under stress, enhance a sense of calm, increase self-esteem, greater kinesthetic awareness, mood management, stress reduction, and social cohesion, improved stress management, and focus, perseverance, and positive relationships.

Teachers also note improvements in their students following yoga practice. These include classroom behavior and social–emotional skills, performance impairment, concentration, mood, ability to function under pressure, hyperactivity, social skills, and attention. In addition, school records, academic tests, and physiological measures have shown that yoga practice produces improvements in student grades and academic performance, cortisol concentrations, micronutrient absorption, flexibility, grip strength, abdominal strength, respiratory muscle strength, heart rate variability, and stress reactivity.

This long list of benefits of yoga practice for school children is remarkable. But, before jumping to conclusions, these findings need to be confirmed with rigorous scientific study. Nevertheless, these findings suggest that yoga practice may be an ideal, safe, and effective method to improve the psychosocial, physical, and academic well-being of school children.

So, improve schools with yoga.

“A healthy body and mind is important for the development of all children. At all grade levels, from preschool through high school, students have shown improved academic and behavioral performance when yoga has been introduced in the school.” – The Association for School Yoga and Mindfulness

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Study Summary

Khalsa SB, Butzer B. Yoga in school settings: a research review. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2016 Feb 25. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13025. [Epub ahead of print]

Abstract

Research on the efficacy of yoga for improving mental, emotional, physical, and behavioral health characteristics in school settings is a recent but growing field of inquiry. This systematic review of research on school-based yoga interventions published in peer-reviewed journals offers a bibliometric analysis that identified 47 publications. The studies from these publications have been conducted primarily in the United States (n = 30) and India (n = 15) since 2005, with the majority of studies (n = 41) conducted from 2010 onward. About half of the publications were of studies at elementary schools; most (85%) were conducted within the school curriculum, and most (62%) also implemented a formal school-based yoga program. There was a high degree of variability in yoga intervention characteristics, including overall duration, and the number and duration of sessions. Most of these published research trials are preliminary in nature, with numerous study design limitations, including limited sample sizes (median = 74; range = 20–660) and relatively weak research designs (57% randomized controlled trials, 19% uncontrolled trials), as would be expected in an infant research field. Nevertheless, these publications suggest that yoga in the school setting is a viable and potentially efficacious strategy for improving child and adolescent health and therefore worthy of continued research.

Reduce Stress in Kids with Yoga

February 29, 2016 psyjdc Leave a comment

“Yoga is about exploring and learning in a fun, safe and playful way. Yoga and kids are a perfect match.” – PBS Parents

Childhood can be a wonderful time of life. But, it is often fraught with problems that can stress the child. Grammar school aged children are exposed to many stressors including problems at home. These can vary from simple disciplinary problems to physical and sexual abuse to familial economic stresses. At school they can be discriminated against, teased, bullied, or laughed at. In addition, modern testing programs insure that these children are constantly exposed to high stakes testing. All of these stresses can occur while the child has yet developed adequate strategies and mechanisms to cope with the stress. So, there is a need to develop methods to assist young children, perhaps even more so than adults, to cope with stress.

Yoga practice has many positive physical and psychological benefits including reducing the physical and psychological responses to stress in adults (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/contemplative-practice/yoga-contemplative-practice/). It has even been shown to benefit high school students (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/10/24/keep-grades-up-with-downward-dog/). It is known that mindfulness training has positive effects on 4^th and 5^th grade children (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/08/building-a-better-adult-with-elementary-school-mindfulness-training/) and even with preschool children (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/building-a-better-adult-preschool-mindfulness-training/). This suggests that there it is reasonable to further explore the effects of yoga practice on stress at earlier ages.

In today’s Research News article “Effects of a Classroom-Based Yoga Intervention on Cortisol and Behavior in Second- and Third-Grade Students: A Pilot Study”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1174408595916398/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4410873/

Butzer and colleagues conduct an uncontrolled trial of 10 weeks of yoga training for 2^nd and 3^rd grade students and measured salivary cortisol levels, a marker of stress, and obtained teacher behavioral ratings. The children received instruction in the classroom in all components of yoga practice, including breathing exercises, physical exercises and postures, meditation techniques, and relaxation. They practiced twice a week for 30-minutes for the 10 weeks. Measures were taken before and after the 10-week yoga practice period.

They found that the 2^nd graders showed a significant decrease in salivary cortisol levels from the beginning of the 10-week training period to the end. This suggests that there was a decrease in stress levels in these children. The teacher rating again revealed significant improvement in the 2^nd grade children in social interactions with classmates, attention span, ability to concentrate on work, ability to stay on task, academic performance, ability to deal with stress/anxiety, confidence/self-esteem, and overall mood. This suggests that there was an increase in academic, social, and emotional abilities in the 2^nd grade children over the testing period. Unfortunately, they did not observe similar benefits in the 3^rd grade children.

These are encouraging results. But, it must be kept in mind that this was an uncontrolled pilot trial. Without a control group there is no way to tell if the children simply improved due to their maturing, growing more accustomed to their environment, or learning from the normal instruction over the 10-week period. There is also the possibility of a bias effect as the teachers who taught the yoga were the same ones doing the ratings. In addition, the fact that the 3^rd grade students did not show similar responses as the 2^nd graders, limits the generalizability of the results and questions their validity. It is possible, though that the differences between the 2^nd and 3^rd grade were due to differences in the teachers or the classroom environments rather than the yoga training.

Regardless, these pilot results provide support for implementing a larger randomized control trial of the application of yoga to grammar school children and, perhaps, demonstrate a safe and effective method to reduce stress in kids.

“We can learn so much from how children respond to uncertainty with a sense of curiosity and adventure. Rather than fearing that we’ll fail to meet an expectation, we can adopt a child’s practice of letting go, and so much more becomes possible. We can create more magic, inspiration, happiness, love, joy, and laughter both on and off the mat.” – Kali Love

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Help Kids Emotionally and Cognitively with Mindfulness

February 25, 2016 psyjdc 2 Comments

“Mindfulness within schools makes a lot of sense. There is a growing body of evidence that supports the claims that mindfulness improves working memory, attention, academic skills, social skills, emotional balance and self-esteem.” – Joseph Pound

Childhood is a miraculous period during which the child is dynamically absorbing information from every aspect of its environment. This occurs almost without any intervention from the adults as the child appears to be programmed to learn. It is here that behaviors, knowledge, skills, and attitudes are developed that shape the individual. But, what is absorbed depends on the environment. If it is replete with speech, the child will learn speech, if it is replete with trauma, the child will learn fear, if it is replete with academic skills the child will learn these, and if it is replete with interactions with others the child will learn social skills. It is up to adults to structure the environment to be conducive to learning what is most important.

Elementary school is a wonderful time to structure the environment to develop knowledge, attitudes, and skills. This has been known for centuries. But, which ones are most important to the development of a high functioning adult? Elementary school environments stress academic skills. This is appropriate and necessary. But at times, particularly in the United States, the emphasis on academic skills, especially factual learning, is so great that other important learning is neglected. There is often little effort to develop the so called softer skills; emotional, mindfulness, creative, meta-cognitive, psychological, and social skills. This is unfortunate as these skills are important unto themselves’ and also turn out to be very important in developing academic skills. In addition, it’s been shown that these softer skills in childhood predict health, financial stability, and educational attainment into adulthood.

One method that has recently been employed to help develop these softer skills in school children is mindfulness training. This has occurred for good reason as mindfulness training has been shown to improve academic performance, social skills, emotions, and meta-cognitive skills in grammar school children (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/08/building-a-better-adult-with-elementary-school-mindfulness-training/) and even in preschool children (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/building-a-better-adult-preschool-mindfulness-training/). This is a potentially very important development and as such deserves far greater research scrutiny.

In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness Training in Primary Schools Decreases Negative Affect and Increases Meta-Cognition in Children”

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4709470/

Vickery and Dorjee delivered twelve ½-hour mindfulness lessons over approximately 3-weeks to 7-9-year old primary school children in the classroom in addition to the typical curriculum. A second group of children were provided the typical curriculum without the additional mindfulness training. Children were measured with objective and observational measures before and after training and 3-months later. They found that positive changes in mindfulness were associated with positive increases in emotional awareness in the mindfulness trained children. They also found that at follow-up the mindfulness training produced a significant increase in teacher rated meta-cognitive skills and also a significant decrease in negative emotions.

These are potentially important findings. Meta-cognitive skills include working memory, planning/organizing, organization of materials, initiating and monitoring activities. These are important skills that are generally predictive of academic performance and success later in life. Mindfulness, paying attention to the content of the present moment, may be a prerequisite for meta-cognition. One cannot initiate, plan, organize, remember, or monitor activities without paying attention to them as they are occurring. So, mindfulness skills may be seen as foundational for cognitive skills. It is exciting that this appears to be effective in young 7-9-year old children and makes a strong argument for the implementation of mindfulness programs in grammar schools.

The decrease in negative emotions is also important. They can lead to anxiety and depression. It has been shown that mindfulness training in adults and adolescents is effective for the reduction of anxiety and depression. It is exciting to observe that mindfulness training may have similar effects in 7-9-year old children. This suggests that the mindfulness training may develop resilience and psychological well-being in the children. It is possible that mindfulness training may be an effective early intervention for the prevention of later psychological problems and act to promote the development of psychological health.

It should be noted that Vickery and Dorjee did not find significant changes in measures of mindfulness, positive emotions, emotional awareness and expressive reluctance, and positive well-being. It is possible that a the total of 6-hurs of training is simply insufficient to impact these domains. Further research is needed to clarify this issue. Regardless, the positive findings that were reported are exciting and potentially important and support the further development and research on the use of mindfulness training in grammar school curricula.

So, help kids emotionally and cognitively with mindfulness.

“People are stepping back on that full focus on reading and math scores and are looking more holistically at all the skills that really matter. Social-emotional learning is not only crucial to academic success, but also career success and lifelong being.” – Sara Bartolino Krachman

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Improve High Level Thinking with Mindfulness

January 20, 2016 psyjdc 13 Comments

“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.” – Og Mandino

In the modern world education is a key for success. Where a high school education was sufficient in previous generations, a college degree is now required to succeed in the new knowledge based economies. There is a lot of pressure on students to excel so that they can be admitted to the best universities and there is a lot of pressure on university students to excel so that they can get the best jobs after graduation. As a result, parents and students are constantly looking for ways to improve student performance in school.

The primary tactic has been to pressure the student and clear away routine tasks and chores so that the student can focus on their studies. But, this might in fact be counterproductive as the increased pressure can actually lead to stress and anxiety which can impede performance. A better tactic may be the development of mindfulness skills with contemplative practices. These practices and high levels of mindfulness have been shown to be helpful in coping with the school environment and for the performance of both students and teachers (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/school/). So, perhaps, mindfulness training may provide the needed edge in school.

In today’s Research News article “Effects of a Mindfulness Meditation Course on Learning and Cognitive Performance among University Students in Taiwan”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1151653591525232/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657094/

Ching and colleagues took advantage of the natural experiment provided in a private university which required a semester long mindfulness course as a core course for all students. The course taught meditation, body scan, and everyday mindfulness skills. They compared students who completed the course in the fall semester to those who were scheduled to take the course in the spring semester. They measured the students with the College Learning Effectiveness Inventory (CLEI) which measures psychosocial factors including thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to academic outcomes and also measured performance on the cognitive tasks of vigilance, choice reaction times, spatial working memory, and memory scanning.

The study demonstrated that the mindfulness training produced significantly higher scores on the CLEI suggesting improved attitudes and behaviors impacting learning and academic performance. In addition, the mindfulness training produced improved performance on the cognitive tasks, including increased accuracy in the vigilance, choice reaction time, and spatial working memory tasks. These results suggest that mindfulness training can improve cognitive performance in college students and improve their psychosocial attitudes toward and adjustment to college life. Although actual grade performance was not investigated, the improved skills would predict better academic performance.

There are a number of known effects of mindfulness practice that could be responsible for the improved cognitive and psychosocial skills in the college students. Mindfulness training has been shown to directly affect cognitive skills (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/cognition/), social skills (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/social-behavior/), and psychological well-being (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/well-being/). In addition, mindfulness training is known to reduce the physiological and psychological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/) which may reduce the anxiety produced by the pressures of college. Finally, mindfulness training is known to improve sleep (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/sleep/) which is known to be a problem for college students. So, it appears clear that mindfulness training has many desired effects that promote school performance and thus mindfulness training should be considered for incorporation in school curricula.

So, improve high level thinking with mindfulness.

“Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men.” – W. E. B. Du Bois
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Improve Teacher Well-Being with Mindfulness

November 19, 2015 psyjdc Leave a comment

“The connection between mindfulness and education is both natural and fundamentally important, now more than ever. The difference between a good teacher and a great teacher, it is often that ineffable quality that you know but cannot pin down in words.” – The Mindful teacher

Teaching is a stressful profession causing many to burn out and leave the profession. A recent survey found that roughly half a million U.S. teachers move or leave the profession each year. That’s a turnover rate of about 20 percent compared to 9 percent in 2009. Indeed, anywhere from 40 and 50 percent of teachers will leave the classroom within their first five years, with over nine percent leaving before the end of their first year.

The high stress of the occupation shows up in higher rates of anxiety disorders, but particularly in physical ailments, with higher rates of laryngitis, conjunctivitis, lower urinary tract infections, bronchitis, eczema/dermatitis and varicose veins in female teachers. There is a pressing need to retain good teachers. So, it has become very important to identify means to help relieve the stress and lower burnout rates.

Mindfulness has been shown repeatedly to decrease physiological and psychological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/destress-with-mindfulness/ and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/). Mindfulness has also been shown to help improve performance and relieve stress in students (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/08/building-a-better-adult-with-elementary-school-mindfulness-training/ and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/09/04/go-to-college-with-mindfulness/). In addition, mindfulness has been shown to decrease burnout in the medical profession (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/10/burnout-burnout-with-mindfulness/). So, it would seem reasonable to suspect that mindfulness training would help teachers to reduce stress, the consequent physical symptoms, and burnout.

In today’s Research News article “The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Educator Stress and Well-Being: Results from a Pilot Study”

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Frank and colleagues investigate the effectiveness of a mindfulness -based stress reduction (MBSR) program to improve high school teacher stress and well-being. They found that MBSR produced significant improvement in emotion regulation, self-kindness, mindfulness, overall self-compassion, and sleep quality in comparison to a no-treatment control group.

Hence it appears that MBSR is effective in improving well-being and reducing stress in high school teachers. Of course, more research is needed particularly with randomly assigned active control conditions and long term follow-up. But, these results are very promising. Given the importance of education to the well-being of our entire society, helping to relieve the problems experienced by teachers has to be a high priority.

This as well as research with students points to a development of a total mindful environment in education, where both students and teachers are trained in mindfulness and mindfulness practice is incorporated in the school day. The research suggests that this could have a major positive effect on education.

So, teach and learn with mindfulness

“I had decided that this would be my last year teaching until the mindfulness program began at my school. Now I am rededicated to my profession.” – Teacher, East Oakland

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Keep Grades Up with Downward Dog.

October 24, 2015 psyjdc Leave a comment

“When you give [kids] yoga poses, use visualization, and allow them to move their bodies, their whole learning ability goes up several notches . . . When you teach kids, it’s not about telling them—it’s about creating experiences for them where they connect the dots, and create new dots.” – Marsha Wenig

Mindfulness training has been shown to have a wide range of benefits for the psychological and physical health of adults. If it is this useful for adults then it only stands to reason that mindfulness training in children might establish a permanent trait of mindfulness that could produce lifelong benefits.

On the short-term, mindfulness training has been shown to benefit elementary school children producing improvement in a wide array of academic, social, emotional, cognitive, and physical measures. (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/08/building-a-better-adult-with-elementary-school-mindfulness-training/). So it is clear that contemplative practice can be beneficial for children.
Yoga is not only a contemplative practice but also a physical practice that strengthens the body while stretching tendons and muscles. Its physicality might be particularly attractive to school children because of their high energy levels that lack an outlet in the school environment. Indeed, yoga has been found to be beneficial for children. So, yoga may be an excellent contemplative practice for implementation with school children.

In today’s Research News article “Yoga May Mitigate Decreases in High School Grades”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1106809236009668/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4546979/

Butzer and colleagues had high school students either participate in a physical education class as usual or a class employing yoga and investigate school performance as measured by the students’ GPAs. They found that over the school year, GPA tended to decline in both groups. But the yoga group had a significantly smaller decline than the PE as usual group while the yoga was being taught. After the end of yoga instruction, the students’ GPAs declined so that by the end of the school year the yoga group’s GPAs were comparable to those of the PE as usual group.

These results suggest that yoga practice has immediate short-term benefits for the academic performance of high school students. But, the benefits do not last after yoga is terminated. This suggests that the exercise aspect of yoga was the critical component. But, the PE class was also focused on physical exercise, so it is unlikely that this accounts for the differences in the GPA declines.

A key difference between yoga and physical education is that yoga is known to improve self-regulatory processes, including emotional, cognitive, and behavioral self-regulation. This may result in a reduction in perceived stress and improve attention in the classroom which could improve academic performance. The results are intriguing and should be followed up with further research.

So, practice yoga and keep school grades up.

“Scientific evidence is mounting daily for what many have long sensed: that practices like mindfulness, meditation, and yoga can help us address certain intractable individual and societal problems . . . And, perhaps more importantly for our global health, for kids dealing with extreme stressors, traumas and abuse, putting these practices into schools could be the difference between failure and success.” – Alice G. Watson

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies