Search

Objectives This paper describes the emergence of the scientific study of mindfulness in schools; summarizes findings of experimental research on the impacts of school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) on student outcomes in prekindergarten, primary, and secondary school settings (ages 4–18 years); discusses scientific limitations and wider critiques of this work; and offers suggestions for future research. Methods Public data are used to describe the emergence of science on SBMPs, the foci of this research, and the academic disciplines contributing to it. A narrative summary of scientific findings regarding the impacts of SBMPs on students, and critiques of this work, is also presented. Results Research is increasing and is primarily psychological and prevention-oriented. Evidence shows SBMPs can enhance students’ self-regulation abilities, but SBMPs’ impacts on other student outcomes at different ages are equivocal. The current research has significant limitations, and these, alongside wider critiques of the work, suggest important directions for research. Conclusions In the next generation of science, we suggest (a) improving the experimental research; (b) expanding developmental research; and (c) re-envisioning assumptions, theories, and methods in research to go “beyond all splits” towards a non-dualistic and relationally, culturally, contextually, ethically, and developmentally grounded science on mindfulness and compassion for students in schools.

Many have called for school-based student programs that teach skills related to self-care and caring for others. Here, such a program for peer-nominated adolescents was developed and piloted virtually at one high school during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a longitudinal, quasi-experimental evaluation of the program showed high-quality program implementation and promising program impacts. Effect sizes indicated moderate to large program impacts on improvements in adolescents' self-compassion, sense of interdependence, and perspective-taking, and female adolescents' interoceptive awareness, compared to controls. No group differences in compassion for others were found. The need for more research on programs that help adolescents balance compassion for the self and for others is discussed.

Significant concerns have been raised about the "mental health crisis" on college campuses, with attention turning to what colleges can do beyond counseling services to address students' mental health and well-being. We examined whether primarily first-year (89.1%) undergraduate students (In a two-wave, multi-site, propensity-score matched controlled trial (ASHFASHF participants reported significantly improved mental health (i.e., reduced depression) and flourishing, improvements on multiple attention and social-emotional skills (e.g., attention function, self-compassion), and increases in prosocial attitudes (empathic concern, shared humanity; Cohen'sThis research provides initial evidence that the ASHF course may be a promising curricular approach to reduce and potentially prevent poor mental health while promoting flourishing in college students. Continued research is needed to confirm these conclusions.

Early adults face an important developmental transition that can be accompanied by increased risk for mental health issues and vulnerability to stress and adversity. Increased levels of psychological well-being (PWB) have been found to buffer this risk. Research shows that skills for improving PWB may be learned through PWB interventions; however, the dynamical mechanisms underlying this learning process are not well understood. We conducted an 8-week Randomized Control Trial (N=160; aged 18-22 years; middle- to high-SES; 77% White, 12% Asian, 6% black, 4% Latino, and 1% did not disclose their race), implemented in a mobile Health (mHealth) framework. We had three groups: an active control group (N=55); an intervention group (N=51) with positive practice intervention (PPI); and a second intervention group (N=54) with positive practice and meditation intervention. Assessments and interventions were all delivered via the participant’s mobile device. The mHealth implementation allowed as to assess the participants’ PWB levels several times a day, providing rich data for understanding the dynamics of change. We used a process-oriented approach in combination with a Bayesian model (dubbed as GoHiAR) to analyze changes in PWB in terms of dynamical characteristics of the learning process. Findings suggested that the mobile assessment tool itself may have longitudinally improved college student PWB, as evidenced by instances of directional changes in dynamic characteristics (increased mean levels, decreased fluctuation, and increased regulation) of PWB measures. Moreover, although the mHealth interventions did not add benefit over mobile assessment at the group level overall, they improved PWB for students who had low baseline negative affect levels.

This study explores whether variability in the implementation of an undergraduate course on human flourishing is differentially associated with student outcomes. 101 students in the “Art and Science of Human Flourishing” course across three large, public, R1 universities in Fall 2018 participated in the study. Formative course data included researcher observations of weekly class pedagogy, students’ weekly meditation practice logs and end−of−course assessments, and pre/post surveys measuring changes in participating students’ outcomes related to flourishing (e.g., attentional skills, social−emotional skills, perspectives on flourishing, mental and physical health). Although course pedagogy and student engagement varied across the three universities, students’ outcomes were nonetheless similar. Variability in course implementation did not appear to differentially affect students’ outcomes. We tentatively conclude that other institutions interested in offering the flourishing course may make limited adaptations to fit their pedagogical preferences without concern for altering its impact on students.

We introduce a theoretical framework for conceptualizing psychological well-being as a process that unfolds over short and longer time-scales. We argue that this framework can be especially useful for studying the change mechanisms in psychological well-being within the context of mobile Health (mHealth) interventions. Four lines of process-oriented research are considered within this framework to inform the scientific exploration of psychological well-being in the context of mHealth interventions. First, we explore psychological well-being functioning via person-specific characteristics. Second, we discuss key characteristics of change as a result of mHealth interventions. Third, we review evidence that interventions conduce towards psychological well-being through an underlying process of skill development through practice. Fourth, we discuss intervention response heterogeneity within this framework. The approach we outline is intended to articulate currently unanswered, process-oriented research questions about psychological well-being interventions, how they work, and a methodological path forward for exploring them.

This Research Brief was developed for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The number of school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) for students has been increasing over the last fifteen years. They’ve been developed for students from pre- kindergarten through high school (P–12 settings). While the reach of SBMPs is substantial, their introduction has outpaced research on their effectiveness across diverse sociocultural contexts and school environments, and with students of different ages and backgrounds. A look at studies conducted between 2000 and 2019 showed that SBMPs improve students’ mindfulness and self-regulation skills. Further, there is promising evidence that these programs reduce students’ feelings of anxiety and depression, support their physical health, and assist them in engaging in healthy relationships with others. However, there is little consistent evidence at this time that SBMPs reduce students’ anger and aggression or improve their well-being, and further study is needed to adequately assess program impacts on students’ school behavior and performance. In the coming years, more scientific research on SBMPs is needed to determine: which kinds of practices and program elements work best, what outcomes they influence, and which students are impacted the most. Recommendations for practitioners considering the use of SBMPs are offered.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a manualized mindfulness-based program for adolescents, Learning to Breathe (L2B), on indicators of adolescent social-emotional well-being, mental health, substance use, and executive function. Participants included 251 high school students attending an urban school district who were randomly assigned to required health education classes that offered L2B or the business-as-usual health curriculum. No direct effects on self-report measures were found. Students exposed to L2B demonstrated significant improvements on executive functioning measures related to susceptibility to cognitive interference and working memory. Subsequent tests of moderation revealed beneficial program effects within the treatment group were dependent on rates of practice, and those that used L2B strategies regularly showed small-to-moderate improvements on indices of emotional awareness, emotional clarity, impulse control, social connectedness, mind-wandering, substance use, perceived stress, and self-compassion relative to controls. This study provides mixed support regarding the potential effectiveness of a universal mindfulness program for high school students. The absence of direct effects on self-report measures implies that simply exposing adolescents to a mindfulness curriculum within the context of typical instruction, in the absence of supports for implementation, is unlikely to impact youth socio-emotional well-being or behavior. However, changes in EF favoring the intervention group suggest that possible benefits on tasks related to susceptibility, cognitive interference, and selective attention are possible. Tests of moderation revealed dosage effects, and students who adopt mindfulness practices can indeed benefit on multiple fronts.

Developing the skills to positively manage social transgressions is of particular salience to those in the teaching profession. The Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance (MBEB) program is a professional development program for K-12 teachers to build mindfulness and related prosocial skills such as empathy, compassion, and forgiveness. The present study assessed the acceptability of the MBEB program and tested whether MBEB was associated with changes in teachers’ forgiveness skills. Participants included 171 teachers from 3 school districts who were randomized to the MBEB program or waitlist control group. Program attendance was recorded and MBEB teachers reported on the helpfulness of the forgiveness component. Five indices of forgiveness were assessed at pre-program, post-program, and in the fall of the subsequent school year (follow-up). A series of OLS regression models tested whether program condition was associated with the forgiveness outcomes at post-program and follow-up. MBEB teachers attended 90% of sessions, and 70% of MBEB teachers reported the forgiveness component to be helpful or very helpful. In comparison with control teachers, MBEB teachers reported improvements in their efficacy to forgive colleagues and students, tendency to forgive, and situation-specific forgiveness at post-program. Changes in MBEB teachers’ efficacy to forgive colleagues, tendency to forgive, and situation-specific forgiveness were sustained into the fall of the subsequent school year. Significant and sustained improvements in MBEB teachers’ forgiveness skills indicate that teachers, who are actively engaged in a high-stress profession, can benefit from a mindfulness-based program aimed at cultivating prosocial qualities such as forgiveness.

Research shows greater mindfulness is associated with less negative affect and more positive affect. Fewer studies have examined the mediating psychological processes linking mindfulness to these outcomes in adolescents. This three-wave, prospective longitudinal study examines rumination—the tendency to engage in repetitive and negative self-focused thinking—as one potential explanatory process. High school students (N = 599, Mage = 16.3 years; 49% girls) completed a short-form version of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, in addition to self-report measures of rumination and negative and positive affect three times over the course of a school year. Autoregressive, cross-lagged panel models tested reciprocal, prospective associations between mindfulness, rumination, and negative and positive affect, while accounting for prior levels of each construct, within-wave covariances, and gender and grade level. The results showed that the nonjudgment mindfulness facet (and the total mindfulness score) predicted cross-wave reductions in rumination, that in turn predicted cross-wave reductions in negative affect. No evidence for mediation was found for positive affect, or for any of the other mindfulness facets (describe, acting with awareness, and nonreactivity). This study provides suggestive evidence that individual differences in mindfulness, and in particular nonjudgmental acceptance, prospectively predict less negative affect through lower rumination.

Promoting behavioral strategies to better regulate pain and decrease the use of prescription pain medications immediately after childbirth is an attractive approach to reduce risks for adverse outcomes associated with the maternal mortality crisis. This study aimed to understand women's beliefs and experiences about pain management to identify important insights for promoting behavioral strategies to control postpartum pain.N = 32 postpartum women participated in a semi-structured interview about beliefs/experiences with managing postpartum pain. Higher- and lower-order themes were coded; descriptive statistics were used to summarize results.Major trends emerging from the data were: (1) most women used a combination of medications (e.g., oxycodone and acetaminophen) and behavioral strategies (e.g., physical activity) in the hospital (94 %) and at discharge (83 %); (2) some women reported disadvantages like negative side effects of medications and fatigue from physical activity; and (3) some women reported they would have preferred to receive more evidence-based education on behavioral strategies during prenatal visits.Our findings showed that most women were prescribed medications while in the hospital and at discharge, and used non-prescription, behavioral strategies.Future research is needed to test behavioral strategies in randomized clinical trials and clinical care settings to identify impact on reducing adverse maternal health outcomes.

Objectives: Mindfulness programs are increasingly popular on college campuses in the US, yet little is known about collegestudents’ perceptions and beliefs about mindfulness: its origins, how it is learned, its functions, and practitioners. Usingmethods from Cultural Consensus Theory (CCT), the present study examined whether a cultural consensus on mindfulnessexists among this group and what the substantive content of that consensus might be.Methods: College-attending young adults aged 18–25 (Study 1, N = 275—convenience sample; Study 2, N = 210—nationalsample) completed questionnaires on beliefs about mindfulness, exposure to mindfulness, and demographics. Data wereanalyzed using a CCT-derived Bayesian cognitive psychometric model. Hypotheses for Study 2 were pre-registered.Results: Young adults converged on a cultural consensus about mindfulness, and the substantive content was replicated acrossboth studies. Participants consensually agreed that mindfulness is Buddhist in origin; is both spiritual (but not religious) andsecular; can be an antidote to suffering and gives one a competitive edge in business; and is practiced more by women, less byConservatives. They also viewed mindfulness as a practice that people their age can learn, as a universal practice, and as notlimited to older, wealthy, or White people. Prior exposure to mindfulness was related to more agreement with this consensus.Conclusions: The beliefs about mindfulness identified suggest an American cultural consensus amongst young adults thatviews mindfulness as accessible, learnable, able to relieve suffering, more of interest to women and less to Conservatives,and incorporating both secular and spiritual origins and aims.Keywords: Mindfulness · Cultural consensus theory · Bayesian modeling · Psychometrics · Young adults

School teachers show higher levels of job stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety compared to those in many other professions. In this paper, we examine the impacts of mindfulness training on reductions in depressive and anxious symptoms accounting for the fact that some of these same teachers were already being using medications for such symptoms. Do the benefits of mindfulness training for teachers with regard to internalized distress remain after accounting for medication use for depression and anxiety, and could the use of such medications interaction with mindfulness treatment to, for instance, produce incrementally larger benefits for those taking medication? We explore these research questions using data from two randomized-controlled trials (Study 1 and Study 2). In both studies, teachers were randomized to the same 8-week MT intervention or waitlist control condition, and were assessed for depressive and anxious symptoms at baseline, post-program, and 3-month follow-up. Data on medication use was assessed at baseline and showed ~20% percent of the overall samples reported such use. Overall, exploratory results showed that MT significantly reduced depressive and anxious symptoms at post-program and at 3-month follow-up when controlling for medication use. Furthermore, comparative effects analysis indicated that mindfulness training resulted in more long-term gains for depressive and anxious symptom reduction, while effects of medication remained relatively stable over time (Study 2). These preliminary findings suggest that MT is an effective tool for reducing internalized distress in public school teachers and adds benefit above and beyond the use of medication for such symptoms in this population.

Objective: The present study examined whether mindfulness and empathic concern prospectively predict coping and compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic, and tested several theorized mediators of these prospective relationships. Participants: Participants were N = 736 young adults from a three-wave longitudinal study on mindfulness that took place over a year. The third assessment wave took place in May, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: Participants completed self-report measures of trait mindfulness, compassion, well-being, internalized distress, coping, and compliance. Results: Results of autoregressive cross-lagged panel mediation models revealed the mindfulness predicted better coping via greater well-being and lower internalized distress. Greater compassion was linked with greater adherence to CDC guidelines through greater well-being.Conclusions: Findings suggest that trait mindfulness and compassion play an important role in college students’ coping and compliance during the pandemic, and point to potential intervention targets.

In response to growing interest in mindfulness as a support for educators, the current study sought to create and test a new multidimensional and multi-informant measure of teacher mindfulness in the classroom. To counter some of the limitations of context-general self-reports, we designed two theoretically based classroom-specific measures that capture the experience and expression of mindful teacher behavior from the perspective of teachers and students. Drawing on emerging consensus from experts on mindfulness in education, the measures incorporated three dimensions of mindfulness, namely, Calm, Clear, and Kind teacher behavior in the classroom, as well as their antitheses, namely, Reactive, Distracted, and Critical teacher behavior. Utilizing data from 78 sixth- to eighth-grade teachers and 550 of their students, teacher- and student-report item sets tapping these dimensions were tested for reliability and validity across three time points. Based on confirmatory factor, reliability, structural invariance, and correlational analyses, subscales generally demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties, cross-year stabilities, convergent and criterion validity with multiple established measures, and some overlap across reporters. In terms of connections to observer ratings from the CLASS-S, teacher subscales showed consistent but modest connections, whereas student subscales showed higher correlations (especially at time 2), suggesting that students and observers converged in their perceptions of teachers’ expressions of mindfulness. Possible improvements to both measures as well as implications for future research on teacher mindfulness are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine how student perceptions of mindful teaching are associated with changes in students’ mindfulness, self-compassion, and compassion for others across a single high school year. We hypothesized two pathways of effect: a direct path whereby when high school students perceive their teachers as demonstrating mindful qualities, they are more likely to emulate these qualities, and an indirect path whereby mindful teaching affects student outcomes by providing an environment that fulfills the developmental needs of students. To test these hypotheses, a short-term longitudinal study of high school students ( N = 599) was conducted in which student outcomes from the beginning to the end of the school year were regressed on perceptions of mindful teaching at the beginning of the year and school need fulfillment during the midpoint of the school year. Results revealed support for the indirect path: student perceptions of mindful teaching predicted changes in student perceptions of school need fulfillment, which then predicted changes in students’ own mindfulness, self-compassion, and compassion for others over time. Results are discussed in terms of how mindful teaching might represent a kind of social affordance for students, one in which the needs of students are seen and fulfilled, and, as a result, one in which the students may be more willing to emulate and internalize the qualities of their teachers.

Little is known about whether a widely used mindfulness measure in adults—the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)—is also reliable and valid in adolescents. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of a 20-item short-form FFMQ in a sample of 599 high school students ( M age = 16.3 years; 49% female) living in the U.S. Students completed the FFMQ and a battery of self-report questionnaires assessing aspects of psychological well-being and social skills 3 times over the course of one academic year. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a modified four-factor hierarchical model (excluding the Observe subscale and 1 item from the Describe subscale) best fit the data. This four-factor, hierarchical FFMQ demonstrated evidence of measurement invariance across time, gender, and grade level. Reliabilities for the FFMQ total score and its subscales ranged from .61 to .88. The FFMQ total score, and its subscales (excluding Observe), demonstrated evidence of convergent (e.g., with self-compassion) and discriminant (e.g., with social perspective taking skills) validity. Finally, the FFMQ total score and Act with Awareness, Nonjudgment, and Nonreactivity subscales demonstrated evidence of incremental predictive validity for cross-time changes in psychological well-being outcomes (e.g., perceived stress). Overall, results provide preliminary support for the reliability and validity of a short-form FFMQ for use in high-school-age adolescents.

a.Objectives: Significant concerns have been raised about the “mental health crisis” on college campuses, with attention turning to to what colleges can do beyond counseling services to address students’ mental health and well-being. We examined whether primarily first-year (87.3%) undergraduate students (n=651) who enrolled in the Art and Science of Human Flourishing (ASHF), a novel academic and experiential for-credit course on human flourishing, would demonstrate improved mental health and strengthen skills and behaviors associated with flourishing relative to students who did not enroll in this course.b.Methods: In a two-wave, multi-site, propensity-score matched controlled trial (ASHF n=217, Control n=434; N=651), we used hierarchal linear models and false discovery rate corrected doubly robust estimates to evaluate the impact of the ASHF on attention and social-emotional skill development, flourishing perspectives, mental health, and risk behavior outcomes.c.Results: ASHF participants reported significantly improved mental health (i.e., reduced depression) and flourishing, improvements on multiple attention and social-emotional skills (e.g., attention function, self-compassion), and increases in prosocial attitudes (empathic concern, shared humanity; Cohen’s ds= 0.18–0.46) compared to controls. There was no evidence for ASHF course impacts on health or risk behaviors, raising the possibility that these behaviors may take more time to change.d.Conclusions: This research provides initial evidence that the ASHF course may represent an effective curricular approach to reducing and potentially preventing poor mental health and promoting flourishing in college students.

BackgroundMindfulness-based programs are a novel and promising approach for supporting teachers’ occupational health and well-being. Although rationales for mindfulness programs for teachers have been offered, the empirical research base evaluating approaches for educating teachers in mindfulness is still developing. This study reports the findings of a pilot study of a mindfulness-based program. This study is unique in that it is one of the only studies of the Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance (MBEB) program to focus on early elementary teachers, to be implemented by a new instructor, and to recruit teachers via extrinsic motivators.MethodsA pre-post, uncontrolled pilot study of a 27.5-h mindfulness-based program for teachers was conducted with 21 pre-kindergarten–third-grade teachers from the Pacific Northwest of the USA. Program acceptability was assessed based on attendance and teacher reports of program benefits. Effect sizes for within-person changes (from pre- to post-program) in teachers’ skills and mindsets, well-being, occupational health, and teaching practices were calculated. Teachers also suggested improvements to the program.ResultsWith regard to program attendance and acceptability, teachers attended 87% of sessions, with 58% of teachers reporting a personal benefit and 58% of teachers reporting a professional benefit of the program. Effect sizes for changes in teachers’ skills and mindsets ranged from small to large, |d| = 0.30 to 0.83, and ranged from small to medium for changes in teachers’ well-being |d| = 0.07 to 0.48, occupational health |d| = 0.14 to 0.39, and teaching practices |d| = 0.15 to 0.48. Teachers suggested shortening the program and linking it more closely to their work in the classroom.ConclusionsThis study suggests that the MBEB program may be beneficial to early elementary teachers, even when implemented by someone other than the program developer, and when provided with extrinsic motivation to participate (more closely mapping to a larger-scale trial of the program). Teachers’ suggestions regarding program length and structure are considered, along with useful avenues for future research on mindfulness-based programs for teachers.

It's a secret hidden in plain sight, we teach who we are. Palmer (2017) In an effort to reinvigorate the art of teaching, educational theorists have called for teachers to learn how to teach with their “whole self” – to be with and teach their students from a position of mindful awareness, authenticity, truthfulness, compassion, and courage (Palmer, 2017; Ramsey & Fitzgibbons, 2005). The skills that support one in mindfully knowing oneself well and being able to creatively and consciously bring aspects of one's knowledge expertise and identity into acts of teaching and learning in the classroom in an authentic way has been labeled the “unnamed domain” in teacher knowledge (e.g., Taylor, 2016). In this chapter, we extend work on a conceptual, evidence-based framework for this unnamed domain. We propose that the formation of teachers who are calm in body in challenging situations, clear in mind when making decisions in complex classroom environments, and kind in approach to interactions with others is one way of describing development in this domain of teacher identity/expertise. Furthermore, we posit that mindfulness, compassion, and other contemplative practices can be useful for developing expertise in it. We present conceptual and empirical findings from a series of studies we have done on the antecedents and consequences of teachers' calmness, clarity, and kindness in the classroom and discuss directions for future research.

The transitional years of early adulthood engenders both opportunities and risks for well-being. In this paper, we propose that the conceptualization and measurement of early adult’s well-being during early adulthood can be improved through the use of short, daily momentary assessments of well-being, and through an examination of the structure of well-being within (and not just across) time. We developed items to assess daily well-being based on the PERMA model of well-being (Seligman, 2011). Using Ecological Momentary Assessments, we assessed the five PERMA elements in daily life and their network properties. Consistent with Seligman (2011), network analysis showed items (nodes) clustered around theorized elements, and also formed a unitary network of well-being. Furthermore, we found that positive Relationships and Positive emotion items were the most central aspects of early adults’ daily well-being. Results have implications for the putative targets for wellbeing-oriented intervention and prevention programs during this period of life.

The authors’ aim in this article is to stimulate thinking and a new generation of scholarship on how compassion develops over the life span and may be cultivated to improve individual and societal health, well-being, and interpersonal relationships. The authors discuss conceptualizations of compassion, overview research on the development of compassion, and outline prospects for prevention and health-promotion efforts focused on the cultivation of compassion in children, adolescents, and caregivers. The authors note little programmatic work has been done with regard to providing compassion training to children and adolescents and see this as an area ripe for more exploration. The authors conclude by proposing future directions for research on compassion and human development.

Building upon contemporary models of teaching that suggest that teachers’ own well-being is related to their classroom practice and student outcomes, we examined whether middle school teachers’ mindfulness skills were related to their concurrent occupational health and well-being (job stress, occupational burnout, and depressive and anxiety symptoms), and quality of their interactions with students in their “most stressful” class during the school day. Multivariate regression analyses of 58 middle school teachers indicated that teacher mindfulness was significantly associated with lower levels of job stress, occupational burnout, and depressive and anxiety symptoms; and higher levels of observers’ ratings of teachers’ emotionally supportive interactions with students in their most stressful classroom. Occupational burnout, in contrast, was negatively related to observers’ ratings of emotional support and organization in the classroom. Results suggest individual differences in middle school teachers’ mindfulness may affect their interactions with students in the middle school classroom directly and through reductions in burnout, though longitudinal studies of these relations are needed. Findings are discussed in relation to intervention efforts to improve teacher mindfulness through training in order to support occupational health and well-being, improve the quality of teacher-student interactions in the classroom, and increase student engagement and learning.

The effects of randomization to a workplace mindfulness training (WMT) or a waitlist control condition on teachers' well-being (moods and satisfaction at work and home), quantity of sleep, quality of sleep, and sleepiness during the day were examined in 2 randomized, waitlist controlled trials (RCTs). The combined sample of the 2 RCTs, conducted in Canada and the United States, included 113 elementary and secondary school teachers (89% female). Measures were collected at baseline, postprogram, and 3-month follow-up; teachers were randomly assigned to condition after baseline assessment. Results showed that teachers randomized to WMT reported less frequent bad moods at work and home, greater satisfaction at work and home, more sleep on weekday nights, better quality sleep, and decreased insomnia symptoms and daytime sleepiness. Training-related group differences in mindfulness and rumination on work at home at postprogram partially mediated the reductions in negative moods at home and increases in sleep quality at follow-up. (PsycINFO Database Record

The authors examined the dimensionality and psychometric properties of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) among Black South African adolescents (ages = 13–14; 52% female) representing several ethnic groups (Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu) and evaluated the measure for differential item functioning primarily among four ethnic groups (Sotho, Tswana, Xhosa, and Zulu). Results indicated that a two-dimensional model best represented the data, reflecting ethnic search/clarity and ethnic affirmations. Subsequently, we evaluated the equivalence of the MEIM among the four South African ethnic groups and a sample of African American adolescents (M(age) = 15.57 years; SD = 1.22; 51% female). Further analyses revealed that configural and metric models were excellent across the four South African ethnic groups and the African American group. However, scalar invariance (i.e., intercept) was not found; the item intercepts were different for the South African ethnic groups and African Americans. Findings are discussed with consideration for conducting research on ethnic identity among youth in South Africa.

In this paper, we aim to integrate the current conceptual approaches to stress and coping processes during the college transition with the potential role of mindfulness and compassion skills on students’ well-being and development. First, we provide an overview of the issues and challenges emerging adults are facing during the transition to college, drawing on the revised version of the transactional stress model by Lazarus and Folkman (1984). Second, we introduce a conceptual model of adaptive stress and coping processes enhanced by mindfulness and compassion (MC) skills to positively impact the appraisal and coping resources and emerging adults’ mental health. Specifically, mindfulness and compassion skills may play an important role in promoting a healthy stress response by strengthening emerging adults’ socioemotional competencies and supporting the development of adaptive appraisal and coping resources, including processes antecedent and consequent to a coping encounter. In particular, MC skills were hypothesized to enhance (1) preparedness to cope, (2) productive stress response through adaptive appraisals and skillful deployment of coping resources; and (3) healthy post-coping reflections. Therefore, MC skills may be a useful preventive tool to strengthen emerging adults’ ability to adjust to a new academic environment and fulfill the developmental tasks of this period.

Theoretical perspectives suggest the importance of teachers' emotion regulation skills, occupational health (e.g., burnout), and well-being (e.g., life satisfaction) for students, yet few studies have empirically tested these associations. The current study tested whether teachers' cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, occupational burnout, and life satisfaction in the fall were related to the level, and trajectory across the school year, of three indicators of student well-being: student-reported positive outlook, student-reported emotional distress, and peer-reported prosocial behavior. Multilevel growth modeling was employed to examine data from 15 elementary teachers and their 320 students. Teachers' emotion regulation skills and life satisfaction were associated with students' well-being: when teachers used cognitive reappraisal, students reported low emotional distress; when teachers used expressive suppression, students reported a less positive outlook and peers reported few prosocial behaviors; teachers' life satisfaction was associated with high levels of prosocial behavior. Effects on the trajectory of student well-being were not significant.

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can reduce teachers’ stress. The purpose of this mixed-method study, conducted within the context of a randomized-control trial of an MBI for teachers, was to examine four potential ways by which the MBI reduced teacher stress, including by (1) increasing their efficacy for regulating emotion on the job; (2) improving their ways of coping with stress at work; (3) increasing their efficacy for forgiving colleagues and students at work following conflict, as well as the tendency to do so; and (4) increasing teachers’ tendency to feel compassion for people generally, and for challenging students in particular. Public school teachers (n = 59) were randomized to an MBI or a waitlist control condition. They completed surveys at pre/post/follow-up and interviews at post-program designed to assess their coping with work stressors and their appraisals of their most challenging students. Survey data showed that efficacy beliefs and the tendency to forgive changed from pre/post for teachers in the MBI, and partially mediated reductions in stress from baseline to 4-month follow-up. Interview results showed a trend for teachers in the MBI to report more adaptive strategies for coping with job stress, and a tendency to evaluate challenging students in a more positive affective light. Implications for MBIs in teacher professional development are discussed.

Research on contemplative practices (e.g., mindfulness or compassion training) is growing rapidly in the clinical, health and neuro-sciences, but almost none of this research takes an explicitly developmental life span perspective. At present, we know rather little about the naturalistic development of mindfulness or compassion in children and adolescents, or the processes by which parents can socialize these positive qualities in their offspring. Thus, the goal of this special section is to showcase empirical research articles that redress this absence of a developmental focus in contemplative science by focusing on issues of construct conceptualization and measurement, socialization practices in families, and the role that interventions can play in fostering mindfulness and compassion in children, adolescents, and care-givers alike.

Adolescence is a developmental period of risk, as well as a window of opportunity for cultivating positive development and thriving. It is characterized by simultaneous changes in the brain, body, mind, and social domains that offer a platform for building new skills and habits. This chapter discusses the role that secular forms of mindfulness and compassion training may play in fostering positive development in adolescence. The emerging discipline of "Developmental Contemplative Science" (DCS) is introduced, the theoretical and empirical basis of mindfulness in adolescence is illustrated in depth, and secular mindfulness and compassion practices for youth are portrayed. Last, this chapter offers an agenda for future research on connecting mindfulness to key developmental domains in adolescence.

The effects of randomization to mindfulness training (MT) or to a waitlist-control condition on psychological and physiological indicators of teachers’ occupational stress and burnout were examined in 2 field trials. The sample included 113 elementary and secondary school teachers (89% female) from Canada and the United States. Measures were collected at baseline, post-program, and 3-month followup; teachers were randomly assigned to condition after baseline assessment. Results showed that 87% of teachers completed the program and found it beneficial. Teachers randomized to MT showed greater mindfulness, focused attention and working memory capacity, and occupational self-compassion, as well as lower levels of occupational stress and burnout at post-program and follow-up, than did those in the control condition. No statistically significant differences due to MT were found for physiological measures of stress. Mediational analyses showed that group differences in mindfulness and selfcompassion at post-program mediated reductions in stress and burnout as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression at follow-up. Implications for teaching and learning are discussed.

The articles in this special issue focus on the putative effects of mindfulness training on aspects of attention, emotion, and interpersonal behavior in children, adolescents, and educators. In this commentary, I situate these articles within an emerging, interdisciplinary study of the mind/body system and its prospects for transformation across the lifespan through mental training and neuroplasticity called the “Contemplative Science Project” (CSP). After describing the nature of the CSP—its aims, assumptive framework, phenomena of interest and methods—I highlight features and findings of these articles that, collectively, enrich the scope of the CSP through a focus on human development.

This study examined adolescents' perceptions of cultural change and identity development during an age of globalization in India. Analyses of data from 1497 Indian, urban, middle-class 12–15-year-olds (46% girls) revealed that these youth were aware of changes in their daily lives due to globalization and evaluated such changes in a pragmatic light of losses, gains, and a need for adaptation. Furthermore, results showed adolescents remained strongly identified with traditional Indian collectivist beliefs, values, and practices but also identified and participated in individualistic, “minority world” beliefs, values, and practices as well. Findings revealed that a blending of traditional- and minority-world identity elements (the identity remix) was a common response to globalization among urban middle-class adolescents in India today.

The purpose of this chapter is to challenge researchers interested in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in education to look inside the “black box” of these interventions in order to understand how the skills and dispositions of mindfulness are taught and learned. I argue that process studies, focused on the implementation of MBIs in education, are needed to (a) elucidate the pedagogical practices and uses of language and silence that may characterize highly effective mindfulness instructors as they teach educators mindfulness-based skills and dispositions; as well as (b) explain the specific means by which expert mindfulness instructors scaffold teachers’ transfer of these skills and dispositions beyond the training context to their classrooms. I argue that these basic questions regarding teaching, learning, and transfer are at the heart of contemplative education, and are important to address in future research if MBIs are to be successfully introduced, implemented, scaled, and sustained in public school settings.

The purpose of this introductory chapter is to provide a brief overview of the Handbook on Mindfulness in Education, and of the emerging field of science and practice concerned with mindfulness in education for students, teachers, and administrators. We describe the aims of the handbook, provide brief introductions to each of the chapters that comprise this handbook, and conclude with suggestions for future directions in research and practice.

This article draws on research in neuroscience, cognitive science, developmental psychology, and education, as well as scholarship from contemplative traditions concerning the cultivation of positive development, to highlight a set of mental skills and socioemotional dispositions that are central to the aims of education in the 21st century. These include self-regulatory skills associated with emotion and attention, self-representations, and prosocial dispositions such as empathy and compassion. It should be possible to strengthen these positive qualities and dispositions through systematic contemplative practices, which induce plastic changes in brain function and structure, supporting prosocial behavior and academic success in young people. These putative beneficial consequences call for focused programmatic research to better characterize which forms and frequencies of practice are most effective for which types of children and adolescents. Results from such research may help refine training programs to maximize their effectiveness at different ages and to document the changes in neural function and structure that might be induced.