Session: Mindfulness-Based Approaches for Supporting Teachers’ Social and Emotional Skills, Wellbeing and Dispositions (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

The goal of this symposium is to present a series of innovative approaches for reducing teachers’ stress and improving their wellbeing and efficacy. Teachers play a primary role in shaping the formal learning context. However, when teachers lack the internal resources to effectively manage their stress and work demands, the classroom climate can deteriorate, triggering a “burnout cascade.” Burned out teachers and the learning environments they create can have harmful effects on students, especially those who are at risk for social, emotional and behavioral problems.

Interventions involving contemplative practices such as mindfulness and yoga have been shown to be effective for reducing stress and promoting wellbeing. This symposium brings together researchers from a diverse set of institutions who have actively been pursuing research to apply contemplative approaches to reducing teacher stress and consequently improving their performance. The symposium supports the conference theme of development and testing of interventions.

The CARE program is an intensive 30-hour program delivered over five days that involves the integration of mindful awareness practices with emotion skills techniques designed to support teachers social and emotional competence and as a result improve classroom climate and student academic and behavioral outcomes. The first paper reports on the results of a study to determine the effectiveness of the CARE program in reducing teachers’ stress and improving their wellbeing, mindfulness and efficacy.

The second paper reports on research that tested the efficacy of the CALM program, a brief daily yoga-based intervention integrated into the school setting. CALM, developed specifically for educators, involved 64 20-minute sessions of gentle yoga and mindfulness practices offered 4 days per week before the start of the school day. This study is unique it the frequency and brevity of the intervention and the focus on physiological measures.

The third paper presents efficacy and process data from two randomized-control trials and one uncontrolled trial of a mindfulness training for public school teachers aimed at reducing occupational stress, emotional exhaustion and burnout. The data presented in this paper is unique in that investigators explored the effects of the intervention on teachers’ speech and language.

Given the prominent role that emotions and stress play in teaching and learning, it is surprising that little research has explored ways to support teachers’ ability to manage the social and emotional demands of the classroom. The present symposium advances work in this field by sharing innovative approaches that cultivate skills and dispositions that promote resilience and help reduce stress.