Session: The Effectiveness and Implementation of Youth-Focused Mindfulness Interventions (Society for Prevention Research 23rd Annual Meeting)

There is great interest in new intervention models to increase students’ s healthy development by increasing their self-regulatory skills and resilience in the face of stress.  This work is intended not only to help students in their coping and interpersonal relations, but also to improve their academic functioning and success, especially in highly stressful, disadvantaged schools and neighborhoods. Very recently, there has been substantial interest in how mindfulness-informed programs may be one effective model for reaching these goals. The objective of this symposium is to present new findings on three mindfulness-based programs that were designed to promote young people’s emotion and self-regulation, enhance attention and performance, and improve health and well-being. The outcomes vary among programs and we will discuss the issues with implementation and delivery of programs on school and college level.  

The first presentation will present results from a school-based mindfulness and yoga intervention for urban 5^th and 6^th graders in highly disadvantaged neighborhoods in Baltimore City. In this study, the authors conducted a randomized trial did not replicate earlier pilot finding of a main effect of improved self-regulation in response to stress. The author will discuss the study outcomes regarding self-regulation in the context of measurement and implementation challenges with school based mindfulness research.

The second presentation evaluates a different school-based mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program delivered to middle-school public school students in Baltimore City. In a comparison with an active control group (health education program), MBSR students had significantly lower levels of somatization, depression, negative affect, negative coping, rumination, self-hostility, and post-traumatic symptom severity. In addition, students who were randomized to the MBSR program had significant higher reading scores on the Maryland School Assessment. 

The third presentation will report findings from a randomized waitlist controlled trial that examines the effects of a college-adapted mindfulness program (Learning to Breathe) on the health, well-being, and academic performance of freshmen living in residential dormitories. In addition to assessing overall outcomes, we will evaluate the impacts of mindfulness practice on students’ day-to-day experiences by using the ecological momentary assessments (EMA). Authors will also examine the potential enhancement and interaction effects between the intervention and EMA on the overall measures of health and well-being.

The discussant will focus on the broader issues related to the use of mindfulness-inspired prevention models, their utility and what we have learned from the “first-generation” of such programs.