Do Mindfulness Approaches with Children, Parents, and Teachers Work: For Whom, with What Interventions, at What Ages and for How Long?

This Scientific Dialog session will bring together a program officer from NIH, and prevention researchers who have conducted mindfulness studies with children, adolescents, parents, and teachers. Recent years have witnessed an explosion of mindfulness-based interventions. Programs range from universal school-based programs, to mindful parenting programs, to programs targeting specific populations (e.g. children with ADHD). However, in what has been dubbed the ‘McMindfulness craze,’ the hype and proliferation of programs being implemented in schools and communities far outpaces the research base.

A small, but emerging body of research shows that some mindfulness programs with children, parents, and teachers are feasible and lead to positive outcomes in universal and clinical populations. However, only a limited number of these programs have been rigorously evaluated. Some of the current research is also of low quality, and implementation on a broad scale may be premature. In addition, little is known about who is most likely to benefit from mindfulness programs. For example, younger children may benefit most before maladaptive patterns become entrenched and more difficult to change. We also do not know what programs work best, what dosages and intensities are optimal, or whether effects persist over time. This issue is particularly important given the limited time available in schools for mindfulness programming. There is also a need to prioritize research questions, given scarce resources.

In this Roundtable, the panelists will discuss these questions, followed by dialog from the audience that will encourage a lively exchange of different points of view. This dialog will inform future directions for much needed research, identify funding priorities, and inform future implementation of empirically based mindfulness interventions. Prevention science on mindfulness will have the most impact when it addresses knowledge gaps in practice. What is needed to move the field forward, and what is the next generation of prevention science on mindfulness with children, parents, and teachers?