In this research project, Dr. Lena Wimmer investigates the effectiveness of mindfulness training in improving pre-adolescents' attention and stress regulation as well as school-related abilities. The findings have important implications for educators, mindfulness training, therapy and research.
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About
Regulatory abilities such as attention and stress-regulation are key predictors of essential developmental outcomes, including intellectual and socioemotional milestones as well as academic achievement. This means that children who are low in regulatory abilities may struggle in academic and social contexts as well as in close relationships, irrespective of their intellectual abilities. Pre–adolescence has been proposed as a period that is crucial for training these abilities.
The aim of mindfulness practice is to purposefully guide one’s attention to the present moment and to not judge whatever is being experienced (Bishop et al., 2004). In this sense mindfulness training can be considered a training of attention regulation. In adults, mindfulness-based interventions evidently improve attention, stress and emotion regulation (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Chiesa et al., 2011). Even if the evidence base for children and adolescents has so far been relatively less comprehensive, initial studies suggest mindfulness-benefits for this target group, too (Broderick & Jennings, 2012).
Research Objectives
• To investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness training for improving pre-adolescents’ attention and stress regulation as well as school-related abilities
Programme and Methodology
• 10-11 year-old pupils of a secondary school in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, participated in 2 training sessions per week over a period of 4 months.
• One group of pupils received an adapted Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR; Kabat-Zinn, 2005) programme. Another group of pupils received a training that helped them to better concentrate (Krowatschek, Krowatschek, & Reid, 2011), as a control condition.
• Attention regulation, stress-regulation and school-related outcomes were tested before and after the intervention period.
• Attention regulation was assessed via computer-based tasks (vigilance test, interpretation of ambiguous images, Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, Stroop test, visual search task, face recognition task), and a self-report questionnaire of impulsivity.
• Stress-regulation was measured via the stress hormone cortisol and the enzyme α-amylase as extracted from salivary samples, and through a self-report questionnaire on coping strategies.
• School-related abilities were indicated by a test of verbal memory.
• A further group of pupils underwent attention and questionnaire-based testings without receiving any training to control for effects of schooling and maturation.
Findings
• Specific benefits of mindfulness training were found for:
• Attention regulation in terms of cognitive inhibition (demonstrated by the Stroop test) and data-driven information processing (reflected by the face recognition task)
• School-related abilities in terms of verbal memory
• Pupils that received mindfulness training improved physiological stress-regulation (indexed by cortisol and α-amylase) to the same extent as children that received the concentration training
Impact
• This project offers new and important insight on the effectiveness of mindfulness training:
• Increased attention, stress regulation, and school-related outcomes in pre-adolescents.
• This project offers clear suggestions to educators and governmental policies:
• Mindfulness training should be incorporated in regular school curricula to promote particular regulatory abilities relevant to well-being and academic achievement.
• The school collaborating in this project has realised this suggestion.
The research team trained and continuously supervised interested teachers with regard to the concept of mindfulness and its delivery to pupils. Implementing mindfulness training under scientific advice resulted in two awards for this school: “Strong Kids Advancement Award” (AOK Rheinland/Hamburg, 2015), First Place, Cornelsen Foundation Prize (Didacta 2016).
Related publications:
Wimmer, L., von Stockhausen, L., & Bellingrath, S. (2019). Effects of mindfulness training on regulatory and academic abilities in preadolescents: Results from a pilot study. Open Psychology, 1, 69-93. doi:10.1515/psych-2018-0006
Wimmer, L., Bellingrath, S., & von Stockhausen, L. (2016). Cognitive Effects of Mindfulness Training: Results of a Pilot Study Based on a Theory Driven Approach. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. doi:doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01037