Can classroom mindfulness boost young children's self-control?
Young children whose teachers wove brief mindfulness activities into the school day improved more in mental flexibility and in teacher-rated attention than children still waiting for the program, though not on a test of inhibition.
Source
Mindfulness-Based Program Embedded Within the Existing Curriculum Improves Executive Functioning and Behavior in Young Children: A Waitlist Controlled Trial
Study at a glance
- Design
- RCT — Cluster-randomised wait-list design: whole classes drawn from a hat to start the program in the first term or after a term's wait; measured at baseline, end of term one and end of term two
- N
- N=91 · 91 consenting children (55 in program classes, 36 in wait-list classes); one child did not complete the executive-function tasks
- Population
- Children in Preparatory Year to Grade 2 at a single low-income regional school in Queensland, Australia
- Outcome
- Flanker task (inhibitory control/attention) and Dimensional Change Card Sort (cognitive flexibility) from the NIH Toolbox; teacher-rated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
What they did
At one Australian primary school, whole classes of children in their first years of school (Preparatory Year to Grade 2) were randomly assigned by a hat draw either to start a teacher-led mindfulness program called CalmSpace straight away or to wait one school term. The program included listening to a gong at the start of the day and after breaks, plus activities such as mindful eating, belly breathing, glitter bottles and cloud watching. Children were tested on two tablet-based executive-function tasks, and teachers rated behaviour, before the program, after one term and after a second term.
What they found
On the card-sorting task measuring cognitive flexibility, children in the program classes improved more than wait-list children over the first term, and the wait-list children then improved once they received the program. On the flanker task measuring inhibitory control, there was no group-by-time interaction, meaning no clear program effect. Teachers rated program children as showing fewer overall difficulties, mainly less hyperactivity and inattention, and more prosocial behaviour, but there were no program effects on emotional, conduct or peer problems.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Only a handful of classes at one school were randomised, the groups differed in gender balance, and children within a class are not independent, so the study is small and its effective sample is smaller than the child count suggests. The teachers who rated behaviour were the ones delivering the program, and the researcher who tested children also coached the teachers, so expectation bias is possible, and teachers may simply have become more tolerant of restless behaviour. The authors' discussion describes gains in inhibitory control, but the flanker result did not support a program effect. There was no active control and no follow-up beyond the second term.
Key terms
- Executive functions
- Core mental control skills (inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility) that let people plan, resist impulses and switch between tasks.
- Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS)
- A task in which children sort pictures by one rule (such as colour) and then must switch to another (such as shape), measuring cognitive flexibility.
- Flanker task
- A task requiring a response to the direction of a central target while ignoring surrounding items that may point the other way, measuring inhibitory control and attention.
- Cluster randomisation
- Randomly assigning whole groups (here, classes) rather than individuals to conditions.
- Implementation fidelity
- How closely a program is delivered as intended, for example how often the core activities were actually carried out.
Flashcards
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Quiz yourself
On which executive-function measure did the program show a significant group-by-time effect?
Common questions
Why deliver mindfulness through teachers instead of experts?
Teacher delivery can be built into the normal school day without extra staff or cost, which makes it easier to spread; earlier reviews found similar outcomes whether teachers or outside experts delivered programs.
Did the program improve all executive functions?
No. It improved cognitive flexibility on the card-sorting task, but there was no clear program effect on the flanker measure of inhibitory control, and working memory was not measured.
Why is a wait-list design useful here?
It lets the control classes eventually receive the program and allows a check that they also improve once they get it, which happened on the card-sorting task.
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