Effects of Mindfulness and Yoga on Preschool Students' Emotional Regulation, Behavior, and Social Participation

Official title

Mindfulness-Based Intervention: Effects on Emotional Regulation, Behavior, and Social Participation for Preschool Students

Overview

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if mindfulness and yoga can improve attention, problem-solving, memory, emotional awareness, and impulsivity in preschoolers. The main questions it aims to answer are: Can a 30-minute, once-a-week mindfulness and yoga program (Calm \& Alert) over seven weeks in preschool classrooms increase emotional regulation during the school day? Can a 30-minute, once-a-week mindfulness and yoga program decrease negative behavioral incidences during the school day? Can a 30-minute, once-a-week mindfulness and yoga program increase prosocial behaviors like caring, sharing, and perspective-taking during the school day? Researchers will compare the effects of students who participated in the mindfulness and yoga program to students in classrooms who did not receive the program. Student participants will be asked to complete a short self-regulation task test before and after the mindfulness program. Teachers will rate the students on their prosocial behavior before and after the mindfulness program and record negative behavioral incidents over the study period.

Detailed description

The current study design is a quasi-experimental pretest post-study design with a control group. Three schools with a total of four preschool classrooms will participate in this study. Overall, the present research study aims to add to the knowledge base of the benefits of mindfulness and yoga in schools for young children. This will include investigating the effect of mindfulness on children's attention, problem-solving, memory, emotional awareness, and impulsivity. For seven weeks, the intervention group will receive the Calm \& Alert mindfulness intervention alongside the rest of their class involving one session per week of about 30 minutes of yoga and mindfulness. The control group will conduct business as usual and receive the yoga and mindfulness intervention after the study concludes. The intervention will be provided by the principal investigator who is a certified mindfulness-informed professional and registered yoga teacher - 200 hours. It is hypothesized that implementing a 30-minute, once-a-week mindfulness program over seven weeks in preschool classrooms will increase emotional regulation, decrease negative behavioral incidents, and increase prosocial behaviors during the school day.

Interventions

• Behavioral Calm & Alert yoga and mindfulness
  The Calm \& Alert protocol is multisensorial, with successive opportunities to practice the explicit concepts taught throughout the lessons using yoga and mindfulness-techniques. Each class has a similar structure of songs, breathing, warm-ups, yoga poses, mindful games, and rest involving meditation with child-friendly language. The study includes the recommended materials of a Hoberman sphere (breathing ball), chime, mind/body/breath icons, two small mason jars (one with mud and one with clear

Primary outcome measures

• Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [Time frame: Pre-intervention and post-intervention (within one week)]
• Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders Task [Time frame: Pre-intervention and post-intervention (within one week for post and before the start of the study period for pretest)]

Secondary outcome measures (1)

• Negative Behavior Incidents [Time frame: during the intervention period.]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• are preschoolers with a filled out and returned parental/caregiver consent form who fall within the four to six-year-old age range, stay within a similar developmental age range, and attend five out of the seven sessions.

Exclusion Criteria: preschoolers without a parental/caregiver consent form, above or below the four to six-year age range will not be included in the study because of the higher variation in developmental capabilities, and if they do not attend five out of the seven sessions.

\-

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Single blind

Primary purpose

Prevention

Study locations

United States · 1 center

• Elizabethtown College — Elizabethtown

Publications

• Carro N, D'Adamo P, Lozada M. A School Intervention Helps Decrease Daily Stress While Enhancing Social Integration in Children. Behav Med. 2021 Jul-Sep;47(3):251-258. doi: 10.1080/08964289.2020.1738319. Epub 2020 Apr 10. PMID 32275198
• Goodman, R. (1997). Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t00540-000
• McClelland, M. M., Cameron, C., Bowles, R., & Geldhof, G. (2018). Developing a measure of self-regulation for at-risk children. U.S. Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences.
• McGlauflin, H. (2018). Calm & Alert: Yoga and mindfulness practices to teach self-regulation and social skills to children (1st ed.). PESI Publishing & Media.
• Rashedi RN, Rowe SE, Thompson RA, Solari EJ, Schonert-Reichl KA. A Yoga Intervention for Young Children: Self-Regulation and Emotion Regulation. J Child Fam Stud. 2021;30(8):2028-2041. doi: 10.1007/s10826-021-01992-6. Epub 2021 Jun 9. PMID 34127901
• Sciutto MJ, Veres DA, Marinstein TL, Bailey BF, Cehelyk SK. Effects of a School-Based Mindfulness Program for Young Children. J Child Fam Stud. 2021;30(6):1516-1527. doi: 10.1007/s10826-021-01955-x. Epub 2021 Apr 15. PMID 33875914

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06561373 · 2185448-1

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗