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Research in Human Development

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Mindfulness-Based Interventions in School Settings: An Introduction to the Special Issue

Jennifer L. Frank , Patricia A. Jennings & Mark T. Greenberg
a a a a

Pennsylvania State University Published online: 09 Aug 2013.

To cite this article: Jennifer L. Frank , Patricia A. Jennings & Mark T. Greenberg (2013) Mindfulness-Based Interventions in School Settings: An Introduction to the Special Issue, Research in Human Development, 10:3, 205-210, DOI: 10.1080/15427609.2013.818480 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15427609.2013.818480

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Research in Human Development, 10(3), 205210, 2013 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1542-7609 print/1542-7617 online DOI: 10.1080/15427609.2013.818480

INTRODUCTION

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Mindfulness-Based Interventions in School Settings: An Introduction to the Special Issue

Jennifer L. Frank, Patricia A. Jennings, and Mark T. Greenberg
Pennsylvania State University

Interest in contemplative science, particularly the use of mindfulness-based practices, has expanded rapidly in recent years. This special issue of Research in Human Development explores the potential effectiveness of mindfulness-based practices delivered in school settings. Articles included in this issue demonstrate how mindfulness can be used to help to improve student-teacher relationships, reduce ADHD symptomology, promote emotion regulation, and reduce stress among school-age youth. A nal reective commentary by Roeser (this issue) describes how study ndings t within the larger context of the contemplative sciences movement, followed by suggestions for future research.

This special issue of Research in Human Development presents a series of articles on school-based interventions that draw from the perspective of contemplative science. Contemplative science aims to apply knowledge from numerous scholarly disciplines (including developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, phenomenology, and psychiatry; see Thompson, 2007) to better understand the mindbody system by exploring knowledge and practices gleaned from the worlds contemplative traditions. Contemplative science also aims to understand whether and how secularized versions of practices such as mindfulness, meditation, and yoga can relieve suffering and foster positive developmental processes (Kabat-Zinn, 2003).
Address correspondence to Jennifer L. Frank, Pennsylvania State University, Prevention Research Center, Room 316C - Biobehavioral Health, University Park, PA 16808. E-mail: jfrank@psu.edu

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Interest in contemplative science, particularly the use of mindfulness-based practices, has expanded rapidly in recent years (Mind and Life Educations Research Network, 2012). Although mindfulness has been dened in different ways, this term has been used to describe a particular kind of attention that is characterized by an intentional focus on the present moment, and nonevaluative observation of experience (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Emerging consensus suggests that mindfulness may be a trait and self-regulatory skill that can be cultivated intentionally to promote greater levels of health and well-being (Baer, 2003; Brown & Ryan, 2003). A growing number of studies have demonstrated that development of these skills is associated with a wide array of positive outcomes in adult populations such as improved health, reduced anxiety (Miller, Fletcher, & Kabat-Zinn, 1995), depression (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002), substance use (Ostan & Marlatt, 2008), and psychological distress in clinical and nonclinical populations (Shapiro, Brown, & Biegel, 2007). General improvements in attention (Jha, Kropinger, & Baime, 2007; Jha, Stanley, Kiyonaga, Wong, & Gelfand, 2010) and immune system functioning (Davidson et al., 2003) have been reported as well. Recent metaanalytic reviews concluded that on average, mindfulness based interventions have medium effect size (d = .5) in adult populations across a number of mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, sleep quality, and general psychological functioning (Baer, 2003; Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, & Walach, 2004). EMERGING RESEARCH ON THE EFFECTS OF MINDFULNESS WITH SCHOOL-AGE YOUTH Promising ndings within adult populations has promoted investigators to consider the extent to which developmentally adapted practices might be applied with children and youth in school settings. Numerous studies on the effects of mindfulness-based practices with school-age children have been published (for reviews, see Greenberg & Harris, 2011; Meiklejohn et al., 2012). Empirical investigations of the effects of mindfulness-based practices among youth and adolescents have documented improvements in attention skills (Napoli, Krech, & Holley, 2005; Zylowska et al., 2008), social skills (Beuchemin, Hutchins, & Patterson, 2008), sleep quality (Bootzin & Stevens, 2005; Britton, Haynes, Fridel, & Bootzin, 2010), well-being in adolescent boys (Huppert & Johnson, 2010), and reductions in anxiety, depression, somatic, and externalizing symptoms in clinic-referred adolescents (Biegel, Brown, Shapiro, & Schubert, 2009; Bogels, Hoogstad, vanDun, deSchutter, & Restifo, 2008; Semple, Lee, Rosa, & Miller, 2010). Recent reviews of this literature conclude that these results should only be considered promising at this time due to the relatively weak designs, measures, and the absence of follow-up data (Greenberg & Harris, 2011; Harnett & Dawes, 2012).

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PURPOSE OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE Although initial research ndings have suggested that mindfulness can be an effective tool in fostering positive development in youth, the research eld of mindfulness is still in the very early stages of development. Several critical questions remain regarding if, and how, mindfulness might help to promote positive youth development and the circumstances under which mindfulness-based practices might be indicated. In preparing this special issue, we solicited contributions representing a diverse range of approaches to conceptualizing mindfulness and assessing outcomes. We included articles that represent a mixture of empirical methods including group experimental studies, single-case investigations, and mixed qualitative-quantitative studies. Populations include a wide range of ages (preschool, elementary, high school, and adults, e.g., teachers), intervention targets (e.g., young children, adult, student behavior/cognition, teacher stress, and classroom climate), and include examination of effects with clinical (e.g., attention-decit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]) and nonclinical student populations. This set of studies emphasizes socially valid outcome measures for researchers in human development, such as the quality of student social interactions, off-task and disruptive behavior, stress, and student self-regulation. They also represent distinctive delivery system variations with some programs being implemented universally, whereas others are delivered at the targeted or intensive levels. A noteworthy aspect of these articles is a focus on diversity of experimental designs and the utilization of manualized intervention protocols that are either currently (or in the process of becoming) available commercially. The inclusion of such a wide variety of intervention protocols should provide for a rich opportunity to compare and contrast intervention features and evidence for this relatively new and emerging class of interventions. We begin the issue with a contribution from Singh et al. (this issue) who examined the effectiveness of an 8-week mindfulness-based training course on preschool-age childrens behavior. This study is reective of a top-down approach to mindfulness in which providing mindfulness training to teachers is targeted to change child behavior and studentteacher interactions. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing preliminary evidence that training teachers in mindfulness results in changes in student behavior in preschool settings. This study also provides direct empirical support consistent with the prosocial classroom model that posits a relationship between teacher well-being, mindfulness, teacher efcacy, and student outcomes (Jennings, Frank, Snowberg, Coccia, & Greenberg, in press; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009; Jennings, Snowberg, Coccia, & Greenberg, 2011; Roeser et al., 2013). Moreover, the utilization of single-case methodologies provides useful insight into the intensity and timing of intervention responsiveness rarely examined in group design studies. The mixed

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ndings reported by authors also provides valuable insight regarding for whom, and under what conditions, mindfulness-based interventions delivered in school settings may be effective. Carboni, Roach, and Fredrick (this issue) complement this work by examining the effectiveness of mindfulness-based training on the attention regulation skills of young children with ADHD. The authors intervention protocol consisted of implementation of components derived from a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program adapted for youth (Saltzman & Goldin, 2008). A unique strength of this study is reliance on multimethod and multisource assessment protocol including concurrent collection of parent and teacher behavioral ratings combined with independent observational data. This study also provides preliminary evidence for the feasibility and potential effectiveness of mindfulnessbased interventions in the treatment of common behavioral concerns in school settings. The last empirical article by Metz et al. (this issue) examines the effectiveness of a manualized mindfulness-based training program, Learning to BREATHE (Broderick, 2013), on multiple dimensions of adolescent emotion regulation, stress, and somatic symptoms. This study provides a strong example of a groupbased experimental design specically targeted to meet the social-emotional needs of adolescent. This study also provides some unique insight into the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing mindfulness-based interventions at the universal level in high school settings. Finally, Robert W. Roeser provides a commentary that describes how each of these articles t within the larger goals of the contemplative science movement. In his commentary, he describes the Contemplative Science Project, its aims, philosophical framework, methods, and phenomena of interest. He also highlights the key features and ndings of each article and addresses the role mindfulness-based interventions may play in optimizing human development across the lifespan. In summary, we are just beginning to learn how mindfulness-based approaches may promote positive developmental outcomes among children in youth in school settings. The articles in this special issue offer evidence that the approaches reported here are feasible and effective. More research is required to understand the mechanisms that underlie the effects of these approaches. These articles provide important contributions to the process of building such an evidence base. REFERENCES
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