Mindfulness Programs Improves Learning

This is the first systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize data available on the effects of mindfulness-based trainings for children and youths in a school setting. Twenty-four studies were located that report a significant medium effect size of g = 0.40 across all controlled studies and domains. Remarkably, the ES of studies using pre-post designs only is very similar, with g = 0.41. The effects are strongest in the domain of cognitive performance with a large and significant ES of g = 0.80 for controlled studies. Effect sizes are smaller but still significant in the domains of resilience measures (g = 0.36) and stress measures (g = 0.39), and they are small and not significant for measures of emotional problems (g = 0.19) and third-person ratings (g = 0.25). In the latter two domains pre-post ES are larger, while in all other domains they are either very similar to the controlled ES or even somewhat smaller. Thus, taken from a bird's eye view, mindfulness-based training in a school context has effects that are seen mostly in the cognitive domain, but also in psychological measures of stress, coping, and resilience. Acceptance seems to be high with few reported adverse events or incidents. There were some hints that implementation was not always without difficulties. It is important to keep in mind that the analysis referring to feasibility is very limited due to methodological issues.

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Our analysis suggests that mindfulness-based interventions for children and youths are able to increase cognitive capacity of attending and learning by nearly one standard deviation and yield an overall effect size of g = 0.40. The effect is stronger in studies where more mindfulness training and home practice has been implemented. However, results might be slightly biased by the “small study effect.” Furthermore, the heterogeneity is large and thus further work, especially locating the origin of the heterogeneity, is needed. We suggest that larger studies using robust and well validated measures be conducted, and that active controls should be considered. The available evidence certainly justifies allocating resources to such implementations and evaluations, since MBIs carry the promise of improving learning skills and resilience.