Joshua C. Felver

The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Children’s Attention Regulation:

Objective: This article describes results from a randomized clinical trial of a mindfulness-based intervention for parents and children, Mindful Family Stress Reduction, on a behavioral measure of attention in youths, the Attention Network Task (ANT). Method: Forty-one parent–child dyads were randomly assigned to either the mindfulness-based intervention condition or a wait-list control. School-age youths completed the ANT before and after the intervention. Results: Results demonstrate significant, medium-size (f2 = −.16) intervention effects to the conflict monitoring subsystem of the ANT such that those in the intervention condition decreased in conflict monitoring more than those in the wait-list control. Youths in the intervention condition also showed improvements in their orienting subsystem scores, compared with controls. Conclusion: Mindfulness-based interventions for youths have potential utility to improve attentional self-regulation, and future research should consider incorporating measures of attention into interventions that use mindfulness training.

School-based mindfulness intervention supports adolescent resiliency: A randomized controlled pilot study

ABSTRACT This research evaluated the effects of a seven-session mindfulness intervention, Learning to BREATHE, on an ethnically diverse at-risk high school student sample. Two classrooms were randomly assigned to intervention or normal health-education programming. Results indicated significant effects to self-reported psychosocial resilience, with students receiving the intervention reporting stable levels of resilience over time and students in the control condition reporting significant reductions. Intervention groups did not evidence change to self-reported psychosocial problem behavior, school attendance, and quarterly academic grades. Findings suggest that MBI may offer an effective strategy for enhancing student dispositional resilience, and suggestions for further research are offered.