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The Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Education Program on Pre- and Early

Adolescents’ Well-Being and Social and Emotional Competence

Article in Mindfulness · September 2010

DOI: 10.1007/s12671-010-0011-8

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Mindfulness
DOI 10.1007/s12671-010-0011-8

ORIGINAL PAPER

The Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Education Program

on Pre- and Early Adolescents’ Well-Being and Social
and Emotional Competence
Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl & Molly Stewart Lawlor

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Abstract We report the results of a quasi-experimental and teachers reported that they were easily able to integrate
study evaluating the effectiveness of the Mindfulness the mindful attention exercises within their classrooms.
Education (ME) program. ME is a theoretically derived, Theoretical issues linking mindful attention awareness to
teacher-taught universal preventive intervention that focus- social and emotional competence and implications for the
es on facilitating the development of social and emotional development of school-based interventions are discussed.
competence and positive emotions, and has as its corner-
stone daily lessons in which students engage in mindful Keywords Mindfulness . Adolescents . Prevention .
attention training (three times a day). Pre- and early Optimism . Social competence
adolescent students in the 4th to 7th grades (N=246) drawn
from six ME program classrooms and six comparison
classrooms (wait-list controls) completed pretest and Introduction
posttest self-report measures assessing optimism, general
and school self-concept, and positive and negative affect. Recent years have witnessed a growing portion of school-
Teachers rated pre- and early adolescents on dimensions of aged children experiencing a myriad of social, emotional, and
classroom social and emotional competence. Results behavioral problems that interfere with their interpersonal
revealed that pre- and early adolescents who participated relationships, school success, and their potential to become
in the ME program, compared to those who did not, competent adults and productive citizens (e.g., Greenberg et
showed significant increases in optimism from pretest to al. 2001). Epidemiological reports of prevalence rates of
posttest. Similarly, improvements on dimensions of teacher- disorder, for instance, indicate that mental health problems
rated classroom social competent behaviors were found are on the rise with approximately one in five children
favoring ME program students. Program effects also were and adolescents experiencing problems severe enough to
found for self-concept, although the ME program demon- warrant their need for mental health services (Romano et
strated more positive benefits for preadolescents than for al. 2001; U.S. Public Health Service 2000). Yet, fewer
early adolescents. Teacher reports of implementation than 15% of those needing help receive the services they
fidelity and dosage for the mindfulness activities were high need (National Advisory Mental Health Council 1990),
and those that do receive services receive such services via
their schools (Rones and Hoagwood 2000). Childhood
K. A. Schonert-Reichl (*) mental health problems have been identified as a salient
Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology,
concern among researchers, clinicians, and educators alike
and Special Education, University of British Columbia,
2125 Main Mall, not only because of continuities in the manifestation of
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada such problems in children (Loeber et al. 1993) and
e-mail: kimberly.schonert-reichl@ubc.ca concomitant problems associated with mental health
difficulties including peer relationship problems and
M. S. Lawlor
University of British Columbia, school dropout (Coie and Dodge 1998; Parke and Slaby
Vancouver, BC, Canada 1983), mental health problems (e.g., anxiety, aggression)
 Mindfulness

are often associated with contemporaneous difficulties, Durlak and Wells 1997; Weissberg and Greenberg 1998).
such as significant disruption to the social and academic First, many of the available programs aimed at promoting
ethos for other children in classrooms and schools as well children’s and adolescents’ social and emotional compe-
as the community at large (Farrington 1992). The tence lack scientific theory and research in their content,
significant role of mental health problems and associated structure, and implementation. Second, many of the
risks underscore the need to examine the effectiveness of programs focus on only one developmental domain of
school-based prevention programs whose aim is to competence (e.g., conflict resolution) and do not take a
promote protective factors and foster resiliency among comprehensive approach to promoting a range of social
all children and adolescents (Institute of Medicine 2009). and emotional skills. Third, many programs are of very
Several models have been proposed for understanding short duration and are not easily integrated and extended
the mechanisms that protect or serve as buffers for mental into the regular school curriculum. Fourth, many of the
health difficulties and problem behaviors in children and existing programs have focused primarily on reducing
youth; however, the bulk of current theoretical and problem behaviors (e.g., aggression) and have not kept
empirical literature supports a social and emotional com- pace with recent advances in the field on the ways in
petence perspective in which children with positive social which to cultivate and foster the development of positive
and emotional skills demonstrate resiliency when con- human qualities and traits associated with well-being (e.g.,
fronted with stressful situations (Greenberg et al. 2003; optimism). In view of these limitations, in the current
Masten and Motti-Stefanidi 2009). Research has consis- study we sought to add to the array of theoretically based
tently found a positive correlation between measures of evaluations of social and emotional competence promotion
children’s social and emotional skills (e.g., emotional programs by examining the effectiveness of a newly devel-
regulation) and measures of later psychological health oped classroom-based universal preventive intervention—the
(Greenberg et al. 2001), highlighting the need for inter- Mindfulness Education (ME) program—a program that
ventions targeting children’s social and emotional skills focuses on facilitating the development of students’ emotional
early before mental health difficulties emerge. and social competence via a series of lessons in which
Prior evidence supports the contention that social and “mindful attention awareness” is taught and practiced, and in
emotional competence in children and adolescents can be which students engage in lessons designed to promote
fostered and their behavioral problems deterred via class- optimism and positive affect. Although the ME program is
room and school-based intervention efforts (e.g., Battistich being widely implemented in schools, there is not yet any
et al. 1997; Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group empirical evidence of its effectiveness.
1999; Riggs et al. 2006; for a recent meta-analysis, see As increased research attention to the promotion of
Durlak et al. in press). Indeed, increasing numbers of children’s social and emotional competence in schools has
educators have begun to recognize the importance of the come to the fore in the past decade, a paradigm shift in
school-based promotion of children’s social and emotional psychology has been unfolding with recent years witness-
competence as an integral component of education to foster ing a shift from a preoccupation with repairing weaknesses
resiliency and stave off an upward trajectory of aggressive to the enhancement of positive qualities and preventing or
behavior and mental health problems (e.g., Brock et al. heading off problems before they arise (e.g., Diener and
2006; Cappella and Weinstein 2006; Ross et al. 2002; Seligman 2002; Lyubomirsky et al. 2005a, b; Seligman and
Wilson et al. 2003). According to the Consortium on the Csikszentimihalyi 2000). Implicit in this trend is the
School-Based Promotion of Social Competence (1994), assumption that educational interventions can be designed
“Schools are widely acknowledged as the major setting in to foster children’s strengths and resiliency (Huebner et al.
which activities should be undertaken to promote students’ 2009). The positive psychology movement, as it has been
competence and prevent the development of unhealthy called, aims to examine the positive features of human
behaviors. In contrast to other potential sites for interven- development including the study of personal traits such as
tion, schools provide access to all children on a regular and “subjective well-being, optimism, happiness, and self-
consistent basis over the majority of their formative years determination” (Seligman and Csikszentimihalyi 2000,
of personality development” (p. 278). Elementary schools p. 9). Recent work within this area has been expanding from
in particular “are preferred institutions for primary preven- a sole focus on understanding positive human qualities in
tion programs since very few children will manifest serious adults to include younger populations (Clonan et al. 2004;
problem behaviors by the end of elementary school” Huebner and Gilman 2003; Terjesen et al. 2004).
(Schaps and Battistich 1991, p. 129). At present, the research on the ways in which positive
Despite recent advances in the field, however, many emotions can be promoted in children and adolescents is
of the extant school-based prevention programs are still in a nascent stage. Emerging evidence, however,
limited in certain ways (e.g., Bond and Hauf 2004; suggests that self-regulation, such as the ability to control
Mindfulness

attention and inhibit aggressive responses, plays a critical is to whether or not there are empirical data supporting such
role in children’s success in school and with their social and a claim. Recent research conducted by Brown and Ryan
emotional competence (Blair and Diamond 2008; Ponitz et (2003) provides just such evidence. In a series of
al. 2009). Additionally, optimism is a valuable psycholog- correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies
ical resource that serves as a protective factor for both conducted with adults, they found that mindfulness, as
mental and physical health (e.g., Brodhagen and Wise assessed with their Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale,
2008), and an optimistic attitude towards life and the future was positively associated with several dimensions of well-
has been reported to be an essential component of the being (e.g., optimism, positive affect, self-actualization) and
resilience mechanism (Kumpfer 1999; Seligman 1990). negatively related to indices of psychological and emotional
Dispositional optimism in particular, defined as the gener- disturbance (e.g., negative affect, depression, anxiety,
alized expectancy that positive outcomes are attainable, has rumination). Additionally, they found that greater mindful
been shown to correlate with positive coping (Scheier et al. attention awareness was not only associated with more self-
1986), to predict positive outcomes after adverse events awareness, mindfulness predicted self-regulation, and pos-
(Carver and Scheier 2002) and peer acceptance in early itive emotional states.
adolescents (Oberle et al. 2009), and to benefit overall On the one hand, the evidence supporting the benefits of
health and well-being (Scheier and Carver 1993). mindfulness training interventions in adult populations is
In the literature on positive psychology, another dimen- relatively strong (for a review, see Greeson 2009), with
sion that has been identified as beneficial to well-being and research showing multiple benefits, including improvements
which has received increasing attention across numerous in attention and awareness (e.g., Jha et al. 2007), reductions
academic and clinical disciplines is mindfulness (Kabat- in health problems and stress-related medical conditions
Zinn 2003; Singh et al. 2003; Siegel 2007; Zylowska et al. (Grossman et al. 2004), and enhanced positive emotions and
2008). Although definitions of mindfulness abound and well-being (Davidson et al. 2003). Indeed, the past few years
may vary across settings and disciplines, a common theme has seen a convergence of evidence supporting the effec-
across all of the extant definitions is that mindfulness is a tiveness of programs that utilize mindfulness skill training in
way of directing attention. That is, mindfulness is consid- reducing stress and promoting health and well-being in adult
ered to be a state of consciousness that incorporates self- populations. For instance, research examining programs such
awareness and attention with a core characteristic of being as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-
open, receptive, and non-judgmental (e.g., Brown and Ryan Based Cognitive Therapy has yielded consistent support for
2003; Kabat-Zinn 1990; Segal et al. 2002). Attention and the efficacy of these programs in treating a variety of
awareness are consistent features of mindfulness. A further physical and psychological problems (e.g., Baer 2003;
conceptualization of mindfulness posited by Brown and Kabat-Zinn 1982; Kabat-Zinn et al. 1992, 1998; Teasdale
Ryan (2003) concerns an enhanced awareness and attention et al. 2000).
of the present reality or current activity. For example, when On the other hand, the research examining the effective-
an individual is in the shower, that person can be attuned to ness of mindfulness-based interventions with children and
the moment–to–moment sensory experience of the warm youth is limited. As noted by Semple et al. (2006), although
water, while also peripherally aware of the differing scents “early indications are that mindfulness in children is
of shampoos and soaps. In contrast, Brown and Ryan acceptable and feasible,” research in this area “has barely
(2003) describe “mindlessness” as the relative absence of begun” (p. 164). Moreover, the relatively meager research
mindfulness. Consciousness that is constrained is some way examining mindfulness with school-age children has not
(e.g., rumination on events in the past, anxieties about the focused on the cultivation of positive emotions but rather
future) pulls awareness away from the present experience. this research has either focused exclusively on reductions in
Mindfulness can also be compromised by dividing attention rumination and symptoms of anxiety and depression
with multiple tasks (e.g., talking on the phone while (Biegel et al. 2009; Broderick and Metz 2009; Napoli et
watching television), preoccupation with concerns that limit al. 2005) or has been conducted with clinical or special
focus on the present moment and/or by refusing to populations of children and youth (Beauchemin et al. 2008;
acknowledge a thought, emotion, motivation, or perceived Semple et al. 2005; Singh et al. 2007; Thompson and
object. Being mindful requires awareness and focus on Gauntlett-Gilbert 2008; Zylowska et al. 2008). What is not
current experience versus “automatic pilot,” which involves yet known is whether or not an intervention that incorpo-
engaging in behavior that is out of awareness and attention, rates mindfulness training leads to improvements in
which is compulsive or automatic (Kabat-Zinn 1990; Segal attention and concentration, positive emotions, and social
et al. 2002). and emotional competence along with concomitant
Despite the theoretical supposition that being mindful is decreases in dysregulated problem behaviors in a commu-
beneficial to a person’s well-being, one question that arises nity sample of pre- and early adolescents.
 Mindfulness

Mindfulness training has been identified as one way in competence and success. In the present study, therefore, we
which to foster self-regulatory control during adolescence focused our research efforts on children ages 9 to 12 because
(Roeser and Peck 2009). Mindfulness attention training can we perceive that pre- and early adolescence is a developmen-
be viewed as a form of mental training leading to skill tal period with great opportunity to optimize health and
development in which the willful directing and redirecting promote development.
of attention/awareness to particular kinds of events (e.g., Accordingly, the primary purpose of our research was to
breathing) is on purpose and with effort. As posited by examine the effectiveness of the ME program on pre- and
Broderick and Metz (2009), “This practice offers the early adolescents’ functioning in four domains: optimism,
opportunity to develop hardiness in the face of uncomfort- self-concept, positive affect, and social–emotional functioning
able feelings that otherwise might provoke a response that in school. We hypothesized that when compared to pre- and
could be harmful (such as ‘acting out’ by taking drugs or early adolescents in a control condition, ME program students
displaying violent behavior, or ‘acting in’ by becoming would show positive changes from pretest to posttest in all
more depressed)… Mindfulness training can complement four domains. Our dual focus on increasing social and
and strengthen other approaches that promote emotion emotional competence and reducing problem behaviors was
regulation, reduce stress, and develop attention” (p. 37). warranted due to empirical evidence indicating that prognosis
The need for the promotion of children’s social and for children is poorest when they demonstrate a combination
emotional competence and well-being is particularly evi- of low social and emotional competence alongside aggressive
dent during the transition from childhood to adolescence behavior (Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group
(Hertzman and Power 2006). We argue herein that it is 1999). We matched program classes with control classes
during the early adolescent years—particularly the ages where the average age, gender, and English as a Second
between 9 and 12—in which a program that incorporates Language (ESL) status of the class was equivalent.
mindfulness practices may be particularly warranted (note Given the importance of examining implementation
that the ages of 9 and 10 have also been identified as the fidelity in prevention (Domitrovich and Greenberg 2000;
period of “preadolescence,” and that that ages of 11 and 12 Duncan et al. 2009; Durlak and DuPre 2008), a second
have been identified as “early adolescence”). It is during purpose of our study was to examine the fidelity and
this developmental period in which children’s personalities, acceptability of the ME program when implemented in a
behaviors, and competencies may consolidate into forms “real world” setting delivered by regular elementary school
that persist into adolescence and on into adulthood (Eccles teachers in regular classrooms. Central to our question was
and Roeser 2009). What we know from the existing the degree to which the implementation of the ME
research on this age period is that the changes that occur intervention program’s objectives and procedures were put
are quite dramatic. It is between the ages of 9 and 12 years, into everyday practice in the classroom. There were three
in particular, in which fundamental changes occur across dimensions of implementation on which we focused: (1)
almost every sphere of life—intellectual and cognitive implementation fidelity (the extent to which the program
changes, physical changes due to puberty, and social and corresponded to the originally intended program), (2)
emotional changes (Eccles 1999). During this time, children dosage (how many different program components had been
both master academic skills such as reading, writing, and conducted), and (3) participants’ responsiveness (the degree
arithmetic and become more self aware, reflective, and to which the program was perceived by the teachers as
planful. It is also during these years when individuals interesting and influential on student outcomes). Primary
become less egocentric and are able to consider the feelings research questions for our study were: (a) Can mindfulness-
and perspectives of others—they develop a sense of right based practices be effectively integrated into a regular
and wrong and have the capacity to act in accordance with elementary school classroom?, (b) Will teachers be recep-
their higher levels of social understanding. This develop- tive to concepts and practices of mindfulness and positive
mental period has been identified as a transitional or a psychology practices and applications?, and (c) Will
“turning point” where an opportunity is present to promote teachers perceive the curriculum to be beneficial for
positive psychological growth (Graber and Brooks-Gunn improving student behavior and well-being?
1996). Transitions should not only be thought as “risk
promoting” or “vulnerability inducing” times in child
development—transitions may also be thought as “windows Method
of opportunity”—times in the life cycle in which positive
development can be cultivated and fostered through opportu- Participants
nities provided to the individual in his or her environment that
“promote” success, and serve as “protective” factors that Participants were drawn from 4th to 7th grade regular
move that person onward and upward to a pathway filled with public education classrooms in 12 elementary schools
Mindfulness

located in a large urban school district in a Western identified their first language as East Asian (e.g., Chinese,
Canadian city. These 12 schools were representative of Korean), and the remaining 20% identified their language
the district profile. The ME program was initially described as other (e.g., Spanish, Russian, Polish). This range of
to the teachers via a district-wide information session at language backgrounds in the sample is reflective of the
which they were told about the program and the evaluation. cultural and ethnic diversity of the Canadian city in which
Teachers were told at that time that their participation in the this research took place. Classroom teachers reported that
evaluation component of the program was voluntary. all of their students were competent in English to
Students were recruited from classrooms in which the participate and complete the study measures. Analyses
teachers expressed a willingness to participate. revealed no significant differences between ME program
After the information session, 12 intermediate (i.e., 4th and controls on gender, first language learned, and family
to 7th grade) teachers expressed their willingness to be composition, with the exception of age. Specifically,
involved in the training and participate in the research. Of analyses revealed that pre- and early adolescents in control
the 12 teachers, six were selected to receive the ME classrooms (M=11.65 years) were slightly older than those
program training and six teachers were selected to serve as in ME program classrooms (M=11.10 years), t(244)=
wait-list controls and receive the ME program training in −4.141, p<.05. We believe that this age advantage for the
the subsequent school year (note that teachers were selected control group students versus the ME program students
on a first come, first serve basis—a procedure that aligned would provide a more conservative estimate of program
with district policy regarding participation in teacher effects.
professional development). As noted in a later section, Schools in which students were recruited were represen-
there were no differences between teachers in the ME tative of a diverse range of socioeconomic status and were
program and wait-list controls with regard to gender, years considered to be a microcosm of the larger society,
of teaching experience, or their ratings of importance for containing families with service worker, skilled laborers,
promoting their students’ social and emotional competence. and professionals. Although we did not directly assess
All of the control classrooms were in schools in which no parental income level, the average income for the neighbor-
ME program was being implemented in order to control for hoods in which each of the 12 schools was located
possible diffusion effects (Craven et al. 2001). approximated the median income level for British Columbia,
A total of 246 4th–7th grade students participated in the Canada ($52,800 CAD). Participation in the study was
present study: ME program group, n=139 (70 boys, 69 voluntary and both parental/guardian consent and student
girls); control group, n=107 (57 boys, 50 girls). The mean assent were required. After university and school board
age of participants was 11.43 years (SD=1.07) with a range permission had been provided to conduct the research,
of 9.42 to 13.49 years. Table 1 summarizes the demo- parent/guardian permission forms along with a letter from
graphic characteristics of the sample by group. With regard the school principal describing the research were given to
to first language learned, 57% of the participants identified students. Prior to providing students with the parent/guardian
English as the first language they learned at home, 23% permission slips, either a trained research assistant or the

Table 1 Distribution of child

characteristics by study ME program Control Total
condition
Participants (n) 139 107 246
Age
M 11.10 11.65 11.43
SD 1.18 .83 1.07
Gender (%)
Female 49% 47% 48%
First language learned (%)
English 53% 61% 57%
East Asian (e.g., Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean) 20% 26% 23%
Other (e.g., Spanish, Russian, Polish) 27% 13% 20%
Family composition (%)
Two parents 75% 70% 73%
Single parent 11% 14% 12%
1/2 mother/1/2 father 12% 11% 10%
 Mindfulness

Principal Investigator of the research project provided a general, I like being the way I am.” Responses were made
15-min presentation to each participating class describing on a five-point scale (1=never to 5=always). Evidence for
the study in age-appropriate language and answering the reliability and validity for this scale has been provided
questions. As an incentive for students to return their by Marsh (1988, 1990). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for
signed forms (indicating either a “yes” or “no”), they were the current sample were .87 for School Self-concept and .83
informed that their class would receive a pizza party. for General Self-concept.
Students were told that their participation was voluntary
and that they would be included in the pizza party Positive and negative emotions To measure students’ posi-
regardless of parent/guardian consent and participation. tive and negative emotions, we used the 24-item Positive
Afterwards, consent forms were handed to all of the and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson et al.
students in the classroom. Parents/guardians were told that 1988). Twenty-four emotion words (12 positive; 12
the purpose of the project was to evaluate the effective- negative) are rated according to how much the respondent
ness of a classroom program directed to promoting has felt that emotion over the last week. Words are rated on
students’ positive behaviors. The research project was a scale from 1 (Not much) to 4 (Most of the time). An
perceived by school district personnel as important average score was calculated for each of the subscales,
because it offered the opportunity to provide information yielding one score for Positive Affect and another score for
to them on the effectiveness of a classroom-based social Negative Affect. The PANAS is a reliable and valid
and emotional learning program in the district. This instrument (Watson et al. 1988), and in this study, alpha
resulted in us receiving strong support from school district coefficients were .75 and .85 for Positive and Negative
administrators, school principals, and participating class- affect scores, respectively.
room teachers, which in turn resulted in the achievement
of a high participation rate. Specifically, of the students Teacher reports of social and emotional competence To
recruited for participation, approximately 82% received assess school-related social and emotional competence,
parental/guardian consent and gave assent themselves. classroom teachers completed the Teachers' Rating Scale
of Social Competence (TRSC; Kam and Greenberg 1998)
Measures for each of their participating students both at pretest and
posttest. The TRSC is a 31-item scale consisting of four
Demographic Information Students were asked to fill out a subscales that measure teacher reports of (1) Aggressive
basic information form indicating their gender, birth date, Behaviors (e.g., “Fights”), (2) Oppositional Behavior/
grade, first language learned, and family composition. Dysregulation (e.g., “Easily irritated when he/she has
trouble with some task, such as reading math, etc.”), (3)
Optimism We assessed pre- and early adolescents’ dis- Attention and Concentration (e.g., “Pays attention”), and
positional optimism with the Optimism subscale from the (4) Social and Emotional Competence (e.g., “Shows
Resiliency Inventory (RI; Song 2003). The RI was empathy and compassion for other's feelings”). Following
designed to assess six dimensions of resilience: Optimism, the procedures outlined by the developers of the TRSC, at
Self-efficacy, Relationships with Adults, Relationships pretest, teachers were asked to complete the TRSC for each
with Peers, Interpersonal Sensitivity, and Emotional of their participating students. The specific directions were
Control. For the purposes of our study, only the Optimism as follows: “Compared to other (boys/girls) at this grade
subscale was used. The nine-item Optimism subscale level, how often does/is [Child’s Name] (i.e. take other’s
concerns a person’s positive perspective on the world property)?” Teachers rated each item on a Likert-type six-
and the future. An illustrative item is “More good things point scale ranging from 0=Almost never to 5=Almost
than bad things will happen to me.” Students were asked always. At posttest, teachers were asked to rate their
to rate each item on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging participating students on each of the 31 items with
from 1=not at all like me to 5=always like me. Higher respect to how much the child’s behavior had changed
scores represent greater optimism. Cronbach’s alpha in since the start of the program, using a seven-point Likert-
this study was .74. type scale that ranged from 0=Much worse to 6=Much
improved. At posttest, higher scores on all factors are
School and general self-concept We employed two eight- indicative of more positive improvements in social and
item subscales from the Self-Description Questionnaire emotional competence and behavior. Alpha coefficients
(Marsh 1988) to measure students’ school self-concept indicated high internal consistency for each subscale:
and general self-concept. A sample item from the School Aggressive Behaviors (α=.80), Oppositional Behavior/
Self-concept subscale is “I am good at school subjects,” and Dysregulation (α=.90), Attention and Concentration (α=.95),
a sample item from the General Self-concept subscale is “In and Social and Emotional Competence (α=.88).
Mindfulness

Procedure curriculum and to other dimensions of children’s lives

outside of school.
Arrangements were made with classroom teachers for The development of curriculum content and activities
university research assistants to administer the question- were guided by the research and theory in the area of
naires to students who had obtained parent/guardian mindfulness and its relation to well-being (e.g., Brown and
consent prior to the commencement of the ME program Ryan 2003) and positive psychology (e.g., Clonan et al.
implementation, and again at the end of the school year 2004; Lyubomirsky et al. 2005a, b). In the ME program,
once the program had been completed. Students without “mindfulness” refers to bringing one’s complete attention to
parent/guardian consent were given independent assign- the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis with
ments given to them by their classroom teacher. On the day a non-judgmental stance.
of questionnaire administration, students were given a The four key components of the ME program include:
student assent form, whereby they were told that their
1. Quieting the mind—listening to a resonating instrument
participation was voluntary, and that there would be no
(chime) and focusing on the breath
consequences if they chose not to participate. Student
2. Mindful attention—mindful of sensation, thoughts, and
questionnaires were administered in two sessions (pretest
feelings
and posttest) of approximately 45 min in length. To guard
3. Managing negative emotions and negative thinking
against biases due to variability in reading proficiencies, a
4. Acknowledgment of self and others.
research assistant read each item on the questionnaire
aloud, and students marked their responses accordingly. Mindful practices, consisting of sitting in a comfortable
Questionnaires were administered in the same order in all position, attentive listening to a single sound (i.e., a resonating
classrooms, with relatively structured, non-threatening sound instrument, such as a bell or chime), and then using the
measures administered at the beginning and end of each breath as a focal point for being mindful in the present
session. Students were encouraged to answer honestly and moment are seen as central to the program with the intention
to ask any questions if they did not understand any of the of enhancing children’s self-awareness, focused attention,
questions or items on the measures. Students were also self-regulation, and stress reduction. In the ME curriculum,
informed that their responses would be kept confidential these mindful attention training exercises are to be practiced
and that only the researchers, not their teachers, parents, three times per day (3 min for each practice, which are then
principals, or friend, would see their completed question- extended to longer periods for the students) throughout the
naires. Teachers completed the student behavior checklists duration of the program. Additionally, affirmations and
at pretest and posttest. Throughout the program, ME visualizations are practiced in conjunction with the mindful
program teachers completed a daily “Mindful Practices” practices with the aim to foster optimism and positive affect.
log whereby they recorded whether or not they had The book “Mind Power for Children—The Guide for Parents
completed specific components of the program, as well as and Teachers” (Kehoe and Fischer 2002) provided some of
the degree to which each of the 10 program lessons was the ideas for ME program lessons.
completed. As well, at posttest, teachers completed a The topics of the lessons covered over 10 weeks
questionnaire asking them to provide feedback on the include the following: week 1, Introduction to mindful-
program. ness; week 2, Learning about affirmations; week 3,
Concentrating on positive emotions and outcomes; week
The Intervention 4, Learning how to eliminate negative thinking; week 5,
Acknowledging one another; week 6, Team work—
Program summary An empirical understanding of the mech- understanding goal setting as a group; week 7, Having
anisms and processes that promote well-being and mindful a healthy body; week 8, Making friends—interpersonal
awareness, as well as the theoretical models that guide related relationships; week 9, No problems… only opportunities;
social and emotional learning programs, provided a frame- and week 10, Celebrating successes.
work for the development of the ME program. More
specifically, the ME program is a classroom-based universal Program implementation ME program teachers underwent
preventive intervention designed to foster children's positive an intensive 1-day training session and received bi-weekly
emotions, self-regulation, and goal setting. Key components consultation from one of the authors of the ME program
include (1) universal involvement of all children in the curriculum (Nancy Fischer). During this training, teachers
classroom, (2) a 10-lesson manualized curriculum with clear were provided with a curriculum manual that specifically
lessons that are grounded in theory and research, and (3) an delineated the theory and research guiding each ME
emphasis on taking lesson content and extending the key program lesson, along with descriptions of each of the 10
components (e.g., positive thinking) to other aspects of the lessons that included detailed scripts and accompanying
 Mindfulness

materials for teaching skills on mindfulness, self-regulation, regarding statistical analyses examining baseline differ-
goal setting, and learned optimism. The 1-day teacher ences between ME program students and controls with
training session included interactive discussions on the regard to our outcome measures. Also in the second
implementation of each program lesson, presentation of section is a description of similarities and differences
material through lecture, video, readings, and role plays of between our ME program and control teachers. In the
curriculum instructional techniques. The session also third section, we report our findings regarding imple-
included experiential learning in which teachers participated mentation fidelity and program satisfaction. In our final
in a series of mindfulness attention training exercises. In section, we report results from our analyses examining
addition to the specific program lessons, teachers were intervention effects.
given information on utilizing technique to generalize skills
learned during ME program lessons to other curricular Data Analytic Plan
areas and other contexts. The ME program lessons were
taught approximately once a week, with each lesson lasting A quasi-experimental control group pretest–posttest de-
approximately 40–50 min. The daily core mindfulness sign was used. Effects of the ME program were
attention exercises were done three times a day for up to examined via a generalized linear model analysis of
at least 3 min each session. Teachers began to teach the lessons covariance in which difference or “change” scores served
in March and finished in early June. Teachers were encour- as the dependent variable. Statistically comparable to
aged to extend each of the lessons to their regular school performing a repeated measures analysis, change scores
curriculum. In order the complete the program by the end of provide an unbiased estimate of true change regardless of
the school year and accommodate posttest data collection, baseline value (Zumbo 1999). Change scores can be used
teachers were asked to compete the first nine lessons of the as the dependent variable in an ANOVA, and are seen as
ME curriculum; lesson 10—Celebrating Successes—was an alternative to ANCOVA when the researcher is
optional. interested in examining the direction of change from
pretest to posttest, as in the present study (Tabachnick and
Measures of implementation To assess implementation Fidell 2001). We calculated a change score by subtracting
fidelity and dosage, ME program teachers were given a the pretest score from the posttest score. In all of these
daily “ME Program” diary in which they were asked to analyses, students’ gender, age, and first language learned
track and record their daily implementation of the core ME (1=English; 0=language other than English) were con-
exercises (i.e., mindfulness exercises described above). As trolled in light of research demonstrating that these may be
well, teachers were asked to report the extent to which they potential confounds. Because we utilized multiple cova-
implemented the ME program lessons each week along riates in our analyses, in accordance with the recommen-
with the number of ways they integrated the ME program dations of Tabachnick and Fidell (2001), we examined for
concepts into their regular classroom curriculum and/or multicollinearity among our covariates via factor analysis.
classroom practices. Analyses revealed that none of the covariates had a
To assess teachers’ perceptions of the ME program’s squared multiple correlation exceeding .50, and therefore
effectiveness, at the end of the school year ME program were not considered redundant.
teachers were asked to respond on a five-point Likert-type In order to provide information about the magnitude of
scale (1=No, not positive to 5=Yes, very positive) the program effects beyond statistical significance, we calcu-
degree to which they thought the ME program had a lated partial eta-squared (ηp2) effect sizes. According to
positive effect on their students. Finally, ME program Pierce et al. (2004), “partial eta-squared for an experimental
teachers were asked to respond to what degree (1=Not at factor is defined as the proportion of total variation
all, to 5=Significantly) they believed the ME program attributable to the factor, partialling out (excluding) other
would influence the development of social and emotional factors from the total nonerror variation” (p. 918). Accord-
skills in their students. Teachers were also asked to provide ing to the criteria proposed by Cohen (1988), effect sizes
us with their overall assessment of the program via an ranging from .059 to .137 are considered moderate, and
open-ended question at the end of their survey. those greater than .137 are considered large.

Preliminary Analyses
Results
Baseline differences between the ME program students and
Results are presented in four sections. In the first section, controls A series of ANOVAs were performed to check
we delineate our data analytic plan. In the second section, for mean pretest differences between ME program and
we report our preliminary analyses and delineate our results control pre- and early adolescents on all measures. No
Mindfulness

differences were found for any of the outcome measures, tation teachers reported an average rating of 4.13 (range
F values (1, 144)<1.0, p values>.9. 4.00–4.50), using a scale that ranged from 1=No, not
positive to 5=Yes, very positive. One teacher commented “I
Differences between the ME program and wait-list control noticed considerable growth in my students’ awareness of
teachers To address the confounding factor of teachers their place in the world around them and their ability to
across the two groups, differences in teacher characteristics articulate their feelings and thinking in class discussions.”
were explored. In total, 10 females and two males Another teacher remarked on the difficulty with implement-
participated—and the gender distribution in each group ing the program in her classroom, “I could have used more
was comparable (five females, one male in each of the time to review and implement the program. The activities
groups). All teachers were Caucasian and had more than took longer than I anticipated to implement effectively and
5 years of teaching experience. Taken together, it appears it was hard to fit everything in when I had so much other
that there were no systematic differences in teacher work to cover. I am confident the program will be more
characteristics to occur across the two groups. effective as I revisit it in the Fall, having had time to reflect
and plan over the summer.”
Implementation Fidelity and Treatment Acceptability Teachers were also asked to report the degree to which they
believed the ME program would influence their students’
To inform the interpretation of the data, mean and range social and emotional skills in their classrooms. Utilizing
scores were computed for all measures of implementa- a rating scale from 1=Not at all to 5=Significantly, the
tion. Together, ME program teachers reported implement- Mean rating for teachers was 4.60 (range 4.00–5.00).
ing the components of lessons 75% of the time, Some of the teachers’ comments included: “Helped the
indicating a moderate to high level of average imple- class become more cohesive and I feel the students
mentation across the nine lessons. With regard to the became more aware of their inner potential,” “Most
implementation of the ME program core exercises—the [students] practiced outside of the classroom on things that
mindful breathing—teachers reported a high level of were important to them: family relationships, sports, school
implementation across the 9 weeks of the ME program work,” “My students met with a lot of success and I think they
(see Table 2). As can be seen, the range of implementation will continue on their own,” and “This self-awareness
of core ME program exercises was 73% to 100%, with an ultimately builds lasting understanding and empowerment.”
average of 87% across the 9 weeks. Additionally, all ME Taken together, the implementation results suggest teachers
program teachers (100%) reported that they implemented implemented the program with relatively high fidelity and
extension activities within their respective classrooms, favorably perceived the program’s usefulness for their
denoting evidence the ME program was easily embedded students.
into required curricula across subjects.
Results from analyses examining teachers’ perceptions Intervention Effects
of the ME program indicated that teachers perceived the
program to be both effective and beneficial to their Optimism, positive and negative affect, and self-concept To
students. Specifically, with respect to the degree to which examine the effects of the ME program on the students’
the teachers believed that the ME program had a positive optimism, positive and negative affect, and self-concept, we
effect on their students, at the end of program implemen- conducted a series of 2 (Group = ME program vs. Control)×2

Table 2 Average proportion

of ME program core mindful Week Number of ME program Proportion of ME core Proportion of ME core
exercises completed by week, core exercises exercises completed exercises completed, range
summarized across classrooms (averaged across classrooms)

Week 1 3 100% 100%

Week 2 15 72% 53–100%
Week 3 15 83% 73–100%
Week 4 15 92% 73–100%
Week 5 15 88% 73–100%
Week 6 15 83% 60–100%
Week 7 15 83% 33–100%
Week 8 15 87% 60–100%
Week 9 15 92% 67–100%
 Mindfulness

(Age Group = preadolescents vs. early adolescents) analyses study, one ME program teacher and one control teacher
of covariance, with first language learned (coded as English were unable to complete their posttest ratings of their
vs. non-English), age, and gender as covariates, and change students’ behaviors. Analyses indicated no significant
scores as the dependent variable. For the purpose of these differences between the pre- and early adolescents who
analyses and following the work of other researchers in the received pretest ratings only and those who received both
field of adolescence, students in grades 4 and 5 were pre- and posttest ratings. In accordance with both theory
categorized as “preadolescents” and students in grades 6 and and ME program goals, we hypothesized that pre- and early
7 were categorized as “early adolescents.” adolescents in the ME program condition, relative to pre-
As documented in Table 3, there was a main effect for and early adolescents in the control condition, would
Group for the variable optimism. Specifically, students demonstrate significant improvements in positive school
who were exposed to the ME program showed signifi- behaviors and significant decreases in aggressive/maladap-
cant increases in optimism from pretest to posttest tive behaviors. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a 2
compared to control students, who decreased in optimism (Group = ME Program vs. Control)×2 (Age group =
from pretest to posttest. With respect to the analyses for preadolescents vs. early adolescents) multiple analyses of
positive affect, a positive statistical trend emerged with covariance, with posttest ratings from the four subscales
students in the ME program, in contrast to those in the from the TRSC as dependent variables. Only posttest
control condition, showing increases in their reports of ratings were used for these analyses, rather than amount
positive affect from pretest to posttest. There was no of change from pretest to posttest, due to the fact that
difference in change on Negative affect between the ME teachers’ ratings at posttest reflected the relative amount of
program and controls. None of the two-way interactions positive improvement the student had made since the
for optimism, positive affect, and negative affect was pretest rating. Results of this analysis yielded a significant
significant. intervention effect, Wilks’ Lambda, F(4, 190)=17.49,
Intervention effects for general and school self- p<.001, ηp2 =.273. As predicted, the means indicated that
concept were examined next. None of the main effects at posttest teachers in the intervention classrooms described
for Group emerged as significant for either general or their students as significantly more attentive, emotionally
school self-concept. However, the analysis produced a regulated, and socially and emotionally competent than did
significant two-way interaction effect for Group × Age teachers in the control classrooms. The significant differ-
Group for general self-concept, F(1, 240)=3.23, p<.05, ence between the ME program and control group was
ηp2 =.014. Further analyses indicated that preadolescents consistent across all four subscales of the TRSC. Specifi-
exposed to the ME program evidenced significant cally, students exposed to the ME program, in contrast to
improvements in general self-concept (M=.010, SD=.27) controls, were rated by their teachers as significantly
in contrast to preadolescents in the control condition, who improved in Attention and Concentration and Social
demonstrated significant decreases in self-concept (M= Emotional Competence. Significant improvements
−.019, SD=.24). A different picture emerged for the early (decreases) in Aggression and Oppositional/Dysregulated
adolescents in the study. Specifically, whereas early Behavior also emerged among students who received the
adolescents who received the ME program decreased in ME program intervention in contrast to controls. With
general self-concept from pretest to posttest (M=−.053, respect to the magnitude of the effect sizes, according to the
SD=.29), early adolescents in the control condition increased criteria of Cohen (1988), the overall effect size of .273
in self-concept from pretest to posttest (M=.043, SD=.23). would be considered a “large” effect. Additionally, as
None of the other main effects or interactions was reported in Table 4, the effect sizes for the univariate
significant. analyses regarding changes in behavioral dysregulation,
attention and concentration, and aggression fell into the
Teacher-rated social and emotional competence Due to the moderate range, whereas the effect size for improvements
end-of-year demands of the teachers participating in our in social and emotional competence was large.

Table 3 Difference scores by

group for optimism, and positive Group F (df) p value Partial η2
and negative affect (controlling
for ESL status, gender, and age) ME program Control

Standard deviations appear in Optimism 098 (.66) −.031 (.47) 3.80 (1, 236) <.05 .018
parentheses. Degrees of freedom Positive affect .105 (.44) .017 (.46) 2.18 (1, 239) <.10 .009
differ for analyses due to missing Negative affect .003 (.49) −.009 (.47) .853 (1, 239) ns .000
data
Mindfulness

Table 4 Means and standard deviations for teacher-reported improvements in classroom behavior by group at posttest

Variable Group F value (df=1, 194) p value Partial η2

ME program Control
Mean Mean

Aggressive behaviors 3.235 (.59) 2.998 (.12) 10.840 <.001 .074

Oppositional behavior/dysregulation 3.062 (.19) 2.999 (.04) 7.055 <.001 .041
Attention and concentration 3.332 (.54) 2.986 (.20) 25.678 <.001 .120
Social–emotional competence 3.449 (.45) 2.989 (.18) 64.362 <.001 .260

Standard deviations are in parentheses. Scale ranged from 0 (“Much Worse”) to 6 (“Much Improved”) with higher scores representing greater
improvement from pretest to posttest

Discussion reflection on the self, which may then direct the early
adolescent to adopt a more critical or “realistic” view of the
Overall, the results of this evaluation study of the ME self (Eccles and Roeser 2009). Clearly, more work is needed
program, a universal preventive intervention designed to in order to disentangle the complexity of this somewhat
foster students’ social and emotional learning, provide surprising finding.
some encouraging evidence of a modest positive effect. As noted by Domitrovich and Greenberg (2000), there
As hypothesized, students exposed to the ME program, has been very limited attention paid to examining the way
in contrast to controls, evidenced significant improve- in which program implementation influences child out-
ments in teacher-rated social and emotional competence. comes in social and emotional competence promotion
Particularly notable were the robust findings for two of programs. Without examining implementation, we are left
the four dimensions of teacher-rated social and emotional with little information about what actually happened
competence—Attention and Concentration, and Social during the intervention—the quality of program delivery
Emotional Competence—the two dimensions that we and whether the target audience received the curriculum as
specifically targeted in the intervention. Moreover, we intended. As such, in the present study we examined the
found that teachers implemented the program with implementation fidelity of the ME program from the
relatively high fidelity—especially with regard to the perspective of teachers. Overall we found that teachers
implementation of the ME program core exercises—the implemented the program with relatively high implemen-
three-times-a-day daily practices. tation (teachers reported implementing the components of
Results also revealed that pre- and early adolescents who lessons 75% of the time). What is particularly noteworthy
participated in the ME program, compared to pre- and early is that we found that teachers implemented the mindful
adolescents who did not, evidenced significant and positive attention training exercises three times a day every day for
improvements in their positive emotions, namely optimism. the duration of 9 weeks with relatively high frequency—
A more complex picture emerged, however, when examin- with an average of 87%. Such a result is important for
ing students’ general self-concept. Analysis for this educators, clinicians, and others who wish to implement
construct yielded findings wherein the intervention effects similar approaches in school settings. As noted by Durlak
differed for pre- versus early adolescents. Namely, whereas and DuPre (2008), “Expecting perfect or near-perfect
our analyses revealed benefits (improvements) in general implementation is unrealistic. Positive results have often
self-concept for preadolescents who were exposed to the been obtained with levels around 60%; few studies have
ME program, no improvements in general self-concept attained levels greater than 80%. No study has docu-
emerged for the early adolescents. It may be that an mented 100% implementation for all providers” (p. 331).
increased focus on self-awareness (via the mindful attention Hence, it appears that the level of implementation of the
training exercises) alongside an increased focus on thoughts ME program was in line with implementation levels of
functioned differently for early adolescents in contrast to other school-based prevention efforts. What is particularly
the preadolescents in our study. Early adolescence in noteworthy comes from the qualitative data that we
particular has been described as a time in the life cycle in collected from teachers. Specifically, the ME program
which there is heightened self-consciousness due to increased teachers told us that they found the “core” mindful
competence in cognitive and social cognitive abilities (e.g., attention exercises easy to implement, and that frequently
Schonert-Reichl 1994) and information processing. Such their students reminded them to stop their regular
developmental changes coupled with an intervention that classroom instruction and do their “mindful breathing”
fosters self-awareness may lead to increased attention and lesson each day. Teachers also commented to us that they
 Mindfulness

often saw an immediate change in students’ behaviors— on mindfulness-based practices in schools. As a result of this
and that students were able to focus and pay attention to initial intervention trial, and in combination with feedback
their academic lessons more easily. Although our imple- from teachers and students obtained from questionnaires and
mentation data provided important information about focus groups (Lawlor 2007), the ME program has undergone
fidelity and teacher buy-in, all of our measures were substantial revisions. We are currently testing the effective-
gathered via self-report (in contrast to observations) and ness of this revised curriculum—renamed the MindUP
only a few dimensions of fidelity were examined. Clearly, program1—via a randomized clinical trial (Schonert-Reichl
it is critical that future research on the effectiveness of et al. 2010). In our view, a randomized trial is the next
mindful-based attention training with children and adoles- logical step to advance the research on the effectiveness of
cents include measures assessing multiple dimensions of mindfulness-based practices with children and youth and
implementation, including fidelity, dosage, quality, and improve the science and practice of such programs across
participants’ responsiveness. contexts. Clearly, future efforts should continue this search
The data reported here are encouraging for continued for the ways in which students’ positive emotions and
investigation of the effectiveness of the ME program. adjustment can be cultivated in schools.
Nonetheless, despite these promising findings, there are
several important limitations of the study that should be Acknowledgments This research was supported by grants from the
Hawn Foundation and the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP)
raised. One of the limitations of the current study was that
at the University of British Columbia to the first author. Special
analyses were conducted at the individual student level appreciation is expressed to Lisa Pedrini at the Vancouver School
even though the unit of matching was the classroom. Board, to Nancy Fischer for her involvement in creating the ME
Unfortunately, the small number of classrooms did not program lessons, to Sula Boxall, Angela Jaramillo, and Caro Rolando
for their assistance with data collection, and to the students and their
provide sufficient statistical power to use a multi-level
teachers who made this study possible.
model in the current study. The clustering of students
within classrooms resulted in the non-independence of
subjects, an assumption inherent in the analyses conducted
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