Relaxation training combined with increased physical activity lowers the psychophysiological activation in community-home boys

Impact of Meditation on Resting and Ambulatory Blood Pressure and Heart Rate in Youth

“…Few BP-related stress reduction studies have been conducted in youth, and findings have been mixed. Relaxation training combined with increased physical activity for four months failed to yield any BP differences in community-home boys compared to a control group (36). A daily progressive muscle relaxation program conducted for 4 months at school in teenagers with high normal BP showed a 5.3 mm Hg greater decrease in their SBP compared with a waiting list control condition (12).…”

A Systematic Review of Interventions to Reduce Stress in Adolescence

“…Across studies, baseline sample sizes ranged from 10 to 255, with four studies having sample sizes smaller than 25 (Grosswald et al, 2008;Hains & Szyjakowski, 1990;Tan & Martin, 2012;Weigensberg et al, 2009); six studies having sample sizes between 25 and 100 (Barnes et al, 2001;Davey & Neff, 2001;Jellesma & Cornelis, 2012;Norlander et al, 2005;Rauhala et al, 1990;Sibinga et al, 2011), and seven studies having sample sizes larger than 100 (Barnes et al, 2004;Broderick & Metz, 2009;DeWolfe & Saunders, 1995;Elder et al, 2011;White, 2012;Wright et al, 2011;Yahav & Cohen, 2008). Only one study reported doing a power analysis (White, 2012).…”

“…Most study samples were relatively evenly split between males and females (n = 11). Some studies focused exclusively on males (Hains & Szyjakowski, 1990;Rauhala et al, 1990) or females (Broderick & Metz, 2009;White, 2012). Two others had samples that were over 75% male (Grosswald et al, 2008) or female (Sibinga et al, 2011).…”

“…Seven studies employed quasi-experimental designs, five of which had intervention and control/comparison groups (Broderick & Metz, 2009;DeWolfe & Saunders, 1995;Elder et al, 2011;Norlander, Moas, & Archer, 2005;Rauhala, Alho, Hanninen, & Helin, 1990), whereas two used single-group pre/post-test designs (Grosswald, Stixrud, Travis, & Bateh, 2008;Tan & Martin, 2012). Finally, one study employed a mixed methods design (Sibinga, Kerrigan, Stewart, Johnson, Magyari, & Ellen, 2011).…”

“…Finally, many studies focused on general samples of school-based youth, while others focused on specific populations of youth for whom stress management is particularly crucial, including youth at risk for high blood pressure (Barnes et al, 2001;Wright et al, 2011), living with their families in homeless shelters (Davey & Neff, 2001), living with ADHD (Grosswald et al, 2008), residing in rehabilitation centers (Rauhala et al, 1990), and living with HIV (Sibinga et al, 2011).…”