School-based Meditation Practices for Adolescents: A Resource for Strengthening Self-Regulation, Emotional Coping, and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Schools are searching for innovative ways to meet the unique academic, social-emotional, and behavioral needs of adolescents, many of whom face serious personal and family challenges. An innovative practice that is currently being introduced into school settings is meditation. Types of meditation offered in school-based settings include mindfulness meditation, the relaxation response, and Transcendental Meditation. These practices, as cognitive-behavioral interventions that are available for use by social workers and other school professionals, help students to enhance academic and psychosocial strengths and improve self-regulation capacities and coping abilities.This article defines meditation and meditative practices, reviews the literature showing the benefits and challenges of offering meditation to adolescents in a school-based setting, and describes the relevance of these practices for adolescents. The article also discusses implications for school social workers, teachers, and school administrators and reflects on the current research and future efforts toward building the research base for the promising practice of meditation in schools.

A Novel Heart‐Centered, Gratitude‐Meditation Intervention to Increase Well‐Being among Adolescents

“…Increased concentration and ability to manage stress among adults proved effective also for children and adolescents who practiced meditation [49,50]. Meditation interventions among youth are implemented as school-based, clinic-based, or community-based settings [29,51].…”

“…Meditation interventions among youth are implemented as school-based, clinic-based, or community-based settings [29,51]. Meditation helped youth manage behavior, emotions, and thinking skills that are beneficial in the school and the home environment [28,50]. Meditation correlated to a decrease in behavioral challenges related to autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders (ADHD), and bullying [50].…”

“…The effectiveness of meditation was evaluated by measuring children's self-regulation skills [50,51,53]. Self-regulatory behaviors, defined as a set of behaviors that direct and monitor the success of activity, are a subset of EF [55].…”

“…Further, metareviews demonstrated meditation's effectiveness on self-regulation [28,53]. Wisner et al 's [50] review of 11 school-based studies conducted among secondary school students revealed meditation's positive effect on self-regulation and coping abilities. [29] explored four less frequently studied types of practice: Loving-Kindness meditation, Vipassana meditation, Yoga Nidra meditation, and Centering Prayer meditation.…”

A Critique of Sociocultural Values in PBIS

“…Behavioral psychology has shifted from healthy normality to a perspective valuing healthy abnormality; and as such, has systematically identified and empirically investigated acceptance and mindfulness-based theoretical practices and applications (e.g., Hayes et al 1999Hayes et al , 2006Hayes 2004;Baer 2003). Use of acceptance and mindfulness-based applications and practices have been demonstrated as effective within primary education settings (e.g., Barnes et al 2004;Rosaen and Benn 2006;Wisner 2010). For example, acceptance and mindfulness interventions for children have resulted in positive effects on student self-esteem and self-acceptance (Broderick and Metz 2009), teacher reports of student externalizing behaviors (Schonert-Reichl and Lawlor 2010), and overall increases in student attending during class activities (Wilson and Dixon 2010).…”