Does mindfulness training work for young people?

Does mindfulness training work for young people?
A meta-analysis published in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry aims to establish the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for children.
 
Darren Dunning and colleagues carried out a systematic literature search of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of MBIs conducted up to October 2017. Thirty-three studies (3,666 children, ages 18 years or younger) were included in the meta-analysis, with outcome measures categorized into cognitive, behavioral, and emotional. In addition, a separate meta-analysis was completed for 17 RCTs (1,762 children) that had an active control condition (i.e., something else that might be expected to benefit participants, but did not include mindfulness).
 
Across all RCTs, the researchers found small positive effects of MBIs, compared with control groups, for all measures (overall effect size = +0.19). In particular, MBIs led to greater improvements for mindfulness (effect size = +0.24), executive functions (effect size = +0.30), and attention (effect size = +0.13). However, for the RCTs with active control groups, children who completed an MBI improved significantly more than those in the active control groups on outcomes of mindfulness (effect size = +0.42), depression (effect size = +0.47), and anxiety/stress (effect size = +0.18) only.

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