Mindfulness and yoga for elementary students - the research

Mindfulness and yoga for elementary students
A randomized controlled trial, published in Psychology Research and Behavior Management, assesses the benefits of introducing yoga and mindfulness into elementary classrooms.
 
Alessandra N. Bazzano and colleagues worked with a public school in New Orleans to add mindfulness and yoga to the school's existing empathy-based program for students needing extra support. Third grade students were screened for symptoms of anxiety (using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders scale), and were then randomly split into an intervention group (n=20) and a control group (n=32). Students in the intervention group participated in a yoga and mindfulness program for eight weeks, while the control group received the standard care, which included counseling and activities from a school social worker. All students filled out questionnaires to measure quality of life and life satisfaction across a number of different variables before, during, and after the treatment period.
 
Students in the intervention group showed a significantly greater improvement in psychosocial and emotional quality of life compared with students who received standard care.
 
The researchers acknowledge that while this study was small, and more research is needed, introducing students to yoga and mindfulness may help to alleviate anxious feelings experienced in third grade due to their work becoming more complex, and learning how to handle these pressures sooner, rather than later, may promote healthy skills throughout life.

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