Gauging Mindfulness in Children and Youth: School‐based Applications

Abstract

Mindfulness is linked to a variety of social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral well-being indicators in youth. Given increased interest among researchers and practitioners, high-quality instruments are needed to effectively measure the construct in children, youth, and young adults, especially in the context of mindfulness-based interventions conducted in school settings. Presented is a review of published and nonpublished measurement studies of mindfulness in school-aged youth. An overview of three survey instruments is provided, along with each instrument's development procedures, associated psychometric properties, and applications. Potential theoretical and applied uses of these measures in school-based settings are discussed. C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Encouraged by cross-agency federal initiatives, state and local educators are increasingly interested in school supports that reduce the likelihood of students being excluded from school due to academic, behavioral, and/or emotional failure. A relatively recent addition to discourse around preventing school exclusion and failure, mindfulness is gaining popularity for its potential to improve students' social, emotional, behavioral, and learning-related cognitive control, thereby improving academic outcomes.

Prevalence of mindfulness literature and intervention in school psychology journals from 2006 to 2016

“…Another important and less studied area of future research should consist of the mindfulness processes that contribute to the improvement of a specific outcome. In a recent article (Eklund, O'Malley, & Meyer, ), the authors found in their review of mindfulness assessment measures that few program‐evaluation studies used assessments that measured mindfulness constructs. This is consistent with the current study's findings.…”

Cultivating Mindfulness in Schools to Promote Well-Being

“…To understand the true strength of MBI evidence with youth, it is important to recognize how mindfulness is typically measured and how conclusions from mindfulness studies depend, in part, on the particular instrument chosen to assess the construct. Although an in-depth analysis of available instruments is beyond this chapter's scope, we highlight features of several trait mindfulness measures to provide interested readers a starting point to seek information about their theoretical and psychometric strengths and weaknesses (see Eklund et al, 2017;Grossman, 2011;Goodman et al, 2017). The previous edition of this chapter (Renshaw & O'Malley, 2014) identified and discussed two primary trait mindfulness surveys: the adolescent version of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS-A) and the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM).…”

Mindfulness-Based Intervention in School Psychology

“…Only by monitoring both types of outcomes will practitioners be able to infer that changes in student behavior (or the lack thereof) are likely a function (or not) of the acquisition of mindfulness skills. Reviews of available measures for assessing youths' mindfulness can be found in Eklund et al (2017) and Goodman et al (2017). Initial efforts are also underway to develop mindfulness measures that are specific to the school context (e.g., Frank et al 2016;Renshaw 2017), but further studies supporting the use of these instruments are necessary before they can be considered empirically validated for progress monitoring purposes.…”