Listen to the Children: Elementary School Students' Perspectives on a Mindfulness Intervention

Abstract

In recent years, mindfulness-based practices in grade schools have been associated with students’ improved cognitive skills and general classroom behavior. In the majority of studies, however, only teacher and parent feedback are elicited, omitting a considerably significant voice – that of the students. Our study aims to fill this gap by exploring student opinions and perceptions regarding the implementation of a classroom-based mindfulness program. Elementary school students (N = 51) took part in teacher-facilitated mindfulness activities which were incorporated into their daily classroom routines. Over the course of the 8-week intervention period, students participated in focus groups about their perceptions of the program. Through qualitative content analysis, two major findings emerged from the focus group data: student opinions about the mindfulness program varied substantially and the mindfulness activities were not always liked and enjoyed. Critically, if students do not enjoy classroom-based mindfulness programs, they may be less motivated to engage in mindful activities and in turn may not experience the benefits that mindfulness has to offer. To maximize student engagement with mindfulness while addressing their concerns, the following recommendations are made: A balance between the entertaining and educational aspects of the program, flexible program delivery, and encouraging students to pursue mindful living outside of the classroom. This research is important to educational and clinical practitioners as student insight will benefit the development and modification of classroom-based mindfulness programs to ensure that students are better able to engage with and benefit from these programs.

Exploring the Benefits of an Arts-Based Mindfulness Group Intervention for Youth Experiencing Challenges in Schooling

“…However, as Jackson et al (2010) reported, self-report measures provide a reading of resilience at a particular point in time that could be affected by events occurring in the youth’s life at that moment. Certainly, the mixed methods approach enabled us to more fully understand the young people’s experiences of the intervention, and their voices are crucial in helping us understand the types of MBIs that can provide benefits for them (D'Alessandro et al, 2022).…”

“…The goals of MBIs usually include becoming more aware of one’s moment-to-moment stream of consciousness and to accept these experiences without judgment. There is emphasis on improving attention and empathy, as well as building emotion regulation and self-awareness (D'Alessandro et al, 2022). MBIs with young people show a wide range of promising benefits ranging from emotion regulation (Schussler et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2022), enhancing executive functioning (Lu et al, 2021), lowering feelings of anxiety (Borquist-Conlon et al, 2019; Moyes et al, 2022), and improving social competence, emotional resilience (Culang et al, 2021), mood, and relationships (Dai et al, 2022; Van Vliet et al, 2017).…”

Shared Meditation Involving Cancer Patients, Health Professionals and Third Persons: Perceptions of Participants Through a Focus Group Study

“…The perception of participants is a key factor in validating integrative approaches, which are difficult to assess with quantitative tools, especially in the context of an innovative hypothesis for which there are no dedicated standardized validated questionnaires. Mindfulness is a subtle approach for which focus group analysis seems relevant, although a few qualitative studies have been conducted to date, for example, in online mindfulness, 28 , 29 mindfulness at school, 30 in surgeons, 31 , 32 and schizophrenic patients. 33 The qualitative approach was found to be effective to identify important areas for further studies in people with cancer and to test the feasibility and acceptability of mindfulness-based interventions.…”

Mindfulness and Academic Performance: A Literature Review

“…Mindfulness has been studied in different areas, such as its application in virtual reality for promoting mindfulness practice, its influence on relationship satisfaction among couples, its involvement in programs for adolescents, and its efficacy in university students (Tan, 2015;Navarro-Haro et al, 2017;Chung et al, 2022;D'Alessandro et al, 2022). In addition, mindfulness has been examined in the context of physical activity, stress reduction, depressive symptoms, and self-injury involvement (Cruz, 2015;Kennedy & Resnick, 2015;Carletto et al, 2016;Feliu-Soler et al, 2016;Dash et al, 2022).…”