The effect of universal school-based mindfulness on anhedonia and emotional distress and its underlying mechanisms: A cluster randomised controlled trial via experience sampling in secondary schools

Bogaert, Liesbeth; Van der Gucht, Katleen; Kuppens, Peter; Kock, Merle; Schreuder, Marieke J.; Kuyken, Willem; Raes, Filip

doi:10.1016/j.brat.2023.104405

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…Their literature search spanned up to January 2022, and so the dataset does not include RCTs whose results were made available during much of 2022 or 2023 (except for the MYRIAD Project). That said, our results are consistent with findings from at least two RCTs published after January 2022, neither of which found significant effects of mindfulness on adolescents' mental health compared to controls (Bazzano et al, 2022 ; Bogaert et al, 2023 ). Moreover, our reanalysis included a fairly large number of studies and participants, so we would not expect our conclusions to change dramatically with the addition of a small number of new studies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Adolescents do not benefit from universal school-based mindfulness interventions: a reanalysis of Dunning et al. (2022)

Galla,

Karanam,

Pelakh

et al. 2024

Front. Psychol.

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Are universal school-based mindfulness interventions an effective way to reduce risk for mental disorders and improve adolescents' lives? To answer this question, we reanalyzed data from Dunning et al.'s (2022) meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of mindfulness interventions delivered to children and adolescents. Though Dunning et al. (2022) reported some benefits of universal mindfulness interventions, their analysis did not examine adolescents separately from children. Consequently, their conclusions may not entirely reflect the effectiveness of universal mindfulness interventions specifically for adolescents, a developmental period when mental disorders are known to increase. Using their open-access data tables, we tested impacts of 22 randomized controlled trials (N = 16,558) on eight outcome categories—anxiety/stress, attention, depression, executive functioning, mindfulness, negative behavior, social behavior, and wellbeing—at immediate post-test and longest follow-up. Our reanalysis shows that when compared to passive controls, mindfulness interventions significantly reduced trait mindfulness (d = −0.10). When compared to active controls, mindfulness interventions significantly improved anxiety/stress (d = 0.17) and wellbeing (d = 0.10). When compared to all controls combined, mindfulness interventions did not significantly improve any outcome (ds = 0.01 to 0.26). No effects of mindfulness interventions were observed at follow-up assessment. Overall, results of our analysis cast doubt about the value of existing school-based mindfulness interventions as a universal prevention strategy for adolescents.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Adolescents do not benefit from universal school-based mindfulness interventions: a reanalysis of Dunning et al. (2022)

Galla,

Karanam,

Pelakh

et al. 2024

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Their literature search spanned up to January 2022, and so the dataset does not include RCTs whose results were made available during much of 2022 or 2023 (except for the MYRIAD Project). That said, our results are consistent with findings from at least two RCTs published after January 2022, neither of which found significant effects of mindfulness on adolescents' mental health compared to controls (Bazzano et al, 2022;Bogaert et al, 2023). Moreover, our reanalysis included a fairly large number of studies and participants, so we would not expect our conclusions to change dramatically with the addition of a small number of new studies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Adolescents Do Not Benefit from Universal School-based Mindfulness Interventions: A Reanalysis of Dunning et al. (2022)

Galla,

Karanam,

Pelakh

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Are universal school-based mindfulness interventions an effective way to reduce risk for mental disorders and improve adolescents’ lives? To answer this question, we reanalyzed data from Dunning et al.’s (2022) meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of mindfulness interventions delivered to children and adolescents. Though Dunning et al. reported some benefits of universal mindfulness interventions, their analysis did not examine adolescents separately from children. Consequently, their conclusions may not entirely reflect the effectiveness of universal mindfulness interventions specifically for adolescents, a developmental period when mental disorders are known to increase. Using their publicly available data, we tested impacts of 22 randomized controlled trials (N = 16,558) on seven outcome categories—anxiety/stress, depression, executive functioning, mindfulness, negative behavior, social behavior, and well-being—at immediate post-test and longest follow-up. Our reanalysis shows that when compared to passive controls, mindfulness interventions significantly reduced trait mindfulness (d = -.10). When compared to active controls, mindfulness interventions significantly improved anxiety/stress (d = .17) and well-being (d = .10). When compared to all controls combined, mindfulness interventions did not significantly improve any outcome (ds = .01 to .26). No effects of mindfulness interventions were observed at follow-up assessment. Overall, results of our analysis cast doubt about the value of existing school-based mindfulness interventions as a universal prevention strategy for adolescents.

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“…Results from the two large-scale RCTs revealed no overall benefit of mindfulness training on primary outcomes of depressive symptoms or social-emotional functioning. Null effects on mental health have been reported in multiple other RCTs with smaller convenience samples (Bogaert et al, 2023;Dunning, Ahmed, et al, 2022;Frank et al, 2021;Johnson et al, 2016Johnson et al, , 2017. Each of these trials reported low engagement in meditation, except in where participants were paid for completing home practices.…”

Section: Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivation Will Forever Restrict the Scalability of Universal School-based Mindfulness Interventions for Adolescents

Galla¹

2023

Preprint

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In this essay, I argue that motivation is an insurmountable obstacle to the scalability and efficacy of universal school-based mindfulness interventions for adolescents. Mindfulness interventions rely exclusively on a single and demanding health behavior—namely, meditation—to cultivate psychosocial skills. But unlike traditional mindfulness interventions delivered in clinics to self-selected adults who are motivated to manage personal problems, universal school-based mindfulness interventions are delivered to all adolescents regardless of their desire to meditate. Using data from 20 randomized controlled trials of universal school-based mindfulness interventions, I show that adolescents consistently report low engagement in meditation and that universal interventions have so far failed to improve depression, stress and anxiety, executive function, or even mindfulness itself. I propose that we remove meditation from universal mindfulness interventions and focus them instead on instilling contemplative viewpoints conducive to flourishing, and that we only teach the skill of mindfulness to adolescents who want to meditate.

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The effect of universal school-based mindfulness on anhedonia and emotional distress and its underlying mechanisms: A cluster randomised controlled trial via experience sampling in secondary schools

Cited by 6 publications

References 105 publications

Adolescents do not benefit from universal school-based mindfulness interventions: a reanalysis of Dunning et al. (2022)

Adolescents do not benefit from universal school-based mindfulness interventions: a reanalysis of Dunning et al. (2022)

Adolescents Do Not Benefit from Universal School-based Mindfulness Interventions: A Reanalysis of Dunning et al. (2022)

Motivation Will Forever Restrict the Scalability of Universal School-based Mindfulness Interventions for Adolescents

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