Effects of Mindful Awareness Practices on Executive Functions in Elementary School Children

A school-based program of mindful awareness practices (MAPs) was evaluated in a randomized control study of 64 second- and third-grade children ages 7-9 years. The program was delivered for 30 minutes, twice per week, for 8 weeks. Teachers and parents completed questionnaires assessing children'...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied school psychology 2010-01, Vol.26 (1), p.70-95
Main Authors: Flook, Lisa, Smalley, Susan L., Kitil, M. Jennifer, Galla, Brian M., Kaiser-Greenland, Susan, Locke, Jill, Ishijima, Eric, Kasari, Connie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior Problems
behavioral regulation
Children
Cognitive Processes
Control Groups
education
Elementary School Students
executive control
Executive function
intervention
Metacognition
mindfulness
Multivariate Analysis
Parent Attitudes
Parent Reports
Parents
Questionnaires
Regulation
Self Control
Teacher Attitudes
Teachers
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Summary:A school-based program of mindful awareness practices (MAPs) was evaluated in a randomized control study of 64 second- and third-grade children ages 7-9 years. The program was delivered for 30 minutes, twice per week, for 8 weeks. Teachers and parents completed questionnaires assessing children's executive function immediately before and following the 8-week period. Multivariate analysis of covariance on teacher and parent reports of executive function (EF) indicated an interaction effect between baseline EF score and group status on posttest EF. That is, children in the MAPs group who were less well regulated showed greater improvement in EF compared with controls. Specifically, those children starting out with poor EF who went through the MAPs training showed gains in behavioral regulation, metacognition, and overall global executive control. These results indicate a stronger effect of MAPs on children with executive function difficulties. The finding that both teachers and parents reported changes suggests that improvements in children's behavioral regulation generalized across settings. Future work is warranted using neurocognitive tasks of executive functions, behavioral observation, and multiple classroom samples to replicate and extend these preliminary findings.
ISSN:1537-7903
1537-7911
DOI:10.1080/15377900903379125