[Promoting Self-Regulation of Adolescents in School Through Mindfulness]

Promoting Self-Regulation of Adolescents in School Through Mindfulness. Evaluation of the Mindfulness Training "8-sam" Mindfulness describes the psychological process of purposely bringing one's attention to the present experiences with an accepting, non-judgmental attitude. As such, it has attracted increasing interest in educational institutions. The present study aims to evaluate a mindfulness training for adolescents in a German high school. For this purpose, the program "8-sam" has been developed. Feasibility, acceptance and efficacy of this four-week training were examined in a sample of 48 ninth-grade students. Self-ratings of mindfulness, chronic stress, emotion regulation and health, as well as behavioral measures of attention and mind-wandering of the intervention group (n = 22) were compared to the wait control group (n = 24) before, immediately and 6 weeks after the training. As indicated by self-designed evaluation questionnaires, the training proved to be well accepted and implementable at school. The intervention group showed less mind-wandering after the training than the control group. The findings offer implications for future research and the application of mindfulness trainings in schools. Implementing mindfulness in the daily school routine promises to support self-regulatory processes and thus, strengthen the resilience of children and adolescents.

KEYWORDS: Achtsamkeit; Aufmerksamkeit; Schule; Selbstregulation; Stressbewältigung; attention; mindfulness; school; self-regulation; stress prevention.

PMID: 32615895 DOI: 10.13109/prkk.2020.69.4.321