NCT06101225

Effects of a Relaxation and Guided Imagery Intervention in School Context

RCT of the Effects of a Relaxation, Guided Imagery Intervention and Socioemotional Learning on the Psychophysiological Well-being, Socioemotional Regulation, Cognitive and Academic Development of Children in School

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 240 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 7 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Specific aims - To test the effects of a relaxation and guided imagery intervention with socioemotional learning content on a range of socioemotional, physiological, cognitive and academic outcomes of school-aged children, measured through self-reports, neuropsychological and physiological measures, as well as teachers and parent's reports.

Detailed description

Background: Mental imagery has long been used in psychological therapies, but only recently has research started to provide a relevant scientific basis. Imagery interventions are inexpensive and have a body of research supporting their effectiveness on behavior change, the promotion of adaptive health outcomes, the reduction of anxiety and adherence to medical interventions in adults and children. However, literature on the relaxation and guided imagery interventions benefits for children in elementary school context is very scarce. This Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) aims to contribute to the body of research by implementing and testing the benefits of an intervention program "MindRegulation" composed of relaxation, instructions for body posture, and guided imagery with socioemotional learning (SEL), conveying adaptive beliefs about oneself, the relationships with others and the environment. Method: The MindRegulation intervention will be developed in the classroom for 15 minutes before learning activities, three times per week, for five months, and its effects will be measured on a range of emotional, physiologic, and cognitive outcomes. Twelve classes will be randomly distributed into three conditions: (a) relaxation and guided imagery, (b) just relaxation, and (c) waitlist control. The RCT includes four data collection times: pretest, intermediate, posttest, and a six-month follow-up. The sample comprises 240 students, third and fourth graders from elementary school, between 8 and 11 years old. The variables measured in the study are: well-being, affect, anxiety, emotional regulation, socioemotional competencies, attention and processing speed, physiologic responses of arousal, stress, and well-being, and perceived benefits of the intervention. The psychometric properties of the subjective measures show they are adequate for the study population and language, except for the self-esteem scale that will be validated to the study target population. Discussion: Improvements on the children's well-being, socioemotional regulation, cognitive function, physiologic activity and academic performance are expected after five months of MindRegulation intervention and changes on physiologic activity are expected during each MindRegulation session. Mediation effects are expected for emotional regulation, well-being and anxiety variables, from participating in the intervention in the outcome variables such as socioemotional competence, cognitive function and academic performance. Additionally, well-being and anxiety levels at pretest are expected to moderate the intervention effects.

Conditions

• Mental Health Wellness 1
• Positive and Negative Affect
• Social Skills
• Happiness
• Self Esteem
• Self-Regulation, Emotion
• Anxiety
• Cognitive Change
• Heart Rate Variability
• Stress, Psychological
• Physical Activity

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	MindRegulation Intervention	The intervention is developed in class for 15 minutes before learning activities, three times per week, for five months - 57 sessions. Six different scripts with socioemotional learning content (based on CASEL framework) for each of the three themes will be applied.
OTHER	Relaxation	The relaxation condition will be developed in the same way as in RegularMente intervention, but without the guided imagery with SEL component. Relaxation exercises applied in class 15 minutes before learning activities, three times per week, for five months - in a total of 57 sessions.
OTHER	Waiting List Control Group	No Intervention.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-10-09
• Primary completion: 2025-07-30
• Completion: 2026-06-30
• First posted: 2023-10-26
• Last updated: 2023-11-07

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Portugal