NCT06561373

Effects of Mindfulness and Yoga on Preschool Students' Emotional Regulation, Behavior, and Social Participation

Mindfulness-Based Intervention: Effects on Emotional Regulation, Behavior, and Social Participation for Preschool Students

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Elizabethtown College · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 4 Years – 6 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if mindfulness and yoga can improve attention, problem-solving, memory, emotional awareness, and impulsivity in preschoolers. The main questions it aims to answer are: Can a 30-minute, once-a-week mindfulness and yoga program (Calm \& Alert) over seven weeks in preschool classrooms increase emotional regulation during the school day? Can a 30-minute, once-a-week mindfulness and yoga program decrease negative behavioral incidences during the school day? Can a 30-minute, once-a-week mindfulness and yoga program increase prosocial behaviors like caring, sharing, and perspective-taking during the school day? Researchers will compare the effects of students who participated in the mindfulness and yoga program to students in classrooms who did not receive the program. Student participants will be asked to complete a short self-regulation task test before and after the mindfulness program. Teachers will rate the students on their prosocial behavior before and after the mindfulness program and record negative behavioral incidents over the study period.

Detailed description

The current study design is a quasi-experimental pretest post-study design with a control group. Three schools with a total of four preschool classrooms will participate in this study. Overall, the present research study aims to add to the knowledge base of the benefits of mindfulness and yoga in schools for young children. This will include investigating the effect of mindfulness on children's attention, problem-solving, memory, emotional awareness, and impulsivity. For seven weeks, the intervention group will receive the Calm \& Alert mindfulness intervention alongside the rest of their class involving one session per week of about 30 minutes of yoga and mindfulness. The control group will conduct business as usual and receive the yoga and mindfulness intervention after the study concludes. The intervention will be provided by the principal investigator who is a certified mindfulness-informed professional and registered yoga teacher - 200 hours. It is hypothesized that implementing a 30-minute, once-a-week mindfulness program over seven weeks in preschool classrooms will increase emotional regulation, decrease negative behavioral incidents, and increase prosocial behaviors during the school day.

Conditions

• Prosocial Behavior
• Self Regulation
• Impulsive Behavior

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Calm & Alert yoga and mindfulness	The Calm \& Alert protocol is multisensorial, with successive opportunities to practice the explicit concepts taught throughout the lessons using yoga and mindfulness-techniques. Each class has a similar structure of songs, breathing, warm-ups, yoga poses, mindful games, and rest involving meditation with child-friendly language. The study includes the recommended materials of a Hoberman sphere (breathing ball), chime, mind/body/breath icons, two small mason jars (one with mud and one with clear water), yoga mats for students, pictures of feelings (happy, sad, angry, scared, surprised, disgusted), and an on/off switch.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-08-23
• Primary completion: 2024-11-11
• Completion: 2024-11-11
• First posted: 2024-08-20
• Last updated: 2024-08-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States