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A Pilot Randomized Trial Evaluating a School-Based Mindfulness Intervention for Ethnic Minority Youth

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Abstract

This study examined the feasibility and efficacy of a 12-week mindfulness intervention in a wait-list controlled trial of 19 Latino-American and Asian-American middle school students with elevated mood symptoms. ANCOVA analyses indicated that immediate treatment was associated with significant reductions in parent-reported externalizing problems at post-treatment and marginally significant reductions in youth-reported internalizing problems. The pooled pre-to-post treatment analyses revealed that mindfulness led to a reduction in parent-reported externalizing problems, youth-reported internalizing problems, and youth-reported use of expressive suppression. Overall, this pilot study offers feasibility and efficacy data for mindfulness-based program as a potential treatment for behavior problems for ethnic minority youth with elevated mood symptoms. Implications of the findings, as well as considerations in engaging low-income ethnic minority families are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary, 180 N. Oakland Ave., Pasadena, CA, 91101, USA

    Joey Fung & Joel Jin

  2. Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Sisi Guo & Anna Lau

  3. Student/Employee Welfare, Alhambra Unified School District, Alhambra, CA, 91803, USA

    Laurel Bear

Authors
  1. Joey Fung
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  2. Sisi Guo
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  3. Joel Jin
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  4. Laurel Bear
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  5. Anna Lau
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joey Fung.

Ethics declarations

Following approval by the Institutional Review Board at University of California, Los Angeles and Fuller Theological Seminary, participants were recruited from two K-8 elementary schools in an urban public school district in the greater Los Angeles area that serves a high proportion of ethnic minority and low-income immigrant families.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Funding

The research described in this paper was supported by the AAPA-APF Okura Mental Health Leadership Foundation Fellowship from the American Psychological Foundation.

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Fung, J., Guo, S., Jin, J. et al. A Pilot Randomized Trial Evaluating a School-Based Mindfulness Intervention for Ethnic Minority Youth. Mindfulness 7, 819–828 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0519-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0519-7

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