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A Systematic Review of Mindfulness-Based School Interventions on Social Emotional Outcomes with Adolescents

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Abstract

Background

Adolescence is a critical period for social emotional development. The need to focus on social emotional competencies is exacerbated by the COVID 19 pandemic.

Objective

This systematic review paper provides a collective account of mindfulness interventions conducted exclusively with adolescent students in an educational setting (mean age 11 to 18) with the sole focus on social emotional and behavioral competencies primarily as outlined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (Safe and sound: an educational leader’s guide to evidence-based social and emotional learning programs, Author, Chicago, IL, 2003, 2011).

Method

Mindfulness literature in the past 15 years, i.e., Jan 2008–Feb 2023 was reviewed. Additionally, the type of intervention implemented, dosage, delivery, measures used, and targets of intervention were examined. All the articles were also assessed for their methodological quality using the EPHPP quality assessment tool for quantitative studies (Effective Public Health Practice Project in Quality assessment tool for quantitative studies, Effective Public Health Practice Project, Hamilton, ON, 1998. https://merst.ca/ephpp/).

Results

With less than one third of the 30 included studies rated as strong, there appears to be moderate evidence for the effectiveness of MBIs on adolescent social emotional competencies. Overall, there appears to be mixed evidence for the effectiveness of MBIs on adolescents’ self-awareness, social awareness, social skills, with relatively more consistent evidence that MBIs positively impact their self-management (e.g., emotional regulation). We classify broader characteristics of the MBIs that could help explain some of the differences in effectiveness into three categories: intervention implementation related (e.g., dosage), method related (e.g., psychometric properties), and participant related (e.g., age and gender).

Conclusion

Future work on MBIs in schools needs to consider the quality of and factors known to impact effective implementation and resultant social emotional outcomes.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Monica Lu for auditing the data and assisting in the reliability process. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Manisha Nagpal.

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  1. Duquesne University, 600 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA, 15282, USA

    Manisha Nagpal

  2. The Ohio State University, 29 W. Woodruff Ave., Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Kisha Radliff

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Nagpal, M., Radliff, K. A Systematic Review of Mindfulness-Based School Interventions on Social Emotional Outcomes with Adolescents. Child Youth Care Forum 53, 563–610 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-023-09783-4

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