Healthy learning mind — effectiveness of a mindfulness program on mental health compared to a relaxation program and teaching as usual in schools : a cluster-randomised controlled trial
Volanen, S.-M.; Lassander, M.; Hankonen, N.; Santalahti, P.; Hintsanen, M.; Simonsen, N.; Raevuori, A.; Mullola, S.; Vahlberg, T.; But, A.; Suominen, S. (2019-08-28)
S.-M. Volanen, M. Lassander, N. Hankonen, P. Santalahti, M. Hintsanen, N. Simonsen, A. Raevuori, S. Mullola, T. Vahlberg, A. But, S. Suominen, Healthy learning mind – Effectiveness of a mindfulness program on mental health compared to a relaxation program and teaching as usual in schools: A cluster-randomised controlled trial, Journal of Affective Disorders, Volume 260, 2020, Pages 660-669, ISSN 0165-0327, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.08.087
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2020040110049
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
Background: Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) have shown promising effects on mental health among children and adolescents, but high-quality studies examining the topic are lacking. The present study assessed the effects of MBI on mental health in school-setting in an extensive randomised controlled trial.
Methods: Finnish school children and adolescents (N = 3519), aged 12–15 years (6th to 8th graders), from 56 schools were randomized into a 9 week MBI group, and control groups with a relaxation program or teaching as usual. The primary outcomes were resilience, socio-emotional functioning, and depressive symptoms at baseline, at completion of the programs at 9 weeks (T9), and at follow-up at 26 weeks (T26).
Results: Overall, mindfulness did not show more beneficial effects on the primary outcomes compared to the controls except for resilience for which a positive intervention effect was found at T9 in all participants (β=1.18, SE 0.57, p = 0.04) as compared to the relaxation group. In addition, in gender and grade related analyses, MBI lowered depressive symptoms in girls at T26 (β=−0.49, SE 0.21, p = 0.02) and improved socio-emotional functioning at T9 (β=−1.37, SE 0.69, p = 0.049) and at T26 (β=−1.71, SE 0.73, p = 0.02) among 7th graders as compared to relaxation.
Conclusions: A short 9-week MBI in school-setting provides slight benefits over a relaxation program and teaching as usual. Future research should investigate whether embedding regular mindfulness-based practice in curriculums could intensify the effects.
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