New research published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health We investigated the effects of yoga and mindfulness practice on mental health in middle school students. The findings show that anxiety and depressive symptoms may improve after regular yoga and mindfulness practices in her 11- to 14-year-old students. However, these improvements were not statistically significant compared to the control group.
Middle school was never an easy developmental stage. Physical and cognitive changes are changing rapidly towards puberty. These changes change how children think about the world and their relationships with their parents.
Current middle school students are also experiencing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting social development, disrupting home life and increasing anxiety about the future.
Mental health can affect your ability to lead a fulfilling adult life. As a result, many public schools have developed programs that teach practices to improve and protect the mental health of their students. Practices such as mindfulness and yoga are ideal intervention strategies for public schools because they are low cost and easy to implement.
Previous studies have demonstrated the benefits of yoga and mindfulness for elementary and high school students. However, Alessandra Bazzano and colleagues felt that the literature needed robust research to support the use of these interventions at the middle school (ages 11-14) stage.
Bazzano and team partnered with an urban public middle school in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a local nonprofit that specializes in providing free yoga and mindfulness practitioners to schools. Students were divided into eight groups based on the school schedule. Four groups of a total of 42 students received yoga and mindfulness training, with four groups (44 students) serving as controls.
Control group students also receive training after the study is completed. Students in the intervention group were exposed to his eight-week research-backed structured curriculum called Yoga Ed. A typical Yoga Ed lesson included breathing exercises, yoga poses, instruction and relaxation. Throughout the lesson, practitioners emphasized how yoga and breathing can enhance mindfulness, which can be used as a stress reduction tool.
Before and after yoga mindfulness training, students underwent two assessments to examine their mental health. First, participating students completed a revised Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQA) and Screening for Child Anxiety-Related Disorders (SCARED). PHQA measures symptoms of depression and SCARED measures anxiety.
Analysis of the results revealed that students who received the Yoga Ed curriculum had reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. These changes during the 8-week session were not considered statistically significant compared with control students. has been confirmed. Second, depression scores decrease over time in both groups, whereas a much greater increase is seen in the experimental condition group.
Bazzano and colleagues acknowledged some limitations. First, their sample size was relatively small, making firm conclusions dangerous. It can be difficult to replicate your research in the real world.
Despite these concerns, the research team feels their efforts contribute to a body of work that supports this type of intervention for students. [yoga and mindfulness programs]Young people are better able to develop coping skills and techniques to deal with stress and mitigate negative emotional states to protect their future health and developmental trajectory.
“The inability of the study to demonstrate a significant effect is [yoga and mindfulness programs] The change in symptoms may be due to constraints in the intervention’s real-world application,” the researchers added. 19 Justified given the disruption caused by the pandemic, but larger studies are needed to reliably assess the long-term effects of yoga and mindfulness programs in schools. I guess.”
Study, “Effects of Yoga and Mindfulness Interventions on Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Young Adolescents Attending Middle School: A Practical, Community-Based, Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in a Racially Diverse Urban Setting,” by Alessandra Written by Bazano, Yaoyao Sang, Temitop Akintaimhin, Janet Gustadt, Dennis Barrera, and Cody Roy.
