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

NCT ID: NCT06561373

Last Updated: 2024-08-20

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 40 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-08-23
• Study Completion Date: 2024-11-11

Brief 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

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Calm and Alert Mindfulness and Yoga Intervention

The Calm \& Alert intervention uses mind, body, and breath to foster resiliency and self-regulation in students. This mindfulness-based intervention, which also incorporates yoga movements, aims to develop skills in self-awareness, self-regulation, safety, focus, attention, active listening, following directions, respect, and positive thinking (McGlauflin, 2018). The program consisted of seven lessons lasting approximately 20-30 minutes, each conducted once a week over seven consecutive weeks.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Calm & Alert yoga and mindfulness

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

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.

Control Group

This is a wait-list control group that consists of students in classrooms who will receive business-as-usual programming/instruction during the study period.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

yoga and mindfulness; mindfulness-based intervention

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• are preschoolers with a filled out and returned parental/caregiver consent form who fall within the four to six-year-old age range, stay within a similar developmental age range, and attend five out of the seven sessions.

Exclusion Criteria

-

• Minimum Eligible Age: 4 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 6 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Elizabethtown College

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Helen Russell

Dr. Helen Russell, pp-OTD

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Helen C Russell, doctorate

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Elizabethtown College

Ella Longenecker, Bachelor

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Elizabethtown College

Samantha Deiaco, Bachelor

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Elizabethtown College

Ellysa Herr, Bachelor

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Elizabethtown College

Sarah Lloyd, Bachelor

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Elizabethtown College

Locations

Elizabethtown College

Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, United States

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Helen C Russell, doctorate

Role: CONTACT

helen.c.c.russell@gmail.com

2078444850

Facility Contacts

Nancy Carlson, PhD

Role: primary

carlsona@etown.edu

717-361-1174

Judy Ericksen, PhD

Role: backup

ericksenj@etown.edu

717-361-4751

References

Carro N, D'Adamo P, Lozada M. A School Intervention Helps Decrease Daily Stress While Enhancing Social Integration in Children. Behav Med. 2021 Jul-Sep;47(3):251-258. doi: 10.1080/08964289.2020.1738319. Epub 2020 Apr 10.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 32275198 (View on PubMed)

Goodman, R. (1997). Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t00540-000

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

McClelland, M. M., Cameron, C., Bowles, R., & Geldhof, G. (2018). Developing a measure of self-regulation for at-risk children. U.S. Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

McGlauflin, H. (2018). Calm & Alert: Yoga and mindfulness practices to teach self-regulation and social skills to children (1st ed.). PESI Publishing & Media.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

Rashedi RN, Rowe SE, Thompson RA, Solari EJ, Schonert-Reichl KA. A Yoga Intervention for Young Children: Self-Regulation and Emotion Regulation. J Child Fam Stud. 2021;30(8):2028-2041. doi: 10.1007/s10826-021-01992-6. Epub 2021 Jun 9.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 34127901 (View on PubMed)

Sciutto MJ, Veres DA, Marinstein TL, Bailey BF, Cehelyk SK. Effects of a School-Based Mindfulness Program for Young Children. J Child Fam Stud. 2021;30(6):1516-1527. doi: 10.1007/s10826-021-01955-x. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 33875914 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

2185448-1

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id