Anxietyanddepressionin children and teenagers are on the rise and early preventative care is essential to helping their mental well-being.
Children’s mental well-being in the study focuses on the risk of depression and levels of emotional functioning.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a practice that involves being aware of the present moment.
Verywell / Madelyn Goodnight
What Does the Research Say?
A new study observed mental well-being in about 8,400 students ages 11 to 16.
This study found that mindfulness improved childrens emotional state,resilience, and outlook.
Teachers who are well-versed in mindfulness are able to implement mindfulness practices in their classrooms.
School climate is important to a childs mental health, and with improved teachers well-being comes better classroom environments.
The Good News Is…
While it might not be a cure-all or final solution, mindfulness still has a lot of benefits.
It can improve attention, reduce antisocial behavior, and help children and adolescents resolve conflicts on their own.
What Do Experts Say?
I believe we can extrapolate that mindfulness taught in a classroom setting does not work for teenagers.
I think a big reason why the training might not have worked in this context is peer pressure.
Does Mindfulness Work?
Their risk of depression was not lower, and their emotional functioning did not improve.
Younger adolescents may not have the ability to self-regulate their emotions or apply mindfulness skills in their everyday lives.
The older adolescents observed in the study who had mental health needs did not benefit from mindfulness.
This is not to say that the benefits of mindfulness on mental health are completely lost.
So What Works?
More frequent training or training from more highly trained teachers can also make mindfulness more effective.
There are several things that can benefit children’smental health that arent mindfulness.
Having asafe spaceand a trusted support system can be life-changing for some children and teens.
And if needed,finding the right mental health professionalto help with mental health struggles is essential.
These are not ‘wrong’ emotions, and we’re all equipped with them by default for a reason.
Suppressing certain emotions like anger, frustration, fear, or sadness is a recipe for disaster.
These are not wrong emotions, and were all equipped with them by default for a reason.
Teaching a child that its not okay to be angry will only foster further frustration.
2022;25(3):117-124. doi:10.1136/ebmental-2022-300439
