'Mindfulness', the process of learning to become more aware of our ongoing experiences, increases well-being in adolescent boys, a new study reports.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge analyzed 155 boys from two independent UK schools, Tonbridge and Hampton, before and after a four-week crash course in mindfulness. After the trial period, the 14 and 15 year-old boys were found to have increased well-being, defined as the combination of feeling good (including positive emotions such as happiness, contentment, interest and affection) and functioning well.
Professor Felicia Huppert of the Well-being Institute at the University of Cambridge said: "More and more we are realising the importance of supporting the overall mental health of children. Our study demonstrates that this type of training improves well-being in adolescents and that the more they practice, the greater the benefits. Importantly, many of the students genuinely enjoyed the exercises and said they intended to continue them -- a good sign that many children would be receptive to this type of intervention.
"Another significant aspect of this study is that adolescents who suffered from higher levels of anxiety were the ones who benefitted most from the training."
The success of this initial study has recently led to the creation of an exciting 8 week mindfulness curriculum for schools in both the state and private sectors. This new curriculum, which includes games and video clips, should have even greater benefits.
(More information by clicking HERE)
Another link: mindfulnessinschool
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Thursday 2 September 2010
Mindfulness Meditation Increases Well-Being in Adolescent Boys
Posted by
Peter Musham
Tags:
adolescents,
anxiety,
happiness,
health,
mindfulness,
positive psychology
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We are hoping to move our popular SDS Delegate Debate into this blogging format in the future and looking forward to lively discussions here with you. We are planning to start with publishing already existing SDS Delegate Debates — with comments received from you. Then we'll move to the current news as well as will run new delegate debates there.
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Another useful tool that SDS Blog provides us with is availability of Polls that enable us to find out your views about various subjects. Polls are located on the left panel of the page and updated regularly. Please feel free to vote. You can see the results of each poll by clicking the button "Results".
If you wish to register — nothing can be easier — you just open a Google account — most of you, surely, already use one.
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The blog is moderated — mainly to protect you and other readers from spam and irrelevant comments.
All posts are tagged — hopefully it'll help you to find your way around there.
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Peter,
ReplyDeleteHear Hear ! I am passionate about childrens well-being and think that positive psychologies really do need to be embedded in the school curriculum from primary stage, right through the curriculum. I have coached senior management teachers in work performance and well-being, to help bring in coaching and positive psychologies, in the workplace and curriculum. I am passionate about it. There is the potential to grow a much healthier generation of adults and it needs to be grasped, by improving well-being now, not waiting until someone is so unwell that they can access a service, which may also stigmatise them, because it is placed under the umbrella of mental health.(without wishing to offend colleagues in these teams) Extending this to families, takes it a step further and perhaps these chidren will help their parents and siblings to appreciate that simple changes can make a huge difference. Mindfulness is so important in a society that has developed a very skewed vision of what makes us happy - this creates an upward pressure for us older parents, who hasd such a very sdifferent, and in some ways freer childhood, away from modern technologies and into healthier outdoor living pursuits.(well, not always eh !)I remember in my childhood, spending hours collecting pebbles from my parents driveway, scouring beaches for pretty shells, making daisy chains, batting a ball against the wall, jumping up and down on the poggo stick, playing cricket over the green or just walking miles.... it was so uncomplicated !
Its something that our grandparents generation already knew about it, but somehow we strayed so far away from being in the present moment and savouring it !
Wendy