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Description
Mindfulness has been associated with many benefits including emotion regulation and focused attention. The current study is a process evaluation regarding the implementation of the Mindful School’s 8-week mindfulness curriculum in a kindergarten classroom conducted through teacher action research. The curriculum was implemented with 26 kindergarteners in a public elementary school in in southern California. The purpose of the study was to examine the feasibility of implementing this curriculum in a public kindergarten school, student satisfaction and engagement, and the impact the program. The study hypothesized that increased self-regulation and focused attention would evident after the mindfulness intervention compared to baseline. Results indicated that the students had significant decreases in attention and behavior challenges from baseline to post intervention in the following Child Behavioral Checklist scale scores: emotionally reactive, anxious depressed, attention problems, and aggressive behavior. The qualitative findings also suggested that the students were able to utilize the strategies they practiced in the mindfulness curriculum in everyday life. They would remind one another to take 3 mindful breaths, and rather than crying because of missing their mom or dad they would talk about sending kind thoughts to family members they were missing. The children reported being highly satisfied with mindfulness activities, and teacher observations reflected high levels of engagement. These results have implications for integrating mindfulness programs into kindergarten classrooms to teach strategies to deal with stress and promote emotion and attention regulation as early as kindergarten.
