Mindfulness Training Impacts Middle School Teachers’ Emotion Skills and Climate in their Most Stressful Classrooms

• In Event: Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Teachers: Mechanisms of Effect and Teacher Outcomes

Abstract

Teaching is among the most stressful of human service professions (Roeser et al., 2012). Educators who lack the skills to recognize and regulate their emotions may struggle with poorer well-being, classroom management and relationships with students (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). In this study, we examine the impacts of mindfulness training for middle school teachers on their emotion regulation beliefs and skills, as well as how students perceive their teachers’ demeanor and comportment in the classroom. Using the Calm, Clear, Kind (CCK) framework and the Mindfulness-based Emotional Balance program (see Roeser et al., 2022), this study addresses two main research questions on mindfulness training for middle school teachers: (a) Does MT impact their emotional awareness and regulation efficacy beliefs and skills?; and (b) Does MT impact the perceptions students have of the classroom climate?
In a sample of 58 middle school teachers randomized to MT or waitlist control, we used ordinary-least squares regression analyses to assess MT impacts. Controlling for teachers’ sex, years of teaching experience, school type (K-8 vs. 6-8) and baseline measure of each outcome, results showed impacts of MT on teachers’ somatic awareness (b = .26, p < .05) and emotional reappraisal skills (b = .32, p < .05). No significant effects were found for teachers’ emotional efficacy beliefs (b = .22, p = .12); or emotional suppression skills (b = -.02, p = .86).
With regard to students’ perceptions of their classroom climate as calm (rather than reactive), clear (rather than distracted) and kind (rather than coercive), results showed no statistically significant impacts of MT. Students of teachers who received MT did not, as hypothesized, perceive the classroom climates more favorably with reference to their teachers being calm (b = -.08, p = .60), clear (b = -.10, p = .48), or kind (b = -.02, p =.87). Thus, results reveal impacts of MT on proximal psychological outcomes in middle school teachers (e.g. somatic awareness and reappraisal skills), but not necessarily on observable interactions in the classroom with students (e.g. observer reports, student perceptions of teachers and classroom environments – see Roeser et al., 2022). Overall, results of regressions showed that the models accounted for 25-42% of the variance in the outcome measures.
These results may be interpreted in a few ways. First, we corroborated a body of research showing the important positive impacts of MT on teachers’ emotional awareness and regulation skills. With regard to changes in classroom climate as perceived by students, the program did not show benefits of MT in this regard in teachers’ “most stressful classrooms.” It may be that the program was not impactful enough, not enough time had passed for this outcome to be realized (see Roeser et al., 2022 for evidence on this conjecture), or that the measurements used were not sensitive enough for change in these outcomes, or the focus on teachers’ “most stressful classroom” made changes in classroom climate too much for the brief training. Implications of results for teacher professional development and student relationships will be discussed.

Authors

• Rachel Murray, Pennsylvania State University

• Andrew Mashburn, Portland State University

• Ellen Skinner, Portland State University

• Robert William Roeser, Pennsylvania State University