Poster #71 - Assessing the Feasibility and Benefits of a Classroom-Based Mindfulness Curriculum in Urban Kindergarten Classrooms

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Purpose: There is accumulating evidence of the challenges faced by children exposed to poverty, adverse life events, and childhood trauma. Mindfulness may support children’s development of attention, focus, and self-regulation. School-based programs must be easily integrated into daily routines to facilitate consistent practice. Calm Classroom (CC) is a school-based mindfulness program involving 3-minute breathing, focusing, and relaxation techniques practiced two to three times daily. Teachers lead the techniques; professional development meetings support teacher implementation. The current study investigated program implementation and how children’s attention and self-regulation changed in classrooms implementing CC. We hypothesized that children’s attention and self-regulation skills would improve after three months of CC, as evidenced by better performance on well-validated, standardized performance-based measures. Implementation data and qualitative reports of teachers’ experiences were collected.
Method: Participants were 63 students (Mage=5.63 years, SDage=0.27) 47.6% female; 95.2% African American) in three kindergarten classrooms at an urban public charter school. Ninety-one percent of students served by the program live in households under the poverty line. CC curriculum was implemented for three months in the spring. Testing occurred in fall and spring. Children completed three tasks from the NIH Toolbox (Flanker Inhibitory Control and Attention Task, Dimensional Change Card Sort Task, and Picture Vocabulary Task) and the NEPSY-II Statue Test. The NIH Toolbox tasks were administered on a laptop computer. For the Statue subtest children were instructed to stand still quietly with eyes closed for 75 seconds and to inhibit responses to standard auditory distractors. Teachers logged implementation frequency. End-of-year individual structured interviews discussed topics such as ease of implementation and perceived effectiveness.
Results: Significant differences were found in daily implementation frequency between classrooms. Teachers in Room 1 (M=2.11, SD=1.37) implemented the techniques less frequently per day than teachers in Room 2 (M=2.83, SD=0.51) and Room 3 (M=2.72, SD=0.62), F(2, 258)=15.36, p<.001. Paired-samples t-tests compared children’s NIH Toolbox and Statue scores at the two time points. Changes in performance differed between classrooms. Room 1 children’s scores on the Statue test improved from fall (M=12.06, SD=1.66) to spring (M=12.83, SD=1.29); t(17)=-2.12, p=.04, Cohen’s d=0.50. Room 2 children’s scores on the Flanker Inhibitory Control test improved from fall (M=95.19, SD=12.37) to spring (M=101.00, SD=13.37); t(15)=-2.06, p=.06, Cohen’s d=0.52; scores on the Statue test improved from fall (M=10.62, SD=2.42) to spring (M=12.50, SD=1.26); t(15)=-4.12, p=.001, Cohen’s d=1.20. No differences were found between fall and spring scores in Room 3. Qualitative interviews revealed that teachers were supportive of the curriculum but there was variability in perceived effectiveness.
Conclusions: Three kindergarten classroom teachers implemented CC regularly for three months with some variability. Kindergarteners’ attention and self-regulation improvements varied by classroom, as did implementation of the curriculum. However, teachers reported embracing the curriculum and utilizing techniques comfortably. Given the paucity of research examining the benefits of mindfulness in early childhood using performance-based measures, these findings suggest that performance-based measures can be used to track the effects of such programs. Classroom differences underscore the importance of considering teacher characteristics and classroom dynamics when evaluating mindfulness curricula.

Authors

• Natalie Benjamin, Marquette University
  Presenting Author

• Astrida Kaugars, Marquette University
  Non-Presenting Author