Poster #166 - The Effects of Online Mindfulness Training on Youth’s Compassion Towards Others

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Prevention and Interventions

Integrative Statement

Mindfulness meditation (MM) is the process of purposefully regulating attention, bringing awareness to one’s current experience, and relating to that experience in an open and accepting way (Semple, Lee, Rosa, & Miller, 2009). Previous studies have consistently demonstrated the benefits of MM training that support compassion and kindness towards others (e.g., Jazaieri et al., 2013), but these effects have not been comprehensively examined in early adolescence (Rempel, 2012). Compassion for others is not always expressed and can otherwise be suppressed and inhibited, due to fear that extending compassion towards another may threaten their own self-interest or the interests of one’s identified group (Gilbert et al., 2010). But recent work shows how the effects of expressing compassion for others benefit individuals’ psychological well-being (e.g., Klimecki et al., 2012). Thus, interventions aimed at increasing youth’s kindness and compassion towards others is important for contributing to their overall socioemotional adjustment. Though prior work has demonstrated the success of the practice of mindfulness meditation, most studies have utilized in-person training. The educational world is now experiencing a paradigm shift and transitioning to using technology to expand distance education. This allows the feasibility for experts to share their expertise with larger, broader audiences around the world. Subsequently, the goal of the current study was to investigate the benefits of online mindfulness meditation training on youth’s kindness and compassion towards others.
60 youth (10-15 years old; M = 12.92; SD = 1.71) were randomly assigned to either the control or the experimental group. The experimental (intervention) group received weekly MM training sessions via the Canvas LMS online forum. We partnered with Tools for Peace, a non-profit organization that provides MM training to youth. Administrators from Tools for Peace designed and presented their “Stop, Breathe, & Think” curriculum. The control group participated in a matched online curriculum, including weekly training sessions, that is identical except that it omits MM. Youth were required to log on to CANVAS for 45-minute sessions, once a week, for three weeks to watch videos and participate in online discussions and journaling. We implemented the Compassion for Others (Pommier, 2011) scale. Results showed that youth in the experimental group illustrated a significant increase in their reported kindness towards others; F(1,58) = 9.76, p = 0.003. In contrast, youth in the control group illustrated a decrease in their reported kindness towards others. Items in this scale included “If I see someone going through a difficult time, I try to be caring toward that person,” and “I like to be there for others in times of difficulty.” These findings provide evidence supporting the effectiveness of online mindfulness training aimed at promoting youth’s kindness towards others. This is a critical area to examine, as research continually evidences the benefits of compassion towards others, and our study is one of the first to empirically examine this delivered through an online medium. This is important as the education system becomes more technological-based and the world becomes more virtually unified, classes delivered online will only become more prevalent.

Group Authors

Tools for Peace

Authors

• Emily Wu Shih, University of California, Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Parisa Parsafar, University of California, Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author

• Angela Sillars, University of California, Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christina Nicolaides, University of California, Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elizabeth L Davis, University of California, Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author