Impact of Mindfulness Training on Preschoolers Social-Emotional Skills: A Successful Train the Teachers Model

• In Event: Promoting well-being, social-emotional development and executive functioning in early childhood classrooms

Abstract

This project brought mindfulness training to 16 preschool and 4K classrooms by training their teachers to implement the Kindness Curriculum (KC; Healthy Minds Innovation, 2017). This paper assesses the impact on children’s social-emotional skills. Over 65% of the children were from lower-income families facing a variety of stressors; training focused not only on using the KC, but also provided support for teachers and parents with mindfulness coaching. Earlier work with the KC showed positive impacts on children’s prosocial behavior, social competence, and emotional-regulation skills (Flook et al., 2015). However, Flook et al. (2015), as well as others (e.g., Viglas & Perlman, 2018), used mindfulness experts to implement the mindfulness curriculum. This project extended previous research by testing whether classroom teachers could be trained to implement the KC, including younger children (3-year-olds) and a large, more diverse sample.
Children (n = 259) were randomly-assigned to either KC enrichment (10 classes) or the control group (6 classes). Participants were ethnically diverse: Black (13.5%), Latinx (23.6%), Asian (11.6%), White (42.9%); mostly low-income (65.3%); gender balanced (female = 54%); and 36.3% were less than 4 years, 63.7% were 4-5 years old.
Teachers in the KC group received 26 hours of summer training focused on personal mindfulness practices and teaching the KC, about 4 months prior to implementing the KC, allowing them to practice their skills with support from mindfulness coaches. The KC involves 24 lessons, taught over 12 weeks.
At the beginning of the school year and again in spring, all children were assessed individually on a sharing task, executive function measures, teacher-rated social competence, parent-reported empathy skills, as well as developmental assessments (TS Gold).
Children showed significant gains after KC enrichment compared to the control group in many areas. KC children were more likely to share stickers with a sick child (F(1,221) = 3.88, p = .050) and kept fewer stickers for themselves across all sharing trials (F(1,220) = 5.58, p = .019). KC children showed better prosocial skills (F(1, 224) = 5.83, p = .017) over time, with gains being particularly striking for the younger KC children compared to the Control group (F(1, 222) = 6.29, p = .013; Figure 1). Similar patterns were found for both teacher-rated (F(1, 222) = 12.34, p < .001) and parent-reported empathy skills (F(1, 163) = 4.96, p = .027). KC children also showed much better executive function inhibition skills over time than the Control group, with results being particularly strong among the younger children (F(1, 225) = 4.00, p = .047; Figure 2). On developmental assessments, KC children had better social-emotional and physical/health scores than the Control group. Overall, the quantitative results documented that the KC benefitted even 3-year olds’ social, emotional, and executive-function skills, and were consistent with teacher and parent reports of positive impacts in the classroom and at home. Furthermore, the fact that teachers successfully implemented the KC in the classroom supports the “train-the-teachers” model, showing that mindfulness-based preschool programs can be offered that are both cost-effective and supportive of early educators.

Authors

• Beth A. Haines, Lawrence University
  Presenting Author

• Kathy R. Phillippi-Immel, University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh, Fox Cities Campus
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erin Ijzer, Lawrence University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nupur Vaghasia, Lawrence University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Olivia DeBruin, Lawrence University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Passion Freeman, Lawrence University
  Non-Presenting Author