In Building Academic Success on Social and Emotional Learning: What does the Research Say? Zins and his colleagues presented a new way to conceptualize the impact of social and emotional learning programs on students' school success by broadening the concept to include students' attitudes, behaviors, and performance. To build on Zins' ideas, we (a) briefly review research examining the impact of 262 social and emotional learning (SEL) programs on a number of outcomes that assessed school attitudes, behaviors, and performance; and (b) suggest additional avenues for research of SEL interventions.
The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an 8-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) group intervention to reduce psychological distress as well as to strengthen self-esteem, resilience, and general well-being for individuals living with a chronic illness and/or other health challenges. This pilot study employed a pre–posttest design to evaluate the outcome of the intervention for individuals receiving care in a Community and Family Medicine department and a Women’s Health Centre located in an urban downtown hospital. A total of 42 patients were enrolled in the study and 35 participants completed the intervention. Thirty-five of 42 enrolled participants completed the intervention. Twenty-eight participants completed the pretest and posttest assessments, which demonstrated statistically significant improvement on most outcome measures, including the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Rating Scale (CES-D), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), Affect Balance Scale (ABS), the Resilience Scale (RS), and the Five-Item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5). Large effect sizes were observed for the CES-D, the ABS, and the DASS Stress subscale. Observed improvements were sustained at 4 weeks posttreatment. Results are consistent with studies indicating that MBCT offers promise in alleviating psychological distress for those who are seeking care in primary health care settings. Continued focus on how to best implement MBCT in primary health care, particularly for those with comorbid physical and mental health conditions, supports the World Health Organization’s recommendation to integrate evidence-based mental health care within primary health care to promote equitable access to care for those most in need.
Post-event processing refers to negative and repetitive thinking following anxiety provoking social situations. Those who engage in post-event processing may lack self-compassion in relation to social situations. As such, the primary aim of this research was to evaluate whether those high in self-compassion are less likely to engage in post-event processing and the specific self-compassion domains that may be most protective. In study 1 (N = 156 undergraduate students) and study 2 (N = 150 individuals seeking help for social anxiety and shyness), participants completed a battery of questionnaires, recalled a social situation, and then rated state post-event processing. Self-compassion negatively correlated with post-event processing, with some differences depending on situation type. Even after controlling for self-esteem, self-compassion remained significantly correlated with state post-event processing. Given these findings, self-compassion may serve as a buffer against post-event processing. Future studies should experimentally examine whether increasing self-compassion leads to reduced post-event processing.
The term executive function defines complex cognitive processing requiring the co-ordination of several subprocesses to achieve a particular goal. Neuropsychological evidence suggests that executive processing is intimately connected with the intact function of the frontal cortices. Executive dysfunction has been associated with a range of disorders, and is generally attributed to structural or functional frontal pathology. Neuroimaging, with PET and fMRI, has confirmed the relationship; however, attempts to link specific aspects of executive functioning to discrete prefrontal foci have been inconclusive. Instead, the emerging view suggests that executive function is mediated by dynamic and flexible networks, that can be characterised using functional integration and effective connectivity analyses. This view is compatible with the clinical presentation of executive dysfunction associated with a range of pathologies, and also with evidence that recovery of executive function can occur after traumatic brain injury, perhaps due to functional reorganisation within executive networks.
Objective: Unilateral nostril breathing (UNB) is a yogic pranayama technique that has been shown to improve verbal and spatial cognition in neurologically intact individuals. Early study of UNB in healthy individuals has shown benefits for attention and memory. This preliminary study explored whether UNB influenced various measures of attention, language, spatial abilities, depression, and anxiety in post-stroke individuals, both with and without aphasia. Design: A within-subjects repeated-measures design was used to determine whether UNB improved cognitive, linguistic, and affect variables in post-stroke individuals. Within-subjects comparisons determined UNB’s effects over time, and between-subjects comparison was used to determine whether changes in these variables differed between post-stroke individuals with and without aphasia. Setting: Athens and Atlanta, Georgia. Participants: Eleven post-stroke individuals participated in a 10-week UNB program. Five individuals had stroke-induced left hemisphere damage with no diagnosis of aphasia (left hemisphere damage control group; LHD), and six individuals experienced left hemisphere damage with a diagnosis of aphasia (individuals with aphasia group; IWA). Measures: Individuals were assessed on measures of attention, language, spatial abilities, depression, and anxiety before, during, and after UNB treatment.Results: UNB significantly decreased levels of anxiety for individuals in both groups. Performance on language measures increased for the individuals with aphasia.
Conclusions: Significant findings for language and affect measures indicate that further investigation regarding duration of UNB treatment and use of UNB treatment alongside traditional speech-language therapy in poststroke individuals is warranted.
Many young children spend a significant amount of time each day in preschool settings. It is important to understand how teachers create and maximize opportunities for children's social and emotional learning (SEL) in the classrooms. This research was conducted in Singapore and explores how SEL is supported by teachers in areas identified in the national curriculum (self-awareness and positive self-concept, self-management, social awareness, relationship management, and responsible decision-making). The qualitative analyses draw on observations across six preschool classrooms. There were 32 instances identified in which teachers provided support for SEL across three aspects of interactional situations: group size, type of activity, and type of teaching opportunity. More opportunities for SEL were afforded in small group versus whole group activities and more often in outdoor play and planned lesson times than when children were in learning centers, at mealtimes, or making transitions between activities. Intentional teaching also afforded more opportunities for SEL as compared to incidental teaching. Teachers adopted a variety of verbal and non-verbal strategies to support SEL that included setting a positive tone, suggesting solutions, allocating tasks, and extending on responses. This research provides knowledge about how, and in what interactional situations, teachers demonstrate SEL support to individuals and groups of children in kindergarten classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]; Copyright of International Journal of Early Childhood is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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Over recent decades, there has been an exponential growth in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). To disseminate MBIs with fidelity, care needs to be taken with the training and supervision of MBI teachers. A wealth of literature exists describing the process and practice of supervision in a range of clinical approaches, but, as of yet, little consideration has been given to how this can best be applied to the supervision of MBI teachers. This paper articulates a framework for supervision of MBI teachers. It was informed by the following: the experience of eight experienced mindfulness-based supervisors, the literature and understandings from MBIs, and by the authors’ experience of training and supervision. It sets out the nature and distinctive features of mindfulness-based supervision (MBS), representing this complex, multilayered process through a series of circles that denote its essence, form, content and process. This paper aims to be a basis for further dialogue on MBS, providing a foundation to increase the availability of competent supervision so that MBIs can expand without compromising integrity and efficacy.
Over recent decades, there has been an exponential growth in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). To disseminate MBIs with fidelity, care needs to be taken with the training and supervision of MBI teachers. A wealth of literature exists describing the process and practice of supervision in a range of clinical approaches, but, as of yet, little consideration has been given to how this can best be applied to the supervision of MBI teachers. This paper articulates a framework for supervision of MBI teachers. It was informed by the following: the experience of eight experienced mindfulness-based supervisors, the literature and understandings from MBIs, and by the authors’ experience of training and supervision. It sets out the nature and distinctive features of mindfulness-based supervision (MBS), representing this complex, multilayered process through a series of circles that denote its essence, form, content and process. This paper aims to be a basis for further dialogue on MBS, providing a foundation to increase the availability of competent supervision so that MBIs can expand without compromising integrity and efficacy.
Over recent decades, there has been an exponential growth in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). To disseminate MBIs with fidelity, care needs to be taken with the training and supervision of MBI teachers. A wealth of literature exists describing the process and practice of supervision in a range of clinical approaches, but, as of yet, little consideration has been given to how this can best be applied to the supervision of MBI teachers. This paper articulates a framework for supervision of MBI teachers. It was informed by the following: the experience of eight experienced mindfulness-based supervisors, the literature and understandings from MBIs, and by the authors’ experience of training and supervision. It sets out the nature and distinctive features of mindfulness-based supervision (MBS), representing this complex, multilayered process through a series of circles that denote its essence, form, content and process. This paper aims to be a basis for further dialogue on MBS, providing a foundation to increase the availability of competent supervision so that MBIs can expand without compromising integrity and efficacy.
The influence of approach and avoidance tendencies on affect, reasoning, and behavior has attracted substantial interest from researchers across various areas of psychology. Currently, frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetry in favor of left prefrontal regions is assumed to reflect the propensity to respond with approach-related tendencies. To test this hypothesis, we recorded resting EEG in 18 subjects, who separately performed a verbal memory task under three incentive conditions (neutral, reward, and punishment). Using a source-localization technique, we found that higher task-independent alpha2 (10.5-12 Hz) activity within left dorsolateral prefrontal and medial orbitofrontal regions was associated with stronger bias to respond to reward-related cues. Left prefrontal resting activity accounted for 54.8% of the variance in reward bias. These findings not only confirm that frontal EEG asymmetry modulates the propensity to engage in appetitively motivated behavior, but also provide anatomical details about the underlying brain systems.
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Increased tendencies towards ruminative responses to negative mood and anxious worry are important vulnerability factors for relapse to depression. In this study, we investigated the trajectories of change in rumination and anxious worry over the course of an eight-week programme of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for relapse prevention in patients with a history of recurrent depression. One hundred and four participants from the MBCT-arm of a randomized-controlled trial provided weekly ratings. Mixed linear models indicated that changes in rumination and worry over the course of the programme followed a general linear trend, with considerable variation around this trend as indicated by significant increases in model fit following inclusion of random slopes. Exploration of individual trajectories showed that, despite considerable fluctuation, there is little evidence to suggest that sudden gains are a common occurrence. The findings are in line with the general notion that, in MBCT, reductions in vulnerability are driven mainly through regular and consistent practice, and that sudden cognitive insights alone are unlikely to lead into lasting effects.
Psychologists' research explains the mental and physical restoration we get from nature--and has important implications for how we build our homes, work environments and cities.
Using data for 25,780 species categorized on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, we present an assessment of the status of the world’s vertebrates. One-fifth of species are classified as Threatened, and we show that this figure is increasing: On average, 52 species of mammals, birds, and amphibians move one category closer to extinction each year. However, this overall pattern conceals the impact of conservation successes, and we show that the rate of deterioration would have been at least one-fifth again as much in the absence of these. Nonetheless, current conservation efforts remain insufficient to offset the main drivers of biodiversity loss in these groups: agricultural expansion, logging, overexploitation, and invasive alien species.Though the threat of extinction is increasing, overall declines would have been worse in the absence of conservation.
Though the threat of extinction is increasing, overall declines would have been worse in the absence of conservation.
This article presents findings from a meta-analysis of 213 school-based, universal social and emotional learning (SEL) programs involving 270,034 kindergarten through high school students. Compared to controls, SEL participants demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance that reflected an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement. School teaching staff successfully conducted SEL programs. The use of 4 recommended practices for developing skills and the presence of implementation problems moderated program outcomes. The findings add to the growing empirical evidence regarding the positive impact of SEL programs. Policy makers, educators, and the public can contribute to healthy development of children by supporting the incorporation of evidence-based SEL programming into standard educational practice.
This article presents findings from a meta-analysis of 213 school-based, universal social and emotional learning (SEL) programs involving 270,034 kindergarten through high school students. Compared to controls, SEL participants demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance that reflected an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement. School teaching staff successfully conducted SEL programs. The use of 4 recommended practices for developing skills and the presence of implementation problems moderated program outcomes. The findings add to the growing empirical evidence regarding the positive impact of SEL programs. Policy makers, educators, and the public can contribute to healthy development of children by supporting the incorporation of evidence-based SEL programming into standard educational practice.
Growing interest in mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) has resulted in increased demand for MBP teachers, raising questions around safeguarding teaching standards. Training literature emphasises the need for appropriate training and meditation experience, yet studies into impact of such variables on participant outcomes are scarce, requiring further investigation. This feasibility pilot study hypothesised that participant outcomes would relate to teachers’ mindfulness-based teacher training levels and mindfulness-based teaching and meditation experience. Teachers (n = 9) with different MBP training levels delivering mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) courses to the general public were recruited together with their course participants (n = 31). A teacher survey collected data on their mindfulness-based teacher training, other professional training and relevant experience. Longitudinal evaluations using online questionnaires measured participant mindfulness and well-being before and after MBSR and participant course satisfaction. Course attendees’ gains after the MBSR courses were correlated with teacher training and experience. Gains in well-being and reductions in perceived stress were significantly larger for the participant cohort taught by teachers who had completed an additional year of mindfulness-based teacher training and assessment. No correlation was found between course participants’ outcomes and their teacher’s mindfulness-based teaching and meditation experience. Our results support the hypothesis that higher mindfulness-based teacher training levels are possibly linked to more positive participant outcomes, with implications for training in MBPs. These initial findings highlight the need for further research on mindfulness-based teacher training and course participant outcomes with larger participant samples.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is an effective depression prevention programme for people with a history of recurrent depression. In the UK, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has suggested that MBCT is a priority for implementation. This paper explores the exchange, synthesis and application of evidence and guidance on MBCT between the academic settings generating the evidence and delivering practitioner training and the practice settings where implementation takes place. Fifty-seven participants in a workshop on MBCT implementation in the NHS were asked for their experience of facilitators and obstacles to implementation, and a UK-wide online survey of 103 MBCT teachers and stakeholders was conducted. While MBCT is starting to become available in the NHS, this is rarely part of a strategic, coherent or appropriately resourced approach. A series of structural, political cultural, educational, emotional and physical/technological obstacles and facilitators to implementation were identified. Nearly a decade since NICE first recommended MBCT, only a small number of mental health services in the UK have systematically implemented the guidance. Guiding principles for implementation are set out. We offer an implementation resource to facilitate the transfer of MBCT knowledge into action.
There is expanding interest in mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) within the mainstream. While there are research gaps, there is empirical evidence for these developments. Implementing new evidence into practice is always complex and difficult. Particular complexities and tensions arise when implementing MBPs in the mainstream. MBPs are emerging out of the confluence of different epistemologies—contemplative teaching and practice, and contemporary Western empiricism and culture. In the process of navigating implementation and integrity, and developing a professional practice context for this emerging field, the diverse influences within this confluence need careful attention and thought. Both contemplative practices, and mainstream institutions and professional practice have well-developed ethical understandings and integrity. MBPs aim to balance fidelity to both. This includes the need to further develop skillful expressions of the underpinning theoretical and philosophical framework for MBPs; to sensitively work with the boundary between mainstream and religious mindfulness; to develop organizational structures which support governance and collaboration; to investigate teacher training, supervision models, and teaching competence; to develop consensus on the ethical frameworks on which mainstream MBPs rests; and to build understanding and work skillfully with barriers to access to MBPs. It is equally important to attend to how these developments are conducted. This includes the need to align with values integral to mindfulness, and to hold longer-term intentions and directions, while taking small, deliberate steps in each moment. The MBP field needs to establish itself as a new professional field and stand on its own integrity.
There is expanding interest in mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) within the mainstream. While there are research gaps, there is empirical evidence for these developments. Implementing new evidence into practice is always complex and difficult. Particular complexities and tensions arise when implementing MBPs in the mainstream. MBPs are emerging out of the confluence of different epistemologies—contemplative teaching and practice, and contemporary Western empiricism and culture. In the process of navigating implementation and integrity, and developing a professional practice context for this emerging field, the diverse influences within this confluence need careful attention and thought. Both contemplative practices, and mainstream institutions and professional practice have well-developed ethical understandings and integrity. MBPs aim to balance fidelity to both. This includes the need to further develop skillful expressions of the underpinning theoretical and philosophical framework for MBPs; to sensitively work with the boundary between mainstream and religious mindfulness; to develop organizational structures which support governance and collaboration; to investigate teacher training, supervision models, and teaching competence; to develop consensus on the ethical frameworks on which mainstream MBPs rests; and to build understanding and work skillfully with barriers to access to MBPs. It is equally important to attend to how these developments are conducted. This includes the need to align with values integral to mindfulness, and to hold longer-term intentions and directions, while taking small, deliberate steps in each moment. The MBP field needs to establish itself as a new professional field and stand on its own integrity.
This single case study examined symptom change in the treatment of a 22-year-old Caucasian female college student presenting with anxious and depressive symptoms and maladaptive coping strategies in the context of an interpersonal dispute. The treatment integrated mindfulness skills training with interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) to treat symptoms of anxiety, depression, overall total symptoms, and relational problems across the 18-session treatment. We assessed symptoms across treatment and analyzed change in symptom severity over time. Reliable change index analyses indicated significant symptom reduction between baseline levels at the start of treatment and the final sessions in all measured symptoms (anxiety, depression, total symptoms, and interpersonal relations), with decreases in symptom severity occurring gradually over the course of treatment. A 1-month follow-up assessment of symptoms indicated sustained reductions in anxious and depressive symptoms since baseline measurements. We discuss recommendations on the importance of therapeutic flexibility in treating comorbid conditions and therapist willingness to combine multiple treatment approaches for better treatment outcomes.
Assessing program or intervention fidelity/integrity is an important methodological consideration in clinical and educational research. These critical variables influence the degree to which outcomes can be attributed to the program and the success of the transition from research to practice and back again. Research in the Mindfulness-Based Program (MBP) field has been expanding rapidly over the last 20 years, but little attention has been given to how to assess intervention integrity within research and practice settings. The proliferation of different program forms, inconsistency in adhering to published curriculum guides, and variability of training levels and competency of trial teachers all pose grave risks to the sustainable development of the science of MBPs going forward. Three tools for assessing intervention integrity in the MBP field have been developed and researched to assess adherence and/or teaching competence: the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy-Adherence Scale (MBCT-AS), the Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention-Adherence and Competence Scale (MBRP-AC), and the Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI:TAC). Further research is needed on these tools to better define their inter-rater reliability and their ability to measure elements of teaching competence that are important for participant outcomes. Research going forward needs to include systematic and consistent methods for demonstrating and verifying that the MBP was delivered as intended, both to ensure the rigor of individual studies and to enable different studies of the same MBP to be fairly and validly compared with each other. The critical variable of the teaching also needs direct investigation in future research. We recommend the use of the “Template for Intervention Description and Replication” (TIDieR) guidelines for addressing and reporting on intervention integrity during the various phases of the conduct of research and provide specific suggestions about how to implement these guidelines when reporting studies of mindfulness-based programs.
In studying the lives and livelihoods of human beings, the social sciences and humanities often find their lines of inquiry tugged in the direction of other, nonhuman beings. When Claude Lévi-Strauss (1963) suggested that “thinking with” animals was relevant and fruitful to the study of humankind, scholars began to follow these leads with academic rigor, enthusiasm, and creativity. Propelled into the new millennium by the passion of the environmental movement, compounded by natural and anthropogenic disaster, and now entrenched in the discourse of the Anthropocene, recent scholarship has simultaneously called into question the validity of human exceptionalism and expanded our social and political worlds to include animals and myriad other nonhuman beings. This move is paradoxical: as the significance of human action on this planet has increased, the category of the human is continually challenged and redrawn. While contemporary posthumanist critique rethinks the importance of animals and strives to destabilize long-standing ontological exceptions, it does so just as the effects of human presence overwhelmingly single out our species as the dominant agents of planetary change (see Chakrabarty 2009; Steffen, Crutzen, and McNeill 2007).
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