Displaying 1 - 5 of 5
Managing classroom behavior is an important prerequisite to effective teaching and a salient need in alternative schools. Unfortunately, students from these schools are often underrepresented in the intervention literature. The primary aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two different theoretical approaches to classroom management, one behavioral (i.e., the good behavior game) and the other mindfulness-based (i.e., mindfulness skills training), with a sample of fifth-grade, predominantly African American students from an urban, high-poverty alternative school. The study examined the effectiveness of the two interventions in comparison to each other and a treatment-as-usual control using a quasi-experimental group design with blocked random assignment. Results revealed that neither intervention led to significant improvements in student internalizing behavior, externalizing behavior, or wellbeing. Though, some practically meaningful treatment effects were found through examination of effect sizes. Mindfulness skills training was the only condition to yield meaningful pre–post change in student outcomes, including a moderate therapeutic effect for externalizing behavior and an iatrogenic effect with respect to student wellbeing. These findings provide preliminary evidence that mindfulness skills training might have differential effects on student mental health outcomes, compared with education as usual and a traditional classwide behavioral intervention. Additionally, study findings make clear the importance of careful deliberation when transporting evidence-based interventions to unique student populations and intervention contexts.
Training in mindfulness has been shown to improve a variety of psychological disorders as well as physical conditions. Additionally, mindfulness training has been shown to reduce risk-taking behaviors following several weeks of training. Reducing risk-taking behaviors is of particular importance in regard to specific mental health problems, such as substance use and eating disorders. Many studies that examine the effects of mindfulness utilize training programs that are several weeks in duration. However, some evidence indicates that brief, single-use mindfulness practices can have substantial effects on changing emotion and cognition in laboratory settings. The present study examined the immediate effects of a brief, single-use mindful body scan practice on risk-taking behavior in a laboratory setting. Participants included 153 undergraduate students at a major university in the southern USA. The experimental design was a randomized trial using an active control group, which engaged in a mind-wandering exercise. Results indicated that there was no significant interaction of condition by time on scores from the state mindfulness measure or the risk-taking task, yet main effects of time were observed for both variables. Findings suggest that the brief mindful body scan practice did not differentially effect mindfulness or risk-taking compared to the mind-wandering control exercise. However, there was a small, significant correlation observed between change in state mindfulness and change in risk taking for the full sample, suggesting a relationship between the variables of interest, albeit in the opposite direction as expected. Implications and limitations of the present study are discussed.
Mental health among children and adolescents is a growing national concern and schools have taken center stage in efforts to prevent problems and promote wellness. Although research and policymakers support the integration of mental health services into the schools, there is limited agreement on the ways to package or combine existing supports to achieve prevention-oriented goals. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) are 2 of the most widely adopted, evidence-based approaches that have been advocated to address student mental health. These universal prevention approaches, however, stem from different theoretical camps and are often advocated and implemented apart from one another. The purpose of this study was to examine the independent and combined effects of PBIS and SEL on student mental health outcomes. A quasi-randomized control design at the classroom level was used to make comparisons across 4 conditions: business-as-usual (BAU), PBIS alone, SEL alone, and COMBO condition with regard to their acceptability to teachers, integrity of program delivery, and student outcomes. As predicted, the COMBO condition produced significantly greater improvements in overall mental health and reductions in externalizing behaviors when compared to all other conditions. The results also indicated that the PBIS- and SEL-only conditions were both able to produce significant improvements in overall mental health functioning as compared with the BAU control. The implications of an integrated approach for school-based universal prevention and directions for future research are discussed.
Teachers report high levels of occupational stress, which is associated with teacher turnover and potential negative consequences for students. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) may improve the protective factors that buffer educators against occupational stress. Although previous meta-analytic reviews synthesized the effects of MBIs for healthy and clinical samples of adults, this study was the first to synthesize the effects of MBIs for teachers (grades pre-K through 12). A total of 347 effect sizes from 29 studies (N = 1,493) were synthesized using metaregression with robust variance estimation. Overall, MBIs had a medium treatment effect on teacher outcomes (g = .601, SE = .089). Visual and statistical evidence of publication bias suggested this estimate may be positively biased. Three potential study-level moderators for overall effects were also examined, but none were statistically significant. MBIs were associated with small-to-medium positive effects on therapeutic processes and therapeutic outcomes. MBIs had the smallest effects on measures of classroom climate and instructional practices. Overall, findings were similar to other meta-analytic reviews of MBIs for nonclinical adult populations and working professionals. The literature on MBIs for teachers appears to have similar gaps as research on MBIs for adults (e.g., Davidson & Kaszniak, 2015), including the primary use of self-report measures, the lack of active treatment comparisons, and rare reporting of treatment fidelity data. Directions for future research and implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
Teachers report high levels of occupational stress, which is associated with teacher turnover and potential negative consequences for students. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) may improve the protective factors that buffer educators against occupational stress. Although previous meta-analytic reviews synthesized the effects of MBIs for healthy and clinical samples of adults, this study was the first to synthesize the effects of MBIs for teachers (grades pre-K through 12). A total of 347 effect sizes from 29 studies (N = 1,493) were synthesized using metaregression with robust variance estimation. Overall, MBIs had a medium treatment effect on teacher outcomes (g = .601, SE = .089). Visual and statistical evidence of publication bias suggested this estimate may be positively biased. Three potential study-level moderators for overall effects were also examined, but none were statistically significant. MBIs were associated with small-to-medium positive effects on therapeutic processes and therapeutic outcomes. MBIs had the smallest effects on measures of classroom climate and instructional practices. Overall, findings were similar to other meta-analytic reviews of MBIs for nonclinical adult populations and working professionals. The literature on MBIs for teachers appears to have similar gaps as research on MBIs for adults (e.g., Davidson & Kaszniak, 2015), including the primary use of self-report measures, the lack of active treatment comparisons, and rare reporting of treatment fidelity data. Directions for future research and implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).