Mindful Meditation: Education and Training for the School-aged Child and Adolescents

Mental illness is an important and growing health concern in the United States, and a growing concern among the pediatric population, partly because needs are not being met. Among the pediatric population, anxiety, depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are most commonly diagnosed. Mental illness is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, increasing a child's risk for depression, attempted suicide, substance abuse, and other psychiatric disorders; children who experience an adverse childhood experience are at even higher risk. Many children do not meet diagnostic criteria for mental illness (based on DSM-V) but show sub-clinical or prodromal mental illness. Rural communities often lack adequate health care resources. Additionally, many adolescents are unaware they are experiencing symptoms of sub-clinical depression and/or anxiety - all factors which cause the mental health care gap to widen. The goal of this project included using mindfulness to lessen the pediatric mental health deficit through encouraging mental health promotion, while evaluating the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based program. The purpose of this project was to provide mindful meditation education and training to students (grades 6-8) in order to promote and/or improve mental health practices among children and adolescents. Project approval was obtained, in writing, from the school superintendent and principal. Mindful education and training was done in six, once weekly, sessions as part of students' normal curriculum. Education took place during the first of the six sessions and students were given the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) as a pre-test, assessing their current mindful thoughts and behaviors. The six remaining sessions were spent training students in the practice of mindfulness. During the last session, the FFMQ assessment was administered as a post-test to evaluate for improved mindfulness and the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM) was administered to evaluate mindful behaviors. Participating student's verbalized understanding and demonstrated mindfulness technique following education and training. Pre- and post-FFMQ assessments and the CAMM were evaluated. An overall evaluation of the effectiveness of the mindfulness-based intervention program was completed. This information was summarized and shared with faculty and students during an assembly. The objective of this project was to address the problematic state of pediatric mental health care by providing children and adolescents with a preventative method using mindfulness meditation. The mental health needs of the pediatric population need to be addressed in order to alleviate the growing problems created by the deficiency of mental health services. When school-aged children and adolescents are educated and trained in the practice of mindfulness, a healthy mental state is promoted with an abundance of positive benefits and increased potential to prevent mental illness.