Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Control Trials Investigating the Effects of Mindfulness Based Interventions on Socio-emotional Functioning and Academic Achievement of Pre-adolescents in School Setting

Abstract

The promising research based on the diverse application of Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) with adults has led to the extension of mindfulness with children and adolescents. Pre adolescents are experiencing great stress at school and stress has an impact on brain areas related to cognition and mental health. In this way, school-related performance and socioemotional functioning of children could be negatively impacted. There is a need to work at a preventive level to stop the widespread disorders at an early age and to improve academic performance in pre adolescents. Hence this study was done to synthesize evidence of MBIs implemented in school settings with pre-adolescents (6-13years old) on multiple outcome domains to inform school practice and educational policy. A comprehensive search strategy was made to locate the published articles of interest. In January 2019 systematic search was performed in four databases including Web of Science, Psych Info, Pub Med, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Two reviewers independently extracted the data. The Cochrane Collaboration risk-of-bias tool was used to assess the quality of RCTs. All analyses were conducted using version 5.0 of the Review Manager Web (The Cochrane Collaboration, 2019). The magnitude of the effect was calculated by using standardized mean difference effect size or Cohen’s "d" for continuous outcomes. The preventive effects of MBIs with pre-adolescents were synthesized from 29 RCTs involving 6460 participants. Results show that the overall mean effect (Cohen’s d) at post-test on socio emotional outcomes was 0.15 (95% CI [-0.22, -0.06]) and was significant (P < .00001) with moderate amount of heterogeneity (I2 = 68%, Tau2 = .04). While only six effect sizes from four studies were synthesized to study effects on academic achievement. Mean effect at post-test on academic achievement was 0.19 (95% CI [-0.04, 0.43]) and was not significant (p=0.17). Effects of Mindfulness Based Interventions on Socio-emotional Functioning and Academic Achievement 2 Heterogeneity was small (I2 = 37%) and not significant (Tau2 = .03, p = .12). I conclude with limitations and specific recommendations for future researchers who wish to study the utility of MBI in a school setting