Experiment finds teaching mindfulness to teens at school doesn’t work

An experiment in the UK tried to teach children to meditate and live in the present moment, rather than worrying about the future or thinking about the past. But most teens responded with a word common to young people: “boring.”

Mindfulness – the practice of paying more attention to the present moment through your own thoughts, feelings and the world around you, with the aim of improving well-being and mental health – is gaining adherents around the world.

In the United Kingdom, health and education authorities thought that mindfulness could help especially in adolescence – the stage of life of great vulnerability when the first mental problems appear.

A group of researchers from some of the most prestigious universities in the world, such as Oxford and Cambridge, in England, created an experiment: they decided to teach mindfulness in some secondary schools in the country to analyze its effects on young people.

And the result was a tremendous failure.

The study—published in the journal Evidence-Based Mental Health—finds that teaching mindfulness classes to teens at school to increase well-being is often a waste of time.

The technique of performing small meditations and exercises did not contribute to improving the mental health of young people any more than schools already did.

Thousands of students and hundreds of teachers from 85 secondary schools participated in the experience. Most students showed little interest in using the method, which they described as “boring”.

The researchers say the results, while disappointing, are helpful. And they indicate that while mindfulness may still help some students, offering it universally in schools would be a failure. The study recommends exploring other interventions that may be helpful, such as providing more specific mental health help.

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a method that aims to help people focus on what is really happening in the moment, rather than worrying about what has already happened or what might happen.

Its advocates say the technique, which is based on meditation, can help people enjoy life more and understand themselves better, rather than being trapped in negative, harmful thoughts.

Students who participated in the study received multiple mindfulness classes during a semester. They were also asked to use the technique at home, but very few did.

One of the study’s researchers, Professor Mark Williams of the University of Oxford, noted that, on average, students practiced mindfulness only once over the course of the 10-week course.

“It’s like going to the gym just once and hoping to get in shape,” Williams explained. “But why didn’t they practice [mindfulness]? Many of them found it boring.”

Among the teachers, many of them found the practice of mindfulness useful for their own well-being.

For Dan O’Hare of the British Psychological Society, “It is important not to view mindfulness sessions as a panacea or as an ‘off-the-shelf’ product that can help teenagers and their teachers become ‘more resilient’ without taking into account all other factors that can influence their lives, such as the school environment.”

“We also cannot ignore the fact that teenagers and teachers have gone through two very difficult years. [por causa da pandemia]. Given the circumstances we live in and the stresses this creates, it’s perhaps not entirely surprising that the study sample didn’t show a huge improvement in well-being,” says O’Hare.

This research reinforces the importance of collecting data to find out if a method really works, says Julieta Galante of the University of Cambridge.

The researchers thought the experiment could be effective based on several studies that were done on a small scale. However, she says, “we need to be very sure of the benefit before launching any universal health intervention.”

“The findings do not completely rule out the potential of mindfulness-based therapy for young people: as with any therapy, it works for some people, but not all. The important thing is to determine who can benefit from it, when and how,” says the Professor Stella Chan, an expert at the University of Reading.

This text was originally published here