Promoting Psychological Well-being in Preschoolers Through Mindfulness-based Socio-emotional Learning: A...

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Preventive Mental Health

Background:

• Childhood mental health issues are prevalent with long-term negative impacts.
• School-based interventions offer a promising avenue for early psychological well-being.
• Mindfulness-based social and emotional learning (SEL) shows potential for improving children's mental health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a mindfulness-based SEL curriculum, including the Kindness Curriculum (KC), delivered by pre-kindergarten teachers.
• To assess the intervention's impact on preschool children's mental health and related indicators.

Main Methods:

• A cluster randomized controlled trial involving 64 classes and 761 children (38-58 months) in a disadvantaged French area.
• Children were assigned to either an intervention or a waiting-list control group.
• Data collected via teacher-rated questionnaires, observations, and behavioral tasks.

Main Results:

• The intervention positively impacted children's mental health, reducing emotional, conduct, and peer relationship problems.
• Teacher-child conflicts were also reduced.
• No significant effects were observed on self-management, emotional processing, or executive functioning.

Conclusions:

• The mindfulness-based SEL program is a promising early school-based intervention for promoting mental health and positive relationships.
• The intervention showed particular benefits for children with lower baseline mental health, older children, and those with less experienced teachers.
• This approach is especially effective for at-risk preschool-aged children.