School-Based Mindfulness Based Stress-Reduction Program (MBSR) Fails to Deliver Positive Results
The significance of no positive effects for Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress-Reduction in schools. Evidence of deterioration was found in some subgroup analyses.
2023 Introduction
This Mind the Brain post was uploaded on November 2, 2017 and it was refreshingly short and to the point. It explained how a study found that when implemented with middle and high school students, Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress-Reduction Program (MSBR) had no significant differences with control classrooms immediately afterward or at three three-month follow-ups. There was some signal of negative effects of instructing students to practice mindfulness.
Practicing mindfulness was intended to innoculate middle and high school students against future stress. This study failed to show any reduction in the stress that they brought to the program, much less any signs of it reducing stress reactions in the follow-up. There are lots of problems in interpreting why a study obtained a lack of effects. However, the authors collected data suggesting that only a quarter of students assigned to mindfulness actually practiced meditation at home as required.
In 2017, p…