Child Development in an Accelerating Culture: Mindfulness Training

Western society is in an era characterized by an increased speed of the general pace of life, with technological, economic, social and cultural processes influencing our daily behavior and habits (Rosa, 2003). The world today has significantly changed from the times of our own childhood, creating new ways of thinking, interacting with the world and interacting with each other. With this in mind, it is not surprising that this can have unforeseeable effects on the stress levels of children as they grow and learn in this unique environment. Mental difficulties in children that seem to be relatively recent in human history such as ADHD, autism, depression and traumatic stress disorders may be the result of these environmental conditions. One inexpensive and beneficial treatment receiving recent attention is mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness meditation has been practiced for years and has been found beneficial for coping in adults. There are several components of exercises, and some or all can be beneficially performed. The main idea is based around the focusing of non-judgmental attention on present experiences of any of your senses, with the end goal being that a person will be more aware and responsive to what is happening in the present (Thompson & Gauntlett-Gilbert, 2008). More specifically, mindfulness practice can be broken down to:

• Mindfulness of breathing, paying attention to all the physical sensations associated with inhaling and exhaling
• Body scanning, where one pays attention to any tactile sensations associated with their body and focuses on relaxation of muscle groups
• Walking mindfulness, when taking a leisurely walk paying attention to every minute aspect of the process, focusing on sensations associated with it while ignoring external distracters or feelings about what may be going on around you, actively suppressing negative thoughts that may arise by paying attention to them and dismissing them
• Mindfulness of one sense, paying attention to just one of your senses such as sound, concentrating on each different one in a non-judgmental way as it arrives and letting it go past

This is most often taught in a group setting and can be beneficial since participants can help and support each other as well as share experiences. The group can discuss the session afterwards to provide feedback and clarify what is going on. This has been taught to children as young as 5 years old, although it is generally believed that beneficial clinical work is possible as young as Piaget’s ‘clinical operations’ stage of around 7-12 years of age (Thompson & Gauntlett-Gilbert, 2008).

Results of mindfulness meditation have been quite profound; including increased signals in brain regions related to affect regulation and attentional control and increased dopamine production (Young, 2011). The brain seems to respond morphologically to repeated meditation exercises as well, with increased cortical thickness, with particular increase in gray matter in the left hippocampus, posterior cingulated cortex, temporo-parietal junction and cerebellum. One theory postulates that reduced stress could decrease glucocorticoid levels and modulate the immune system, indirectly affecting brain change.

Burke (2009) performed a meta-analysis of measurable benefits of mindfulness meditation on different age groups of children. Students 4-5 years of age indicated significant improvement on teacher ratings, but not on parent ratings or other measures. In a study of two children ages 10 and 12 with ADHD parents reported increased child compliance during mindfulness training. A non clinical study of 228 children between first and third grade administered mindfulness training reported significant improvements of self rated anxiety, teacher rated attention, social skills and objective measures of selective attention. Another study of 31 children in grades four to six participated in mindfulness meditation along with their parents. Improvements in attention, emotional reactivity and other measures of cognition were noted. Finally, 25 children between nine and twelve years of age taught mindfulness, and reductions were reported in parent rated externalizing behaviors.

At this point there is not a lot of substantial study results, but generally children are reporting increased feelings of well-being and lowered stress. This alone is reason enough to continue researching benefits as well as introducing modifications to the procedure that may prove to be more beneficial if tailored for younger minds. Since we do not as yet fully identified the causes of stress increase, more accurate identification could assist in identifying the full possible benefits of mindfulness meditation.

References

Burke, C. A. 2010. Mindfulness-based approaches with children and adolescents: A preliminary review of current research in an emergent field. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 19, 133-144.

Rosa, H. 2003. Social acceleration: Ethical and political consequences of a desynchronized high-speed society. Constellations, 10, 3-32.

Thompson, M. & Gauntlett-Gilbert, J. 2008. Mindfulness with children and adolescents: Effective clinical application. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 13, 395-407.

Young, S. N. 2011. Biologic effects of mindfulness meditation: growing insights into neurobiologic aspects of the prevention of depression. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 36, 75-77.