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Effect of Mindfulness on Psychological Distress and Well-being of Children and Adolescents: a Meta-analysis

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Abstract

Objectives

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are being increasingly used toward improving mental health. Previous studies reached inconsistent conclusions regarding the effects of MBIs on the well-being and psychological distress of children and adolescents. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis summarizing the effects of MBIs on the well-being and psychological distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, and stress) of children and adolescents.

Methods

We searched electronic databases for reports on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published until November 2020. Random effects models were used to calculate the overall effect size of each outcome variable for all participants. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses were conducted for categorical and continuous variables, respectively.

Results

A total of 28 RCT studies (48 independent samples), comprising 7943 participants, were included in the final synthesis. The MBIs had a small effect on anxiety (g = 0.39), depression (g = 0.28), and stress (g = 0.30), and no significant effect on well-being. Subgroup analyses showed intervention time, mindfulness type, control type, and intervention population to be significant moderators. However, meta-regression analyses indicated that effect sizes were not moderated by intervention duration or study quality.

Conclusions

Our results confirmed MBI to be an alternative intervention for reducing psychological distress among both children and adolescents. The development and application of a shorter MBI, adapted for adolescents, could be addressed in future studies.

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Data Availability

All data are available at the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/au6kw/).

Material/Code Availability

All information is available at the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/uf8qg/quickfiles).

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Funding

This research was supported by a Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (SWU1909106) grant to the corresponding author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, No. 2, Tiansheng Road, Beibei District, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Yaoyao Zhang, Shuanghong Chen, Huimin Wu & Cheng Guo

  2. Research Center of Mental Health Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Yaoyao Zhang, Huimin Wu & Cheng Guo

  3. Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53703, USA

    Shuanghong Chen

Authors
  1. Yaoyao Zhang
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  2. Shuanghong Chen
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  3. Huimin Wu
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  4. Cheng Guo
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Contributions

YZ conceived and designed the study, performed the statistical analysis, and wrote the paper. SC performed the statistical analysis and wrote the paper. HW performed the statistical analysis and reviewed the manuscript. CG reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors have approved the final manuscript for submission.

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Correspondence to Cheng Guo.

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Zhang, Y., Chen, S., Wu, H. et al. Effect of Mindfulness on Psychological Distress and Well-being of Children and Adolescents: a Meta-analysis. Mindfulness 13, 285–300 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01775-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01775-6

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