Meditation Effects on Anxiety and Resilience of Preadolescents and Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Study.
Children (Basel, Switzerland) August 11, 2021 Alexandra Gomes, Joana Vieira Dos Santos, Luís Sérgio Vieira
A quasi-experimental study tested whether transcendental meditation (TM) affects stress and resilience in children and adolescents aged 9 to 16 years. Participants from schools with the Quiet Time Program were randomly assigned to immediate TM learning or delayed learning. After twelve weeks, the TM group showed decreased externalizing behaviors, while the control group increased on that measure. However, TM failed to reduce anxiety or improve resilience in the experimental group; both groups improved on anxiety indicators. The results suggest that expectation of improvement or contextual factors may have influenced behavior equally across groups.