Effects of Kindness- and Compassion-Based Meditation on Wellbeing, Prosociality, and Cognitive Functioning in Children and Adolescents: a Systematic Review
Mindfulness September 1, 2022 Nicole Perkins, Taranjit Sehmbi, Patrick Smith
A systematic review of kindness- and compassion-based meditation (KCBM) for children and adolescents found no strong evidence for positive effects, though some results were encouraging. Ten studies involving 807 children were included. Improvements in wellbeing were seen in 47% of wellbeing measures (including stress, anxiety, depression, negative affect, inflammation markers, mindfulness, and self-compassion). Prosociality and cognitive functioning (visual perception and motor accuracy) each showed improvement in the single study that examined them. Effect sizes ranged from small to large. Interventions appeared more effective with younger, non-clinical populations and when teachers were experienced. Study quality was generally weak.