Mindfulness
June 26, 2026
Jiaxiong Irvin Li, Brian M. Galla, Michael J. Tumminia
Abstract Objectives Mindfulness programs are increasingly delivered to adolescents to help them navigate emotional and social challenges, yet little is known about how they apply these skills after program completion. While most research has focused on short-term, school-based programs and intrapersonal outcomes, this qualitative study explored how adolescents integrated mindfulness into their...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
April 6, 2026
Tessa M. Benson-Greenwald, Avital Pelakh, Michael J. Tumminia et al.
Significance Many college students experience introductory physics courses as psychologically threatening contexts. Yet, succeeding in these high-stakes gateway courses is necessary to declare majors in engineering and physical sciences. We tested whether mindfulness, which centers attention to subjective experiences, can help provide students with tools to navigate their physics-related...
Frontiers in Psychology
2024
Brian M. Galla, Aishwarya Karanam, Avital Pelakh et al.
13 citations
Are universal school-based mindfulness interventions an effective way to reduce risk for mental disorders and improve adolescents' lives? To answer this question, we reanalyzed data from Dunning et al.'s (2022) meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of mindfulness interventions delivered to children and adolescents. Though Dunning et al. (2022) reported some benefits of universal...
Social and Personality Psychology Compass
August 24, 2023
Natalia Van Doren, Christa T Mahlobo, Brian M. Galla et al.
The present study explored prospective links between trait mindfulness and compassion on subsequent coping and compliance with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines and indirect effects via well-being and internalized distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study included N = 736 US college students who participated in a three-wave longitudinal study across a single academic year. The...
PsyArXiv
May 18, 2023
Brian M. Galla
preprint
In this essay, I argue that the scalability and effectiveness of universal school-based mindfulness interventions for adolescents will always be limited by the high motivational commitment required to meditate. Mindfulness interventions rely on a single and demanding health behavior—namely, meditation—to cultivate mindfulness skills. But unlike traditional mindfulness interventions delivered in...
Mindfulness
November 11, 2022
Robert W Roeser, Mark Greenberg, Tyralynn Frazier et al.
71 citations
Abstract Objectives This paper describes the emergence of the scientific study of mindfulness in schools; summarizes findings of experimental research on the impacts of school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) on student outcomes in prekindergarten, primary, and secondary school settings (ages 4–18 years); discusses scientific limitations and wider critiques of this work; and offers...
July 27, 2022
Robert W Roeser, Brian M. Galla, Rebecca N. Baelen
57 citations
preprint
This Research Brief was developed for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The number of school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) for students has been increasing over the last fifteen years. They’ve been developed for students from pre- kindergarten through high school (P–12 settings). While the reach of SBMPs is substantial, their introduction has outpaced research on their effectiveness...
September 28, 2018
Brian M. Galla, Eli Tsukayama, Daeun Park et al.
3 citations
preprint
Little is known about the naturalistic development of mindfulness in adolescence, and whether changes in this mental faculty are associated with perceived stress and emotional well-being. The current longitudinal study examined the development of one dimension of mindfulness, nonreactivity to inner experience, in a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample (N = 1,657) during the transition...