Chanting and meditation: an 8-week intervention to promote executive functions in school-age children.
Pariya Krisdathiwadh, Suthida Chaithirayanon, Naiphinich Kotchabhakdi, Vorasith Siripornpanich
Applied neuropsychology. Child November 4, 2024 DOI: 10.1080/21622965.2024.2424215 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractAn 8-week school-based meditation program that included chanting and meditation improved executive functions in school-age children. Twenty-five children who participated in the program showed greater gains than 25 children in a control group on tests of working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility. Specifically, the meditation group had faster reaction times on a working memory task, more correct responses on an inhibition task, and better performance on multiple measures of cognitive flexibility. The findings suggest that a school-based meditation program incorporating chanting can enhance executive functions in children.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 50 |
| Population | School-age children |
| Intervention | Meditation program incorporating chanting and meditation |
| Duration | 8-week intervention |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Chanting Executive functions efs School-based meditation program |
| Key finding | An 8-week school-based meditation program incorporating chanting and meditation improved executive functions, including working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility, in school-age children compared to a control group. |
Abstract
The present study investigated the effectiveness of a newly developed 8-week meditation program, which included chanting and meditation, on executive functions (EFs) in school-age children. Twenty-five students assigned to an experimental group participated in the meditation program, engaging in daily and weekly activities for 8 weeks. Another 25 students served as a control group and participated in regular school activities. Pretest and posttest assessments included the n-back task for working memory, the go/no-go task for inhibition, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) for cognitive flexibility. A mixed repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to analyze interaction effects, within-group differences, and between-group differences. The experimental group demonstrated greater improvement compared to the control group across several measures: (1) reaction time in the 1-back task, (2) correct responses in the no-go condition of the go/no-go task, and (3) percentage of correct responses, errors, perseverative errors, non-perseverative errors, perseverative responses, and conceptual level responses in the WCST (p < 0.001). These findings underscore the potential benefits of an 8-week school-based meditation program incorporating chanting and meditation for enhancing EFs in school-age children.