A Demonstration Study of the Quiet Time Transcendental Meditation Program.
Gabriella Conti, Orla Doyle, Pasco Fearon, Veruska Oppedisano
Frontiers in Psychology 2021 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.765158 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Quasi-experimental design Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 189 |
| Population | Fifth- and sixth-grade students in primary schools in the United Kingdom and Ireland |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Children Executive function Pre-adolescent Socio-emotional skills Transcendental meditation tm |
| Key findings | Quiet Time may be feasibly delivered in school settings and shows suggestive evidence of improving executive function, including working memory and response control, in middle childhood. |
Abstract
This manuscript presents a demonstration study of Quiet Time (QT), a classroom-based Transcendental Meditation intervention. The aim of the study is to assess the feasibility of implementing and evaluating QT in two pilot settings in the United Kingdom and Ireland. This study contributes to the field by targeting middle childhood, testing efficiency in two settings operating under different educational systems, and including a large array of measures. First, teacher and pupil engagement with QT was assessed. Second, the feasibility of using a quasi-experimental design and a wide range of instruments to measure changes in pupil outcomes before and after the intervention was assessed. This allows us to obtain information about which instruments might be feasible to administer and most sensitive to change. The first setting included 89 students from a primary school in the United Kingdom: those in sixth grade received the QT intervention, while those in fifth grade practiced meditation using the Headspace application. The second setting included 100 fifth- and sixth-grade students from two schools in Ireland: one received the QT intervention, the other served as a control. Recruitment and retention rates were high in both settings, and the intervention was feasible and accepted by students, parents and teachers. Implementation fidelity was lower in the United Kingdom setting where delivery started later in the school year and the practice was affected by preparation for the Standard Assessment Tests. These results show that QT may be feasibly delivered in school settings, and suggest the use of a compact battery of tests to measure impact. We find suggestive evidence that the intervention affected executive function as children who practiced QT showed improved working memory in both settings. In the Irish setting, pupils in the QT group had improved ability to control responses. These results have implications for future studies by a) demonstrating that implementation fidelity is highly context dependent and b) providing suggestive evidence of the malleability of children's skills in middle childhood. The results of this demonstration study will be used to inform a larger RCT of the QT intervention.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cites 14
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences October 11, 2007
- Contemplative Education: A Systematic, Evidence-Based Review of the effect of Meditation Interventions in Schools Educational Psychology Review March 1, 2015
- CROSS-SECTIONAL AND LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF EFFECTS OF TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION PRACTICE ON INTERHEMISPHERIC FRONTAL ASYMMETRY AND FRONTAL COHERENCE International Journal of Neuroscience 2006
- The Effect of Meditation on Self-Reported Measures of Stress, Anxiety, Depression, and Perfectionism in a College Population Journal of College Student Psychotherapy March 31, 2011
and 9 more in the library