Measuring mindfulness in children: breath counting is unrelated to self-reported mindfulness but improves after mindfulness practice in 9–13 year-olds
Winnie Zhuang, Laura Michaelson, Sona Dimidjian, Yuko Munakata
Frontiers in Psychology September 30, 2025 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1644127 (opens in new tab)
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Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort with a subset receiving a pre-post intervention Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 109 |
| Population | Children ages 9–13 years |
| Interventions | audio-based mindfulness training daily breathing exercises |
| Duration | 1–2 weeks of daily mindfulness exercises |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Task project management Cognition Psychometrics Breathing Clinical psychology |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key findings | Breath counting improved following 1–2 weeks of daily mindfulness exercises in children, while self-reported mindfulness did not. |
Abstract
Recent calls for mindfulness measures beyond self-report abound, especially for children. Because breath awareness is central to many mindfulness practices, the breath counting task has been proposed as a behavioral measure of mindfulness for adults. In the current study, we investigated whether the breath counting task can also serve as a valid behavioral measure of children’s mindfulness. We examined psychometric properties across breath counting, three established mindfulness questionnaires, and a behavioral cognitive control measure in a sample of 109 children ages 9–13 years. We also offered 1–2 weeks of audio-based mindfulness training to a subset of children ( n = 67) who completed daily breathing exercises, then reassessed their breath counting and self-reported mindfulness. In the full sample, children’s breath counting showed psychometric properties and patterns similar to those of adults, was positively associated with overall cognitive control performance, but was unrelated to their self-reported mindfulness ( p ’s > 0.24). However, breath counting did improve following training amongst the subset of children who completed 1–2 weeks of daily mindfulness exercises ( p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.23), whereas self-reported mindfulness did not ( p = 0.44). Our findings suggest that the breath counting task captures aspects of mindfulness separate from those measured by children’s self-reports, and may be more sensitive to training impacts. We recommend the use of both self-report and behavioral measures of mindfulness, like the breath counting task, in future work.
Comparable studies
Other non-randomized and open-label trials on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Relation to Quality of Life, Mood, Symptoms of Stress, and Immune Parameters in Breast and Prostate Cancer Outpatients Early-stage breast and prostate cancer patients | 2003 | Pre-post intervention study | n = 59 |
| Exploring self‐compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) Community sample | 2010 | Pre-post intervention study | |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Lowers Psychological Distress In Medical Students Second-year medical students | 2003 | Prospective nonrandomized cohort-controlled study | n = 302 |
| Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Retreat participants and matched controls | 2011 | Controlled trial with wait-list control group | n = 60 |
| The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training for Children with ADHD and Mindful Parenting for their Parents Children aged 8-12 with ADHD and their parents | 2011 | Within-group waitlist controlled trial | n = 22 |
Citations in the library
Cites 15
- Conceptual and methodological issues in research on mindfulness and meditation. American Psychologist October 1, 2015
- Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). Psychological Assessment April 11, 2011
- Research Review: The effects of mindfulness‐based interventions on cognition and mental health in children and adolescents – a meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry October 22, 2018
- Neural mechanisms of attentional control in mindfulness meditation Frontiers in Neuroscience 2013
- A mind you can count on: validating breath counting as a behavioral measure of mindfulness Frontiers in Psychology October 24, 2014
and 10 more in the library