Stress, Coping, and Transcendental Meditation: A Proto-Theoretical Model and Pilot Study of Indigenous Peruvian Students in Home Isolation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACT Adverse impacts on children in home isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic have been documented. These impacts include increased loneliness, anxiety, depression, posttraumatic disorder, and heightened risk of psychiatric illness. The present study introduces a proto-theoretical model of stress, psychophysiology, and coping to explain this phenomenon. A focus of the research is on evaluating the model by considering the experience of Aymara and Quechua children in home isolation at a primary and secondary school in Puno, Peru, and the potential role of Transcendental Meditation to enhance the health, coping, and academic achievement of this unique group of school children in such a remote, indigenous Latin American setting. We asked 54 children at Institución Educativa Privada Prescott to quantitatively rate their experience of Transcendental Meditation while in home isolation in terms of physical, cognitive, and emotional health, academic achievement, coping, learning, anxiety, depression, and optimism. Ninety-eight percent of students (53/54) reported that the practice had beneficially affected their health and academic achievement. On a 1–10 scale, average ratings of the impact of Transcendental Meditation on physical health were 7.55, on cognitive health were 7, on emotional health were 7.48, and on academic achievement were 7.85. Scores on coping, learning, anxiety, depression, and optimism were of a similar order of magnitude. Implications for public and health safety in Peru are discussed.