Peruvian Upper Primary School Children Who Learn Transcendental Meditation: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Personal Wellbeing
Lee Fergusson, Javier Ortiz Cabrejos, Anna Bonshek
Revista Internacional de Educación Emocional y Bienestar August 14, 2025 DOI: 10.48102/rieeb.2025.5.2.e177 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 402 |
| Population | Indigenous fifth- and sixth-grade children in three Peruvian schools |
| Intervention | Transcendental Meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Well-being increased significantly by 24.5% after practicing Transcendental Meditation, rising from 62.6/90 (69.5%) to 68.4/90 (78.0%). School, gender, and age did not influence the improvement. The authors suggest the results indicate a more promising future for Peruvian children because well-being predicts health and longevity. |
Abstract
El bienestar personal mide la satisfacción individual con la vida, abarcando salud mental y física, resistencia y calidad de vida. Como parte de un programa de investigación pandémico en Perú, estos autores previamente demostraron que la Meditación Trascendental incrementó el bienestar en 49 niñas huérfanas un 33%. Ahora estudiamos niños de primaria superior. Mediante un diseño cuasi-experimental pretest-postest con N = 402 niños indígenas de 5° y 6° grado en tres escuelas, el bienestar aumentó tras practicar Meditación Trascendental de 62.6/90 (69.5%) a 68.4/90 (78.0%), representando un incremento del 24.5% estadísticamente significativo. La escuela, género y edad no influyeron en esta mejora. Como el bienestar predice salud y longevidad, estos resultados sugieren un futuro más prometedor para los niños peruanos.
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 |