Exploring the mobilization of mindfulness with children: the diversity of practice and what this means for education
Celeste Duff
Warwick Research Archive Portal September 15, 2026 DOI: 10.82444/warw.33823714 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study using grounded theory Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Psychologists, pediatric doctors, a psychiatrist, primary school teachers, and children aged four and five in San Diego, New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Texas |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Argues that mindfulness mobilization with children is diverse and malleable, with no single required form, teaching approach, resource, or environment, and that it can be adapted to existing curricula. Participants associated mindfulness with contributing to children's emotional regulation, empathy, executive functioning, and overall emotional wellbeing, and adults were motivated by concerns about children's psychological health and life trajectories. |
Abstract
This thesis explores the mobilization and diversity of mindfulness with children. This study recognizes that although the growth of mindfulness is a global trend, mindfulness is a relatively new and emerging trend in education. The diversity of how and why mindfulness can be mobilized and delivered with children is limited in previous studies and existing literature. There is also limited research from primary school settings, in particular children aged four and five who have experienced mindfulness, a gap this thesis addresses. In doing so, this study asks how is mindfulness mobilized, and how is it specifically mobilized to support the emotional wellbeing of children? How do the contexts in which mindfulness is mobilized shape its deployment? What motivates teachers of mindfulness to mobilize mindfulness pedagogies in their teaching practices? And how do teachers of mindfulness assess the value of mindfulness? This study addresses these questions to better enable a broad range of educators, internationally, to further understand how mindfulness can be mobilized with primary school aged children, understand the impact of mindfulness on children’s emotional wellbeing and learning and development, and inform educational practice on further developing and mobilizing mindfulness. Using a qualitative design, this study adopts a grounded theory approach. Semi-structured interviews were employed with psychologists, pediatric doctors, and a psychiatrist, and Skype interviews were employed with primary school teacher participants, and focus groups were employed with children aged four and five. Data collection was conducted in the United States of America: San Diego, New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Texas. Selecting participants from a range of locations encouraged cross-cultural data collection, and 7 gathering data from participants who were based in clinical and educational contexts captured the diversity of how and why mindfulness can be mobilized with children. This study shows that mindfulness is diverse and complex in how it is identified, used, and mobilized with children. The findings indicate that there is no singular form, teaching approach, resource, or environment that is required to mobilize and deploy mindfulness with children. Mindfulness can be adapted and customized to fit into existing curriculums. There is therefore a hybrid and malleable nature to the mobilization and deployment of mindfulness with children. The findings also indicate that participants associate mindfulness with contributing to children’s emotional regulation, empathy, executive functioning and overall emotional wellbeing. This study also shows that adult participants are concerned for children’s psychological health, emotional wellbeing, educational skills, and children’s life trajectories. The adult participants in this study are therefore motivated to mobilize mindfulness as they take responsibility to contribute to children’s emotional wellbeing, and thus feel that mindfulness is one feasible way to address these concerns. This thesis makes a valuable contribution towards the knowledge and research base concerning the diversity among the emerging trend of mindfulness in education. This knowledge adds value to understanding the complexity and diversity in how and why mindfulness is mobilized with children, specifically how mindfulness teachers attempt to enhance the emotional wellbeing of children, and the underlying motivations and values for mobilizing mindfulness with children.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on meditation, most cited first.