Mindfulness-based interventions with youth: A comprehensive meta-analysis of group-design studies.
Study Goal
The researchers aimed to synthesize the treatment effects of Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) in youth by analyzing 76 studies to determine overall efficacy and moderating factors.
Results Summary
MBIs showed small treatment effects in pre-post and controlled designs, with larger effects observed at follow-up. Moderator analyses found no meaningful relationship between intervention setting/dosage and outcomes, but MBIs had moderate effects on mindfulness in controlled studies.
Population
Youth (6121 participants across 76 studies)
Effective Dosage
Not specified
Duration
Not specified
Interactions
None mentioned
| Intervention | Direction | Endpoint | Population | Dosage | Impact | Claim # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) | increase | treatment effects | youth | g=0.305, SE=0.039 | were associated with small treatment effects | #1 |
Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) | increase | treatment effects | youth | g=0.322, SE=0.040 | were associated with small treatment effects | #2 |
Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) | increase | treatment effects | youth | g=0.462, SE=0.118 | treatment effects were larger at follow-up than post-treatment | #3 |
Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) | increase | treatment effects | youth | g=0.402, SE=0.081 | treatment effects were larger at follow-up than post-treatment | #4 |
Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) | increase | therapeutic process domains and therapeutic outcome domains | youth | - | Small, positive results were generally observed | #5 |
Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) | increase | mindfulness | youth | g=0.510 | were associated with moderate effects | #6 |
The treatment effects of Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) with youth were synthesized from 76 studies involving 6121 participants. A total of 885 effect sizes were aggregated using meta-regression with robust variance estimation. Overall, MBIs were associated with small treatment effects in studies using pre-post (g=0.305, SE=0.039) and controlled designs (g=0.322, SE=0.040). Treatment effects were measured after a follow-up period in 24 studies (n=1963). Results demonstrated that treatment effects were larger at follow-up than post-treatment in pre-post (g=0.462, SE=0.118) and controlled designs (g=0.402, SE=0.081). Moderator analyses indicated that intervention setting and intervention dosage were not meaningfully related to outcomes after controlling for study design quality. With that said, the between-study heterogeneity in the intercept-only models was consistently small, thus limiting the amount of variance for the moderators to explain. A series of exploratory analyses were used to investigate the differential effectiveness of MBIs across four therapeutic process domains and seven therapeutic outcome domains. Small, positive results were generally observed across the process and outcome domains. Notably, MBIs were associated with moderate effects on the process variable of mindfulness in controlled studies (n=1108, g=0.510). Limitations and directions for future research and practice are discussed.