TY  - JOUR
AU  - Dahl, Victoria M.
AU  - Chimiklis, Alyssa L.
AU  - Peralta, Sarah
AU  - Siddiqui, Yasmin
AU  - Chacko, Anil
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/03/18
TI  - A Pilot Study of a School-Based Yoga and Mindfulness Program for Girls
JO  - OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
SP  - 015
VL  - 10
IS  - 01
AB  - Schools have made commendable efforts to incorporate yoga and mindfulness programs to address the wellbeing of students; however, research on the efficacy of school-based yoga and mindfulness programs is still in its infancy, particularly with school-aged students at risk of developing externalizing disorders. Much of the research has also focused on evaluating interventions implemented by researchers, rather than evaluating those implemented by the school and its staff. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate Little Flower Yoga, a promising yoga and mindfulness program for children. The study sample consisted of girls, 5-7 years old (n = 14), from low-income, minority backgrounds with exposure to multiple risk factors, and who met a predetermined threshold based on well-validated measures of emotion regulation and attentional difficulties to assess the effects of the intervention on emotion regulation, attention, and executive functioning. Objective and multi-method measures were used to assess outcomes across four time points. Results of repeated measures ANOVA found medium effects on child’s emotional regulation (Partial η2 = 0.071), as well as small effects on child’s anger control (Partial η2 = 0.013), per teacher report. Results also showed large effects on improving child’s inhibitory control (Partial η2 = 0.244) on a computerized task, but no effects on child’s inattention and executive functioning. Additional analyses found that several participants experienced clinically meaningful change in executive functioning and emotion regulation. No significant changes were found at the 3-month follow-up. While the findings suggest that Little Flower Yoga shows promise as an approach to addressing emotion regulation and executive functioning difficulties in children, several limitations must be considered. The small sample size limits the generalizability of the results. Moreover, the study's reliance on teacher-reported measures introduces potential response bias, and the lack of long-term follow-up beyond three months limits understanding of the program’s sustained impact. Further investigations utilizing a larger, more diverse sample and robust experimental designs are warranted.
SN  - 2573-4393
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.2501015
DO  - 10.21926/obm.icm.2501015
ID  - Dahl2025
ER  -