Publication year
2012
Citation Title
Evaluation of the mental health benefits of yoga in a secondary school: A preliminary randomized controlled trial.
Journal Name
The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research
Journal Volume
39
Issue Number
1
Page Numbers
80-90
DOI
10.1007/s11414-011-9249-8
Summary
Yoga can be beneficial for a range of outcomes, and students may benefit from engaging in yoga practice at school. Students in a rural Massachusetts high school were randomly assigned to either yoga classes or regular physical education classes to examine the potential mental health benefits of school-based yoga. Students in the yoga group showed greater resilience and mental health benefits than the physical education group, including better anger control and less fatigue.
Key Findings
While students in the control group had decreased resilience on most measures post-intervention compared to pre-intervention, students in the yoga group remained resilient (i.e., no change or slight improvements).
Students in the yoga group had better anger control and less fatigue than students in the control group post-intervention.
For students in the yoga group, increased attendence was associated with more positive psychological attitudes, increased sense of life purpose and satisfaction, decreased mood disturbance, tension, and anxiety, and improved attitude toward school.
Implications for Military Professionals
Collaborate with yoga teachers and studios to provide military youth with access to school-based or low-cost yoga classes
Educate professionals working with military children about the benefits of yoga for resilience and mental health
Implications for Program Leaders
Utilize yoga techniques (e.g., self-control, self-reflection or awareness, flexibility in emotional responding) in school-based programs aimed at anger reduction or stress management
Offer on-going yoga classes to students within related school courses (e.g., health, physical education)
Implications for Policy Makers
Support additional research examining the relationship between yoga practice and student resilience, particularly among children of Service members
Recommend that student school curricula include time for students to re-focus and reflect
Methods
Students in a rural Massachusetts school (grades 11-12) were enrolled in the study unless they opted out (11%) and were assigned to either the intervention group (i.e., four classes of yoga) or the control group (i.e., three classes of usual physical education).
Students completed questionnaires regarding their personality, mood states, resilience, stress, and psychological attitudes.
Students mental health and resilience were compared between the yoga and control groups post-intervention.
Participants
The sample included 121 Massachusetts public school students (58% male) with an average age of 16.8 years (SD = 0.6).
Students were assigned to either the yoga group (n = 74) or the control group (n = 47).
Students were 90% White and 17% low-income.
Limitations
Some of the study measures were meant to capture clinically significant mental health concerns and may not have been appropriate for a normative high school sample.
Since the intervention was only a few sessions long and the benefits of yoga may overlap with the benefits of other physical activity (including those within physical education classes), some effects may have been too small to detect.
Students were not blind to group assignment, which may have introduced bias into the student self-reports.
Avenues for Future Research
Explore the benefits of yoga across a wide range of student outcomes (e.g., academic performance, aggression or victimization, coping with deployment)
Conduct a similar study with a larger, more diverse sample to assess generalizability of results
Examine seperate components of yoga practice (e.g., mindfulness, breathing techniques, relaxation, self-reflection) to understand the mechanisms through which yoga may increase student resilience
Focus
Civilian
Target Population
Population Focus
Abstract
The goal of this study was to evaluate potential mental health benefits of yoga for adolescents in secondary school. Students were randomly assigned to either regular physical education classes or to 11 weeks of yoga sessions based upon the Yoga Ed program over a single semester. Students completed baseline and end-program self-report measures of mood, anxiety, perceived stress, resilience, and other mental health variables. Independent evaluation of individual outcome measures revealed that yoga participants showed statistically significant differences over time relative to controls on measures of anger control and fatigue/inertia. Most outcome measures exhibited a pattern of worsening in the control group over time, whereas changes in the yoga group over time were either minimal or showed slight improvements. These preliminary results suggest that implementation of yoga is acceptable and feasible in a secondary school setting and has the potential of playing a protective or preventive role in maintaining mental health.
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