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Sun salutations in school : a pilot study of yoga with school-aged children

University of British Columbia

Research has found evidence of yoga’s positive effect on levels of mindfulness, emotion regulation and well-being in adults. Several studies have shown similar benefits for children participating in mindfulness-based interventions in school settings. However, the body of literature focusing on yoga for children is still in nascent stages. There is a paucity of literature examining the outcomes and implementation of yoga on typically developing children, particularly in the context of school yoga programs. This pilot study presents preliminary findings related to outcomes and implementation of a yoga program with elementary-school-aged children. Participants (N = 80) were 5th to 7th grade students who participated in 45 minutes of yoga per week for 10-weeks. It was hypothesized that following the yoga program, participants’ self-reports of mindfulness skills, emotion regulation, subjective well-being, optimism and experience of classroom supportiveness would improve. To assess the feasibility of implementing a yoga program in the school setting, participants’ attendance as well as teacher and student perceptions of the program were also measured. Although no firm conclusions can be made without the use of a control group, preliminary findings suggest that both students and teachers found the program useful and fairly attractive, and improvements to mindfulness and emotion regulation skills followed the program. No changes were found for subjective well-being, optimism and classroom supportiveness. The results of this research may assist in informing educators and scholars as they strive to develop, implement and evaluate yoga programs suitable for children.

Text

2018-04-11

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/65278

Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/