Cited by 118Mindfulness and Compassion InterventionsEarly Childhood Education and DevelopmentSubstance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes

The impact of mindfulness education on elementary school students: evaluation of the Master Mind program

Open access
Parker, Alison E., Kupersmidt, Janis B., Mathis, Erin T., Scull, Tracy M., Sims, Calvin·2014·Advances in School Mental Health Promotion

Abstract

Children need to be equipped with the skills to respond effectively to stress and prevent poor decision-making surrounding alcohol and tobacco use. Training and practice in mindfulness is one possible avenue for building children's skills. Recent research has revealed that mindfulness education in the classroom may play a role in enhancing children's self-regulatory abilities. Thus, the goal of the current study was to extend existing research in mindfulness education in classrooms and conduct an assessment of the feasibility and effectiveness of a new mindfulness education, substance abuse prevention program for fourth- and fifth-grade children (Master Mind). Two elementary schools were randomly assigned to be an intervention group (n = 71) or wait-list control group (n = 40). Students in the intervention group were taught the four-week Master Mind program by their regular classroom teachers. At pre- and postintervention time points, students completed self-reports of their intentions to use substances and an executive functioning performance task. Teachers rated students on their behavior in the classroom. Findings revealed that students who participated in the Master Mind program, as compared to those in the wait-list control condition, showed significant improvements in executive functioning skills (girls and boys), as well as a marginally significant increase in self-control abilities (boys only). In addition, significant reductions were found in aggression and social problems (girls and boys), as well as anxiety (girls only). No significant differences across groups were found for intentions to use alcohol or tobacco. Teachers implemented the program with fidelity; both teachers and students positively rated the structure and content of the Master Mind program, providing evidence of program satisfaction and feasibility. Although generalization may be limited by the small sample size, the findings suggest that mindfulness education may be beneficial in increasing self-regulatory abilities, which is important for substance abuse prevention.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/1754730x.2014.916497

Cites

93 of 94 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Saltzman A Goldin P Hayes SC Greco LA Mindfulness based stress reduction for school-age children. Acceptance and mindfulness interventions for children adolescents and families 2008 139 161 Context Press/New Harbinger Oakland, CA
  2. Sussman S Dent CW Lichtman KL Project EX. Outcomes of a teen smoking cessation program. Addictive Behaviors 2001 26 425 438 11436934

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Parker, A. E., Kupersmidt, J. B., Mathis, E. T., Scull, T. M., & Sims, C.
Affiliations
  • Innovation Research and Training (US)
  • Pennsylvania State University (US)
  • North Carolina State University (US)
Corresponding author
Parker, Alison E.
Venue
Advances in School Mental Health Promotion
Published
2014-05-19
Volume
7
Issue
3
Pages
184-204
ISSN
  • 1754-730X (ISSN-L)
  • 2049-8535
OpenAlex
W1964371259
Cited by
117
References
93
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1
FWCI
7.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Advances in School Mental Health Promotion (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute on Drug Abuse (R43DA024508)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
Keywords
mindfulness in education, substance use prevention, elementary school students, executive function, self-regulation, self-control, aggression, social problems, anxiety, program feasibility, implementation fidelity

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review