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From the article: A new study published in the Journal of Adolescence tested an 8-week mindfulness training program among a group of adolescent and adult females. The results revealed that both teens and adults showed improvements in reorienting their attention following mindfulness training.

Adolescence is a period of continued brain development, which includes improvements in cognitive control and emotion regulation. It has been proposed that mindfulness training (MT) might help adolescents cultivate these skills. But while MT has been found to improve cognitive control and emotion regulation in adult samples, its effectiveness among youth is less clear.

Since adolescence is marked by heightened emotional reactivity, mindfulness training might be particularly beneficial for this age group. On the other hand, with fewer attentional resources than adults, adolescents might not be fully capable of benefiting from MT. Study author Iroise Dumontheil and her team set out to explore differences in how adults and adolescents would respond to the same mindfulness training.

“The study started in 2012. At the time, there was quite a lot of hype about mindfulness,” explained Dumontheil, a professor at the University of London and author of “Educational Neuroscience: Development Across the Life Span.”

“It was being implemented in schools but there was very little research evidence of its potential impact on children and adolescents. We were interested in better understanding the specific mechanisms through which mindfulness meditation training may influence cognition, compared to a closely match condition, which was relaxation training in our study.”

It is good against the control group. But I would like to see it against other methods for attention control. Whether that's through drugs or another technique. It is good that its better than relaxation training (the control), but it does not show if it's better than other techniques.

What counts as "mindfullness training"?

In my neck of the woods I'd expect learning how to meditate. It takes 1-2 hours.

What's interesting, some Buddhist monasteries in Asia have programs for problem youths where folks have a choice of going to prison or staying with the monastery until the abbot feels they are in a good spot. I remember, usually it's somewhere around 1-6 months. They learn how to meditate and basically leave with monks and follow the same routines and discipline. It's said that the impact is usually hugely positive because children and teens learn how to be mindful that allows them to observe and to manage their negative thoughts, speech and actions. It becomes a life-long thing, just like learning how to ride a bicycle.

I don't know how well this approach scales, though. We would need a lot of those monasteries here in the States.

>In my neck of the woods I'd expect learning how to meditate. It takes 1-2 hours.

Can you describe the activity that you call meditation? If someone wanted to do it on their or do a study about it, how would they execute meditation?

I don't have the attentional control to do this for 8 minutes.

Not a doctor, but my therapist told me to do this, so I can explain the process.

Basically, you clear mind by focusing on parts your body touches, and then may expand to other things like putting your hand on certain parts or focusing on sounds etc.

Its probably a form of meditation.

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Man, I didn't even read the hole text.my attentional control is fucked.

Meditation is good for you? Who knew?!?

Buddha is typing

Well for one, mediation can be deeply personal and there is no single 'way to achieve meditation'.

In my experience, meditation is a process of bringing your body and mind to a restful, mindful state, and then listening to the thoughts and sensations that your body and mind are feeding to you. Allowing yourself to explore and feel those sensations, before letting them go and returning to the restful state.

In science you need a way of defining your experiment so that it's repeatable. I guess I'm looking for the definition of "meditation," either from the research or other peoples opinions on what they would call meditation.

The article cites: Broderick, P. C. (2013) Learning to breathe as the mindfulness curriculum they used. It's apparently a book and accompanying website: https://learning2breathe.org/.

Disclaimer that I have no experience with this program so cannot vouch for its effectiveness, veracity, etc.

Again, you're not going to have much success looking for a widely acknowledged & accepted definition for meditation, at least not one that's more than "sit still and try to be calm", due to the highly personal nature of the activity.

You might find some really long winded and elaborate definitions that fit almost all personal interpretations that might exist though.

It doesn't need to be widely acknowledged. I'm just looking for different definitions, either by individuals on this subreddit or by the authors of the quoted study. Without definitions for measurement and reproducibility talk of meditation doesn't belong on a science subreddit. Luckily, I suspect that some people have their own definitions, even if you're not one of those people.

I attempted to communicate my definition of meditation via the phrase 'in my experience'. I hope you are able to find your own definition.

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Mindfulness means being fully aware of the present moment, rather than being caught up in your own thoughts. It's basically the opposite of being on autopilot. Mindfulness training or meditation is simply practicing being aware of the present moment for a length of time (could be an hour, could be 5 minutes, could be a whole day). When meditating, a good anchor to tie you to the present moment is your breath. Be aware of your breath - breathe in, breathe out. There's no need to control the depth or speed, just breathe comfortably, and feel each breath in your lungs, chest and abdomen. Notice your hands, shoulders, legs, feet. Release any tension you're holding. When your mind wanders, notice your thoughts. Accept them, and then gently bring your attention back to your breath. If you feel any emotions, notice and accept them too, then gently bring your attention back to your breath, in and out. Try setting a timer for 30-60 seconds, just to try it out. Then try 5 minutes. If it's going well, try making it a daily habit. You can gradually add more time per session if that feels right for you, or you can keep it short and sweet. There is no wrong way to practice mindfulness. If you are able to redirect your attention from a passing thought back to your breath even one time, you have succeeded. My final tips are that it helps to have a comfortable place to sit, and to set a timer for your preferred amount of time with a nice calming bell or other soothing alarm sound.

So if you were making a study would say that mindfulness is achieved when a subject is lead through a conscious breathing exercise? Is that how you would define it?

>In my experience, meditation is a process of bringing your body and mind to a restful, mindful state, and then listening to the thoughts and sensations that your body and mind are feeding to you. Allowing yourself to explore and feel those sensations, before letting them go and returning to the restful state.

This is not a definition that can be clearly repeated. How do you know when the subject is "restful" enough and "mindful" enough? What differentiates the "rest" of meditation from other forms of rest? I totally respect that your definition is individual. There's nothing wrong with that. However the definition you have described to me is not really actionable for a scientific study.

>not really actionable for a scientific study.

That's completely fair, my intention was more to provide a data point of my personal definition.

As a teacher, I can tell you that getting them to sit still for mindfulness training the first 2 or 3 lessons is likely the hardest thing you will ever do. No one between the age of 5 and 18 I have ever met can sit in a room full of their peers and be quiet or still for more than 30 seconds when a guided meditation or mindfulness lesson starts up.

For some of them, it seems like the single most uncomfortable thing they have ever experienced.

A free, easy to do at home, accessible method will always be preferred over medication or other technique requiring medical intervention

I wouldn't say that mindfulness is "achieved" at all. I would say it's something we practice and strive for in order to live a better life. If you're looking for a more scientific definition, I'm not sure there is one. The study did, however, find quantifiable effects of engaging in mindfulness training, including better performance on attentional control tests.

If it's not as effective, then I doubt it will always be preferred.

Also, I didn't say that they needed to be medical intervention. They can just be other behavior techniques.

It still should be studied either way. If mediation is better or the same, then that's great, but if it's not, then we also need to know that too.

>If you're looking for a more scientific definition, I'm not sure there is one

Then the conversation doesn't belong on a science subreddit. Although I think your statement may be a little too pessimistic as there's likely adequately rigorous ways to define the word, even if different people may define it slightly differently.

Republicans will make this illegal. Just watch.

We have let our phones become so addicting. They literally bring psychologists in to make some apps more addicting. Then we let all the kids have unlimited access to anything on the internet. It's no wonder their addicted.

I'd say pretty much any sort of even semidisciplined training would improve that.

Did they control for other similar causes to verify the effect comes from mindfulness training in itself?

I doubt it and I'm too lazy to check rn

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Tbf this was still true when I started high school and almost nobody had a cell phone

Yeah you're definitely right. But advertising companies have never had such a direct line to the consumers brain before. They can know what you like more than you do.

In the Zen practice, they sometimes refer to the seated meditation practice as "just sitting", because that is sort of the long and short of the activity. The mental dimension to it is slightly more complex, but encompasses why it is called a practice.

The goal is not to enact strict controls upon oneself, but rather open oneself up to experiencing oneself more fully. Thoughts will approach, but as one master once said: leave your front door open and your back door open -- thoughts will come and go, just don't serve them tea. That is the toughest part for most people, I think: the part about letting the mind empty out naturally.

I also think that's the part most people misunderstand, as they think that meditation is about some sort of self-deprivation, when it's actually quite the opposite. By learning how to process our thoughts and emotions, we can better express ourselves and do so in healthier ways.

It's just some thoughts, I'm sure they'll go away soon enough

I don't have the desire to read yet another nonsense "mindfulness" story.

Here is a crashourse - read or listen: https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/meditation-instruction/

Here: https://mindworks.org/blog/meditation-research-science-meditation/

In fact that is covered by other studies. These kind if "training" is only for about 50% of people nice. The other 50% just hate it. So don't be too hard to your students.

Could you link to one?

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Not with less amount of work, you would have looking it up. But that study I had in mind is older than 20 years.

It’s a skill people should build.

You can get all the peace if mindful you want. It's still not gonna stop our environmental problems from smacking us in the face. Mindfulness is a poor replacement for political action.