Youth raised in high poverty neighborhoods are frequently exposed to stressful situations, such as community violence and family conflict, that adversely affect their well-being and academic performance. School-based mindfulness programming may support student functioning, however the existing research contains several limitations (e.g., lack of intervention replication and weak experimental designs). The goal of this project …
Continue reading “Evaluation of school-based mindfulness curriculum “Learning to BREATHE””
Negative intergroup emotions and political perceptions play a crucial role in fueling intergroup conflicts. Recent studies demonstrate the benefits of using clinical research on emotion regulation to inform intergroup relations research. By employing effective ways to temper extreme negative group-based emotions, researchers are able to strengthen attitudes and views that promote reconciliation. We suggest that …
Continue reading “Mindfulness in the context of intractable intergroup conflicts: Can mindfulness practice help overcome barriers to conflict resolution?”
Contemplative sciences interventions and studies have primarily targeted individual level changes such as increasing focus and reducing stress. Further, few studies include samples outside WEIRD populations (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010). This project incorporates an approach that integrates mindfulness as a contemplative practice with service learning training as a form …
Continue reading “Engaged mindfulness in Vietnam”
Between 1986 and 2006, northern Uganda was locked in a civil conflict where the local people experienced and/or witnessed poverty, rapes, beatings, and murders. Recently, yoga has been used in therapy to treat those who have suffered trauma (Emerson, 2015). Called trauma-sensitive yoga (TSY), TSY is a form of body-based therapy where yoga movement is …
Continue reading “Mind/body awareness workshop for teachers living in post-conflict Northern Uganda”
Recently, the literature on the positive impact of social integration on health and well-being, as well as academic success, has been growing. Students entering their first semester of college are at a crucial time for cementing social relationships among their peers. As such, early-college interventions that help students to feel more integrated and connected to …
Continue reading “The impact of mindfulness meditation training on social integration and well-being in first-semester college students”
Yoga generally involves movement sequences, breath regulation, and various techniques to improve attention. Yoga has helped adults and youth with low self-regulation (SR) and emotional regulation (ER) significantly improve in their ability to confront adversity with greater resilience. It has been postulated to exercise the neural connections involved in having children more efficiently engage in …
Continue reading “Impacts of yoga on self-regulation and emotion regulation in preschool education”
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are programs designed to improve psychological well-being, based on the practice of mindful awareness. One such MBI is the MindUP program, which is a school-based program designed for middle school students implemented by classroom teachers. MindUP has been shown to enhance indices of psychological well-being. Our team is interested in understanding how …
Continue reading “(Epi)genetic biomarkers of a school-based mindfulness program”
There has been considerable research and enthusiasm for investigating how contemplative training might improve social relationships. However, contemplative training is necessarily embedded in a network of social relationships, and researchers have not sufficiently studied the impact of one’s relationships on contemplative practice and development. Furthermore, contemplative training in the modern world is increasingly focused on …
Continue reading “Assessing beneficial relationship factors that support contemplative development”
Cultivation of mindfulness, the nonjudgmental awareness of experiences in the present moment, produces profound beneficial effects on well-being. However, whether and how mindful presence affects one of the most fundamental fields of human prosperity – interpersonal relationships – is largely unknown. Relying on recent methodological advancements in research of interactions, the current proposal aims to …
Continue reading “Studying interpersonal physiological attunement in experienced mindfulness practitioners”
Combat deployments by military personnel such as to Iraq (OIF) and Afghanistan (OEF) involve long separation from spouses, financial / social strain for the partner at home, and often combat trauma to the deployed partner. These can cause negative effects on relationship quality in some couples. Our clinical research group and others across the country …
Continue reading “Mindfulness, loving-kindness, & compassion meditation in group couples therapy for combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and their spouses”
