Youth are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression and suicidality. The caregiver-child relationship provides an opportune context for modeling and encouraging self-compassionate responses to distress, an approach that could mitigate these trends. However, caregivers themselves are facing pandemic-exacerbated mental health challenges that can impact their ability to provide support. To address these issues, this study …
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A compassionate decision-making model to increase compassionate behavior
This project aims to test a new pragmatic decision-making model of compassionate action to uncover the key mechanisms that lead compassionate intent into prosocial behavior. The project is significant because despite the investment in developing and evaluating compassion-based programs, their impact is not reliably translating into increased compassionate behavior. In addition, when compassion interventions do …
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Exploring the use of contemplative practices in social justice student-leadership development at a Historically Black University
This grant will train a cohort of undergraduate students to lead contemplative healing practices for peer-to-peer social justice student leadership development. The first phase of this program will introduce fellows to scheduled lectures/trainings on a variety of contemplative practices. These training will be facilitated by a certified Mindfulness Specialist and will be guest lectured by …
Developing the Objective Awareness and Mindfulness Measure for Teachers: A novel measure of teachers’ subjective experience, objectively coded using a machine learning approach
To understand how contemplative programming influences thinking, emotions, and perceptions, we must peek into the mind. Current assessments primarily rely on self-report. Self-report surveys are efficient but require the respondent to evaluate their own consciousness, a challenging process that can also introduce bias. This issue can be eliminated by asking respondents to recall their experiences …
Gratitude interventions, well-being and social networks: A 16-month longitudinal study
Gratitude interventions, whereby people regularly reflect on and note things they are grateful for, can be effective in improving well-being. When completing gratitude tasks, people often focus on important people in their life. Therefore, this intervention may work by increasing people’s sense of social connection. As such, gratitude interventions have the potential not just to …
Cognitive mechanisms underlying increased compassion from Mindfulness and Compassion meditation
Both Mindfulness and Compassion meditation have been shown to lead to increased prosocial thoughts and behaviors. The historical traditions from which these meditation types stem suggest that these effects should be caused by changes in habitual modes of thinking as well as increases in certain types of wisdom or insight, in particular the recognition that …
Happiness Curriculum and social emotional development; the role of curricula, pedagogy, reflection and teacher student relations
There is a growing recognition of the importance of education for social emotional learning (SEL). There is a limited understanding of SEL of children in the Global South despite the growing interest, for example, in India, SEL has been emphasised in the national educational policy and by several large-scale interventions, notably the Happiness Curriculum which …
Overcoming barriers to social connection and love
Low social connectedness is a growing cause of suffering and disability. Nearly half of U.S. adults report sometimes or always feeling lonely, a state defined as a perceived lack of social connectedness and close, loving relationships. We propose to study empathy as a mechanism promoting perceived social connectedness and love. We will assess whether a …
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Widening the circles of compassionate action: A social justice, school-based mindfulness intervention for youth
Amidst glaring evidence of racism and social inequities brought to the forefront in the recent past, there is heightened urgency to explore how youth gain critical consciousness about social issues, and growing interest in supporting youth engagement in positive social change. The Peace of Mind-Social Justice (PoM-SJ) curriculum integrates skills typical in mindfulness-based programs—mindfulness and …
Leveraging contemplative science to build mindful digital engagement: Supporting adolescents in a hyperconnected era
Adolescents are growing up in a radically connected world. Mobile devices provide near-constant access to apps intentionally designed to hijack focus and to social media platforms that tap developmental social sensitivities. This project proposes mindful digital engagement as an antidote. In Phase 1, we will create and test the reliability and validity of a mindful …
