Sharing – Youth mental health: Mindfulness training isn’t the answer, UK study finds

Well, it’s not the easy answer that many people were hoping for anyway.

“However, a UK-based research project, the largest of its kind on the subject, has suggested mindfulness training in schools might be a dead end – at least as a universal, one-size-fits-all approach.”

Let’s be honest, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to mental health issues, in children, adolescents and adults. What we see in reading the rest of this article is that mindfulness training had some positive impact on teachers, and older students, but for adolescents there really wasn’t much a statistical impact. It helped som kids but most of them simply didn’t engage because it was boring.

What we see here is what we see for a lot of mental health solutions, it works for some, and doesn’t work for others. Mental health is complicated. As the article points out, if the school environment is hurting student mental health or they are living in an environment at home that does the same, mindfulness isn’t going to change that and isn’t likely to have much of an overall impact even if they engage.

It’s complicated. The solutions are going to be complicated as well. I’d like some simple mindfulness training to be “the answer” for everyone too, but it just isn’t.

On the other hand, if it helps you, keep doing it.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/health/mindfulness-training-uk-schools-not-effective-wellness/