Effects of Mindfulness Training on the Emotional Experience and (Non-) Acceptance of Emotions in Adolescents

Prof. dr. Filip Raes

Status: Completed

Conditions: Emotional Stress

Treatments: Behavioral: Mindfulness Training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04159272

s62523

G049019N (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The epidemiological data are alarming. Emotional distress, and depression in particular, is highly prevalent in adolescents, it has multiple problematic consequences and, most alarming, it is on the rise. All too often, these symptoms persist and lead to long-term and severe psychiatric problems. Mindfulness training (MT) is expected to counter both the non-acceptance of negative emotions (underlying depressed (sad) mood, anxiety and stress) and the dampening of positive emotions (underlying anhedonia). Vulnerable youngsters typically do not accept their negative emotions (which paradoxically further increases negative emotions) and also dampen positive emotions, as long as there are negative emotions present: a catch-22. MT, as a low-threshold intervention, is expected to 'unlock' this catch-22 by teaching participants to become non-judgmentally aware of thoughts, feelings, and sensations, and increasing their capacity to replace automatic, habitual, and often judgmental reactions with more conscious and skillful responses. That way, MT is hypothesized to reduce depressed (sad) mood, anxiety and stress and to promote protective positive emotions. On top, MT is expected to foster a healthier discourse among youngsters on their emotional lives as an alternative to society's malignant discourse that denounces negative emotions and over-focuses on the pursuit of happiness, which now backfires on vulnerable youngsters.

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effects of MT in adolescents on their experience of negative emotions (i.e. symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression), suppression/acceptance of negative emotions, symptoms of anhedonia (i.e. lack of pleasurable feelings), dampening of positive emotions, social expectancies towards the (non-)expression and (non-)experience of negative emotions, and on several secondary outcomes or endpoints (e.g., loneliness, repetitive negative thinking, self-compassion). Pairs of two classes will be recruited from schools in Flanders, Belgium, and all adolescents (>14 years of age) of these selected classes will be invited to participate. One class in each pair will be randomly assigned to an 8-week MT during regular school hours supported by a newly developed mindfulness app for adolescents, while the other class (control group) follows the regular school curriculum. Before randomization, post-intervention and 3 months after the intervention, participant's current experience of negative emotions, their level of suppression/acceptance of negative emotions, dampening, and anhedonia will be assessed using experience sampling methods and self-report questionnaires.

The investigators hypothesize that mindfulness can help youngsters in their school context to become more accepting of their emotions and, that this 'opening up' not only leads to less distress and anhedonia, but also to less toxic social pressure amongst peers in school not to feel and not to talk about negative emotions. That way, mindfulness can help foster a social climate that promotes a more balanced embracement of emotions which is likely beneficial for young people's well-being.

Enrollment: 450 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 14+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• The study is open to all adolescents (>14yrs) of participating school classes.
• They should understand and speak Dutch.
• Written informed consent (including informed consent from a parent for those <18yrs) after been informed on all aspects of the study.

Exclusion criteria

• Not applicable

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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450 participants in 2 patient groups

Mindfulness Training

Experimental group

Description:

The MT programme adheres to a standardized protocol developed from MBSR (Kabat-Zinn, 1990) and MBCT (Segal et al., 2012) manuals and is adjusted to an adolescent population. Adjustments are based on our ample experience with mindfulness and adolescents in different contexts. Key objectives are: (1) to increase awareness of one's present moment experience; (2) to teach an attitude of openness and acceptance (non-judging) toward one's experience. This accepting attitude changes the person's relationship with the experience, being a detached and non-reactive orientation. Participants learn to recognize entanglement with one's thoughts and emotions and there is an increased understanding of one's spontaneous reactions. If adolescents adopt these skills, their negative emotions and cognitions will no longer be reinforced, creating the opportunity to deal with problematic thoughts and feelings.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mindfulness Training

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants follow their regular course curriculum.