The predictive values of state and trait mindfulness on emotion understanding in primary school children

Although positive effects of mindfulness-based interventions in schools on children’s cognition and behaviors are frequently reported, there is a lack of studies on the association between children’s mindfulness and their interpersonal social-emotional competences. The present study addresses this gap by analyzing the association between breath-based state mindfulness, self-reported trait mindfulness, and emotion understanding in German primary school children. Breath-based state mindfulness, self-reported trait mindfulness, and emotion understanding were assessed using a breath-counting task, the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale for Children, and the Adaptive Test of Emotion Knowledge, respectively, in N = 66 third-grade children (mean age = 8.52 years, SD = 0.69, 48% female) across three measurement points over an eight-months period during one school year. The effects of children’s mindfulness on their emotion understanding across all measurement points were analyzed in a multilevel mixed-effects linear model, controlling for gender, working memory updating, and concentration performance. In addition to the significant effects of time and children’s working memory updating, a significant effect of breath-based state mindfulness on children’s emotion understanding was found. These findings may suggest that children’s mindfulness practice could have positive effects on social-emotional competences, such as emotion understanding, even when explicit components of social-emotional learning are not included in the mindfulness practice. This study highlights the potential relevance of brief mindfulness practices for supporting children’s social-emotional development in school contexts. Future research should further investigate this association and potential mediators in more detail using larger samples.