PubData Leuphana Repository: Daily breath-based mindfulness exercises in a randomized controlled trial improve primary school children’s performance in arithmetic

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.48548/pubdata-1420

Resource type	Journal Article
Title(s)	Daily breath-based mindfulness exercises in a randomized controlled trial improve primary school children’s performance in arithmetic
DOI	10.48548/pubdata-1420
Handle	20.500.14123/1489
Creator	Voltmer, Katharina 0000-0001-7660-6736 Hondrich, Finja von Salisch, Maria 0000-0002-6800-3596
Abstract	Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been shown to improve children’s academic achievements. Because MBIs include different exercises (possibly with differential effects), the teacher-led Breathing Break Intervention (BBI) was developed which focuses exclusively on breathing exercises and body awareness. The short daily breathing practices of BBI were evaluated in terms of their effects on children’s performance in mathematics. In a randomized controlled trial, N = 140 third and fourth graders (49% female) either received BBI (IG, n = 81) or participated in an active control group (ACG, n = 59). Students took a standardized arithmetic test and teachers rated their mathematics performance before (T1) and after (T2) the nine weeks of BBI, and in a follow-up five months later (T3). A mixed multilevel model with a quadratic term of time indicated a significant interaction effect between group and time on the arithmetic test after controlling for working memory updating and parental educational attainment. IG children did not show a steeper linear increase but differed significantly from ACG children in their trajectory of arithmetic performance. At T3, IG children outperformed ACG children. A multilevel ordinal logistic regression of teachers’ ratings of students’ mathematics performance revealed no significant differences between IG and ACG. Results suggest that daily breathing exercises in primary school classrooms contribute to enhancing children’s performance in arithmetic.
Language	English
Year of publication in PubData	2024
Publishing type	Parallel publication
Publication version	Published version
Date issued	2023-12-13
Creation context	Research
Notes	This publication was funded by the Open Access Publication Fund of Leuphana University Lüneburg.
Published by	Medien- und Informationszentrum, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
Related resources	Relations of this publication Relations of this publication

Information regarding first publication

Field	Value
Resource type	Journal
Title of the resource type	Scientific Reports
Identifier	DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49354-0
Publication year	2023
Volume	13
Issue	1
Number	22169
Number type	Article
Publisher	Springer Nature