Conti Gabriella, Doyle Orla, Fearon Pasco, Oppedisano Veruska
Department of Economics and UCL Social Research Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
School of Economics & Geary Institute for Public Policy, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jan 24;12:765158. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.765158. eCollection 2021.
This manuscript presents a demonstration study of (QT), a classroom-based Transcendental Meditation intervention. The aim of the study is to assess the feasibility of implementing and evaluating QT in two pilot settings in the United Kingdom and Ireland. This study contributes to the field by targeting middle childhood, testing efficiency in two settings operating under different educational systems, and including a large array of measures. First, teacher and pupil engagement with QT was assessed. Second, the feasibility of using a quasi-experimental design and a wide range of instruments to measure changes in pupil outcomes before and after the intervention was assessed. This allows us to obtain information about which instruments might be feasible to administer and most sensitive to change. The first setting included 89 students from a primary school in the United Kingdom: those in sixth grade received the QT intervention, while those in fifth grade practiced meditation using the Headspace application. The second setting included 100 fifth- and sixth-grade students from two schools in Ireland: one received the QT intervention, the other served as a control. Recruitment and retention rates were high in both settings, and the intervention was feasible and accepted by students, parents and teachers. Implementation fidelity was lower in the United Kingdom setting where delivery started later in the school year and the practice was affected by preparation for the Standard Assessment Tests. These results show that QT may be feasibly delivered in school settings, and suggest the use of a compact battery of tests to measure impact. We find suggestive evidence that the intervention affected executive function as children who practiced QT showed improved working memory in both settings. In the Irish setting, pupils in the QT group had improved ability to control responses. These results have implications for future studies by a) demonstrating that implementation fidelity is highly context dependent and b) providing suggestive evidence of the malleability of children's skills in middle childhood. The results of this demonstration study will be used to inform a larger RCT of the QT intervention.
本手稿展示了一项关于超觉静坐（QT）的研究，这是一种基于课堂的超觉静坐干预措施。该研究的目的是评估在英国和爱尔兰的两个试点环境中实施和评估QT的可行性。这项研究通过针对童年中期、在两种不同教育系统下的环境中测试效率以及纳入大量测量方法，为该领域做出了贡献。首先，评估了教师和学生对QT的参与度。其次，评估了使用准实验设计和多种工具来测量干预前后学生成果变化的可行性。这使我们能够获取有关哪些工具可能便于实施且对变化最为敏感的信息。第一个环境包括来自英国一所小学的89名学生：六年级的学生接受QT干预，而五年级的学生使用Headspace应用程序进行冥想练习。第二个环境包括来自爱尔兰两所学校的100名五年级和六年级学生：一所学校接受QT干预，另一所作为对照。在这两个环境中，招募和留存率都很高，并且该干预措施对学生、家长和教师来说是可行且可接受的。在英国的环境中，实施保真度较低，因为授课在学年后期开始，并且练习受到标准评估测试准备工作的影响。这些结果表明，QT可以在学校环境中切实可行地实施，并建议使用一套精简的测试来衡量影响。我们发现有暗示性证据表明该干预影响了执行功能，因为练习QT的儿童在两个环境中都表现出工作记忆的改善。在爱尔兰的环境中，QT组的学生控制反应的能力有所提高。这些结果对未来的研究具有启示意义，一是表明实施保真度高度依赖于具体情境，二是提供了童年中期儿童技能可塑性的确凿证据。这项示范研究的结果将用于为QT干预的更大规模随机对照试验提供信息。
