Efficacy of Mindfulness-based Training for Teachers and Young Children for Social Emotional and Ethical Development (SEED)

NCT06820619 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: SBRE-22-0785B
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 200
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The objectives of the present study are to (1) evaluate the effectiveness of implementing teachers' training on mindfulness and developing their competency in delivering the Social, Emotional, and Ethical Development (SEED) curriculum to preschool children and (2) evaluate the effectiveness of the SEED curriculum at kindergartens in improving children's well-being and related outcomes. Randomized controlled trials will be conducted to investigate the effectiveness of SEED teacher training and the SEED Curriculum. A minimum of four kindergartens will be recruited to participate in the study. Half of the kindergartens, teachers, and children will receive the training and SEED curriculum, while the other half will be assigned to the waitlist control condition. Upon informed consent from the school principals and parents, teachers will receive mindfulness training and complete pre- and post-training assessments, and one-month follow-up assessments. Teachers will be taught 8 mindfulness exercises to be integrated into daily teaching and students in the intervention group will receive a 30-minute lesson of SEED curriculum per week, 12 weeks in duration, led by the Bodhi Love Foundation SEED trainers. Parents and students will complete assessments before intervention and after intervention(in the 12th week).

Conditions

Development, Child; Mindfulness; Wellbeing

Keywords

social, emotional, and ethical development; mindfulness; mental well-being; young children

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (15)

• Mindfulness in Teaching Scale(MTS)

  The 14-item Mindfulness in Teaching Scale(MTS) will be used to assess the extent to which teachers are consciously aware of various classroom and student activities. It contains 2 subscales measuring teacher intrapersonal and interpersonal mindfulness. Items are answered on a 5-point Likert scale (from 1 = never, to 5 = always). The total score of each dimension is obtained by summing the respective items, with higher scores indicating greater levels of Teacher Intrapersonal Mindfulness (ranging from 9 to 45) and Teacher Interpersonal Mindfulness (ranging from 5 to 25).

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 6th week, follow up assessment at 10th week

• Copenhagen Burnout Inventory

  he personal burnout and work-related burnout subscale in Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) will be used to measure teachers' burnout in three domains: and client-related burnout. CBI shows good reliability for each subscale (Cronbach's alpha = .85-.87).

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 6th week, follow up assessment at 10th week

• The Impermanence Awareness and Acceptance Scale

  The 13-item Impermanence Awareness and Acceptance Scale (IMAAS) measures changes in an individual's state levels of impermanence awareness and impermanence acceptance on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 6th week, follow up assessment at 10th week

• Interconnectedness Scale

  The 12-item Interconnectedness Scale will be used to measure participants' awareness on their interdependent relationship with all matters in the world on a 6-point scale from 1 (totally disagree) to 6 (totally agree). The scale measures interconnectedness in three dimensions: emotional response to interconnectedness, appreciation of interconnectedness on self-development, and interconnectedness in social relations.

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 6th week, follow up assessment at 10th week

• Mindfulness-Discernment Scale (MDS)

  The 20-item Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Short Form (FFMQ-SF) and 10-item Mindfulness subscale in the Mindfulness-Discernment Scale will be used to measure levels of mindfulness. FFMQ-SF measures five dimensions of mindfulness including observing, describing, acting with awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity (Baer et al., 2008) on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Discernment will be assessed using the 14-item Discernment subscale in the Mindfulness-Discernment Scale. Items are rated on a scale ranging from 1 (Never) to 6 (Always).

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 6th week, follow up assessment at 10th week

• Nonattachment Scale(NAS)-Short Form

  The 8-item Nonattachment Scale Short Form will be used to assess participants' flexibility and balanced approach towards life experiences on a 6-point scale. Participants rated the items from 1 (disagree strongly) to 6 (agree strongly). Three items were reversed-coded and higher scores indicate higher level of nonattachment. This abridged version was developed and validated using item response theory in Hong Kong Chinese sample.

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 6th week, follow up assessment at 10th week

• Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale

  The Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale (SCBCS) is a 5-item inventory that measures compassion for others using a 7-point Likert-like scale (1 = not at all true of me to 7= very true of me), which yields a possible range of 5 to 35 points, with higher scores mean a higher level of compassion.

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 6th week, follow up assessment at 10th week

• The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS)

  Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale-Short is a 7-item self-report measure of subjective mental well-being on a 5-point Likert scale (1=none of the time, 5=all of the time), giving a minimum score of 14 and maximum score of 70. A higher WEMWBS score therefore indicates a higher level of mental well-being. The Chinese translation has demonstrated high levels of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity in both community and clinical samples.

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 6th week, follow up assessment at 10th week

• Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)

  A 20-item internalizing and externalizing problems subscales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire will be used to access their child's adjustment difficulties on a 3-point scale ranging from 1 (not true) to 3 (certainly true). The internalizing problems subscale capture emotional symptoms and peer relationship problems, whereas the externalizing problems subscale capture conduct problems and hyperactivity/inattention.

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 12th week

• Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales (Preschool Parents version) (SSIS - SEL)

  The SSIS SEL consists of 20 items which assess children's skills in each of the five social-emotional learning competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision Making.

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 12th week

• Child Prosocial Behavior Questionnaire (CPBQ)

  CPBQ consists of 10 items, Parents are asked to rate their child on a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1(never) to 5(always) on prosocial behaviors. CPBQ consists 3 subscales, 1.Sharing, examples include:"Willingly shares toys with a parent, even without being asked". 2. Comforting, examples include: "Hugs others when they are upset". 3.Helping:"Picks up something that I have accidentally dropped and hands it to me"

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 12th week

• Children's Behavioral Questionnaire(CBQ) age 3-7-Short Form

  In the CBQ, parents are asked to rate their child on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (extremely untrue of your child) to 7 (extremely true of your child). Parents are also provided with a Not Applicable response option when the child has not been observed in the situation described. The standard form consists 15 subscales, in this study, 3 subscales (18 items in total) from short form are used, namely Attentional Control, Impulsivity, and Inhibitory Control. A higher score on each subscale reflects a greater level of attentional control, Impulsivity, and Inhibitory Control, respectively.

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 12th week

• Delay of Shared Gratification Task

  The 5-minute Delay of Shared Gratification Task measures children's sharing behavior involving the small stickers. Children will be asked to share 1-2 stickers with other people over four instances, such as sharing with cost, sharing without cost, and delay of sharing.

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 12th week

• Dictator game experiment

  Children are given 10 stickers and told these 10 belong to them. Then they were told that the other child would come in that day but would not get stickers. Children then chose how many of their stickers to share with an anonymous other child (gender matched). To give children privacy, the experimenter then closed his or her eyes while children put the stickers they wanted to keep in their envelope and put the stickers they wanted to give away in the envelope for the other child. Experimenter count the number of stickers that's given to the "other child".

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 12th week

• Puppet Task

  Children will play 3 games alongside a puppet. In each game the puppet/adult realized that they did not have sufficient pieces to finish the task and became distressed that they were unable to receive a sticker. There were three distress prompts, which increased in the emotional intensity of suffering shown, This allowed three opportunities for the child to help. Helping was coded per task on a scale of 0(didn't help)-4(helped with no prompting). The total helping score could get is 0-12. if the child did not help, whether they console or disengage with the puppet is also coded.

  Pre-intervention assessment, Post-intervention assessment at 12th week

Study Arms (2)

Social, Emotional, and Ethical Development (SEED) curriculum

EXPERIMENTAL

The kindergarten teachers and children will receive training and 12-week SEED curriculum. Upon informed consent from the school principals and parents, teachers will receive mindfulness training and complete pre- and post-training assessments, and a one-month follow-up assessments. Teachers will be taught 8 mindfulness exercise to integrate into the daily teaching and students in intervention group will receive a 30-min lesson of SEED curriculum per week, 12-weeks in total, lead by the Bohdi Love Foudation tutors. Parents and students will complete questionnaries and assessments pre- and post-intervention.

Behavioral: Social, Emotional, and Ethical Development (SEED) curriculum

Waitlist control group

NO INTERVENTION

Two kindergartens will be assigned to the waitlist control condition. Teachers in the waitlist control schools will wait for at least 12 weeks before they receive the training, and children in the waitlist control group will receive SEED curriculum after the teachers' training. Upon informed consent from the school principals and parents, teachers will complete pre-, post-, and 4-week follow-up assessments about their mindfulness and relevant concept. Parents will complete pre- and post- questionnaires about the adjustment of the child. Children will complete pre- and post- assessment tasks with experimenters.

Interventions

Social, Emotional, and Ethical Development (SEED) curriculum BEHAVIORAL

In response to fulfilling children's urgent psychosocial needs, the Bodhi Love Foundation (BLF) adapted the Kindness Curriculum for young children in Hong Kong by translating it from English to Chinese and adapting its length and content for implementation in the local kindergarten context. The adapted Kindness Curriculum, renamed as Social, Emotional, and Ethical Development curriculum (SEED), is a two-part program involving teacher training and delivery of SEED. The teacher training is consist of a 12-hour mindfulness course and a 1-day (6 hours) workshop to get familiarized with the understanding and practice of mindfulness, and the details of the SEED Curriculum. The SEED Curriculum involves 8 short sessions of basic techniques in mindfulness with 10 minutes each. In addition, it has 12 mindfulness-based lessons with specific themes for children in K1 and K2. Each lesson lasts for approximately 30-40 minutes.

Social, Emotional, and Ethical Development (SEED) curriculum

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 3 Years - 7 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• For children: aged 3-7 years old, understand Cantonese
• For parents: aged 18 years old or above, understand Cantonese
• For teachers: aged 18 years old or above, understand Cantonese, currently working at a kindergarten

You may not qualify if:

• Cannot understand Cantonese

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Chinese University of Hong Kong: lead
• Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Dept of Psychology, CUHK, Hong Kong,

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Location

Related Publications (4)

• Blewitt C, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz M, Nolan A, Bergmeier H, Vicary D, Huang T, McCabe P, McKay T, Skouteris H. Social and Emotional Learning Associated With Universal Curriculum-Based Interventions in Early Childhood Education and Care Centers: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2018 Dec 7;1(8):e185727. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.5727.

  PMID: 30646283 BACKGROUND

• Green M, Kirby JN, Nielsen M. The cost of helping: An exploration of compassionate responding in children. Br J Dev Psychol. 2018 Nov;36(4):673-678. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12252. Epub 2018 Jun 10.

  PMID: 29888498 BACKGROUND

• Flook L, Goldberg SB, Pinger L, Bonus K, Davidson RJ. Mindfulness for teachers: A pilot study to assess effects on stress, burnout and teaching efficacy. Mind Brain Educ. 2013 Sep;7(3):10.1111/mbe.12026. doi: 10.1111/mbe.12026.

  PMID: 24324528 BACKGROUND

• Dunning D, Tudor K, Radley L, Dalrymple N, Funk J, Vainre M, Ford T, Montero-Marin J, Kuyken W, Dalgleish T. Do mindfulness-based programmes improve the cognitive skills, behaviour and mental health of children and adolescents? An updated meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Evid Based Ment Health. 2022 Jul 12;25(3):135-42. doi: 10.1136/ebmental-2022-300464. Online ahead of print.

  PMID: 35820989 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Psychological Well-Being

Interventions

Seeds

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Personal Satisfaction; Behavior

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Food; Diet, Food, and Nutrition; Physiological Phenomena; Food and Beverages

Study Officials

• Winnie WS MAK

  Chinese University of Hong Kong

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Rebecca YM Cheung

  Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 29, 2024
• First Posted: February 11, 2025
• Study Start: December 2, 2024
• Primary Completion: August 31, 2025
• Study Completion: December 31, 2025
• Last Updated: March 24, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

HK (1)