







































 

 

 

 

 

An Investigation into the Impact of Mindful-

ness Education on Children Development – 

Based on the Mindfulness Experiment on 5th 

Graders of D primary School in W City

Jing Xie, Yanguo Tu 

 
Hubei Normal University, Huangshi, China 

 Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China 

 

Abstract. This study selected fifth graders from D Primary School as 

subjects and conducted a 12-week mindfulness education experiment 

using a pre- and post-test control experiment design. The results can be 
used to demonstrate that mindfulness education has a significant impact 

on children’s attention development, emotional balance and develop-
ment, psychological development and happiness enhancement. These 

aspects interact with each other to jointly improve the overall develop-

ment level of children. Therefore, activities of mindfulness education are 
necessary and should be carried out moderately at school, thus giving 

full play to the positive role of mindfulness education in child develop-

ment. 
Best Evid Chin Edu 2019; 2(2):229-242. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.19.ar1049 

Keywords: Mindfulness Education; Child Development; Educational Experiments 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Correspondence to: Yanguo Tu, Professor at College of Education, Central China Normal University, China. 

Email: tuyg@mail.ccnu.edu.cn. 

About the Author: Jing Xie, a Lecturer at College of Education Science, Hubei Normal University, China. Email: 

xiejing1302@163.com. 

Conflict of Interests: None. 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 230 

N the past ten years, with the rise of the mindfulness movement, training that ap-

peals to the improvement of attention, mental health development and emotional 

regulation has been increasingly discovered and valued by scholars at home and 

abroad. Mindfulness education is not a fixed course or teaching mode, but refers to var-

ious educational activities carried out using mindfulness methods, such as mindfulness 

reading, mindfulness awareness, mindfulness writing, mindfulness lectures, and mind-

fulness eating, etc. The United States has implanted mindfulness training into the “K-12” 

education system. The UK’s mindfulness campus program has benefited more than 

7,000 children. The Dutch mindfulness upbringing program has had a positive impact 

on the communication between children and parents. The study of mindfulness in China 

has just started. Researchers have realized that mindfulness training has important val-

ues in school education to improve children’s attention, shape children’s moral quality, 

promote children’s self-regulation, and enhance subjective well-being of teachers and 

students. In this study, students of grade five in an elementary school were selected to 

conduct a 12-week mindfulness education experiment using a pre- & post-test control 

experiment design, attempting to reveal the specific effects of mindfulness education on 

development of children. 

Research Methodology 

The theoretical hypothesis of this study is that experimental interventions through the 

mindfulness education curriculum adapted from cognitive therapy can effectively pro-

mote the development of children’s psychological, social, emotional and cognitive as-

pects, thus improving the overall development level of children. The research mainly 

incorporates the combined method of educational experiment and measurement. The 

educational experiment adopts the pre- and post-test control experiment design of equal 

groups. The measurement tools include the “Attention Stability Questionnaire,” the 

“Psychological Health Scale for Primary School Students,” the “Positive and Negative 

Emotion Scales,” and the “Index of Well-being.” 

Subjects 

D Elementary School in W city is a small-scale school with no more than 35 students in 

each class. The number of students is conducive to the control and implementation of 

the experiment. In addition to the changes in body growth, children of the fifth grade 

begin to have more various feelings and emotions than before. Compared with children 

in the early period of primary school, older students can analyze and integrate external 

affairs in a more detailed manner and regulate their behavior (Zhang, 2004). In sum-

mary, after a careful discussion between the researcher and the principal of the experi-

mental school and the head teachers, Class 1, Grade 5 was selected as the experimental 

group, and Class 2, Grade 5 was used as the control group. The two classes were equal 

in number and the two classes included typical students, head teachers and classroom 

teachers. Under the existing manpower and material resources, such class size and class 

level are just in line with the number and standards of subjects expected by the re-

searcher. 

I 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 231 

There were 20 male students and 11 female students in the experimental group, 

and one of them is an exceptional child. During the experiment, 4 students either took 

time off at different times or had events affecting their body and mind within one week 

to two weeks before the test. After excluding the influence of irrelevant variables, a 

total of 26 valid samples were obtained. In the control group, there were 19 male stu-

dents and 12 female students. The subjects who did not meet the requirements were 

deleted, and a total of 29 valid samples were obtained. The quantity of final samples 

obtained is shown in Table 1. There are 32 boys and 23 girls in the valid sample. 

Research Design 

The experiment used two types of designs. One is the experimental design of the exper-

imental group and the control group between the subjects; the other is the experimental 

design of the experimental group before and after the test. Using the mindfulness educa-

tion course as the intervention method, and the fifth grade students of D Primary School 

as subjects of the study, quasi-experimental design was adopted as the research de-

sign.The researchers conducted pre- and post-intervention and pre- and post-

intervention tests in the class with both the experimental group and the control group. 

The dependent variable was the total score of each scale before and after the pre- & 

post-tests of experimental group and the control group. 

In order to control the interference of irrelevant and additional variables and 

reduce the experimental error as much as possible, this study adopted a variety of tech-

nical treatment methods: (i) The number of students, the sex ratio, and the family back-

ground of the experimental group and the control group were roughly balanced. (ii) 

During the experiment period, the teaching methods of the teachers in the experimental 

group and the control group were the same as before, and they were consistent with the 

school teaching arrangements. (iii) Subjects were excluded who did not meet the exper-

imental requirements by questionnaire. For example, those who have had a major im-

pact on their own development because of family or other factors, as well as those who 

did not complete the experiment due to taking time off. (iv) The experimental assessor 

was separated from the researcher. In order to reduce the influence of subjective factors, 

the researcher only conducted 12 weeks of mindfulness training for the students 

throughout the experiment. The effect evaluation was supported by the class teacher and 

third party personnel (doctoral students) to conduct measurement and interview work 

before and after the experiment. 

Research Scenario 

The children’s mindfulness education in this study is a self-regulation method that 

teaches children to be physically and mentally active. It is based on the adult mindful-

ness decompression method or the mindfulness cognitive therapy, and includes a series 

of courses based on the righteousness intervention program modified by the child’s age 

teaching method. Because children’s mindfulness cognitive therapy is for children with 

special needs, the course intervention of this study is aimed at the educational effective-

ness of ordinary students. It should not be called therapy, but adapted to a kind of 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 232 

Table 1. Sample Statistics. 

 Total # Boys Girls Valid # Boys Girls 

Experimental Group 31 20 11 26 15 11 
Control Group 31 19 12 29 17 12 
 

 

 

suitable mindfulness education program for the learning and education of general stu-

dents. Therefore, in the design of the mindfulness education curriculum, we developed a 

12-week course of mindfulness education based on the curriculum structure of foreign 

children’s mindfulness cognitive therapy and children’s mindfulness decompression 

therapy (Table 2). The experimental group received a 40-minute mindfulness education 

course once a week, had related homework, and the control group remained the same as 

they were before this experiment. 

Research Instruments 

Measurement Scale 

The research instruments of this study include the Attention Stability Test Question-

naire, the Mental Health Rate Scale for Pupil (MHRSP), the Positive and Negative Af-

fective Scale (PANAS), and the Index of Well-being (IWB).  

(1) Attention Stability Test Questionnaire: The Attention Stability Test includes 

two parts, A and B, which consisting of multiple curves starting from the left side and 

ending on the right side, requiring participants to trace a curve from the left with eyes, 

and filling the number at the beginning of the curve into the square at the end of the 

curve on the right. Pens or fingers cannot be used as assistance in the whole test, and the 

correct response number is used as an evaluation index for attention stability. A study 

by Yin Hengchan in 2003 showed that the test had good validity (Yin, 2003).  

(2) Mental Health Rate Scale for Pupil (MHRSP): This scale is a psychological 

test questionnaire consisting of 80 items. Every 10 items constitute a subscale, which in 

turn includes 8 subscales such as learning disabilities, emotional disorders, personality 

defects, social adaptation disorders, moral defects, behavior disorder and special disor-

ders. The project adopts a three-level scoring system. Each project has three levels of 

“no”, “occasionally” and “frequently”, with 0 point, 1 point and 2 points in turn. The 

whole scale is the sum of the scores of each subscale. The higher the score is, the more 

the mental health problems there are, the lower the psychological level is.  

(3) Positive and Negative Affective Scales: This scale is compiled by Watson 

(1988) and is currently the most widely used positive emotion measurement tool. It 

consists of 20 words that describe different sentiment and emotion. It is divided into 

Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA). Two dimensions, each with 10 words. 

Chinese scholars have studied the applicability of the Chinese version of the scale in 

China and the cross-cultural consistency between China and the United States. The re-

sults show that the scale is suitable for the Chinese population, with cross-cultural con- 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 233 

Table 2. Children’s Mindfulness Education Course. 

Time Course Theme Course Content Homework  

Week 1 What is righteous thought: a gift 
to accompany a lifetime 

Self-introduction; es-
tablishing norms; con-
sciously aware of non-
judgment 

Mindfulness exercise 

Week 2 Breathing righteous thoughts: 
experience breathing as an 
anchor point, come back after 
each distraction, and observe 
breathing as a way to cope with 
difficulties 

Lie, stand, sit and 
breathe 

Number breath 10 
times before going to 
bed 

Week 3 Mindfulness diet: the automatic 
guidance of the thinking in the 
process of eating 

Mindfulness eating 
raisins; mindfulness 
eating 

Mindfulness diet rec-
ord; Number of 
breaths 20 times 
before going to bed 

Week 4 Mindfulness Awareness: dis-
covering and breaking through 
inertia thinking 

The attributes of the 
five senses as the 
object of awareness 

Number of breaths 
20  before going to 
bed 

Week 5 Body scan: awareness exercis-
es of static body 

Consciously aware of 
various parts of the 
body successively 

Mindful awareness 
exercise; Number of 
breaths 20 times 
before going to bed 

Week 6 Mindfulness sit-in: awareness 
exercise from the inside out 

Mindfulness, breath-
ing, body, thinking, 
emotions, behavior, 
etc. 

Number of breaths 
20 times before go-
ing to bed 

Week 7 Mindfulness stretching: dynamic 
body awareness exercises 

Learn to be aware of 
the body through ac-
tion; mindfulness yoga 

Animal and plant 
posture 

Week 8 Mindfulness walking: dynamic 
exercises from the outside to 
the inside, keeping awareness 
during walking 

Walking indoors and 
outdoors, experience 
the feeling of your feet 

Number of breaths 
20 times before go-
ing to bed 

Week 9 Mindfulness Listening: exploring 
the interpersonal communica-
tion of mindfulness 

Harmonious relation-
ship; Listening to the 
sound: no choice to 
detect 

Learn to listen and 
express; friendly wish 
list 

Week10 Mindfulness life: my thoughts, 
feelings, physical feelings, be-
havior 

20 minutes of medita-
tion practice; explore 
the implementation of 
mindfulness life 

Daily practice such 
as brushing, bathing, 
etc.; Number of 
breaths 20 times 
before going to bed 

Week 11 
 

The Road to Mindfulness: intro-
spect and review personal 
growth 

Introspective medita-
tion; share the process 
through narrative 

Write a letter to your-
self 

Week 12 
 

Love: thanksgiving practice Blessing Self-practice 

 

 

 

 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 234 

sistency and good reliability and validity (Zhang & Yan, 2004). 

(4) Index of Well-being (IWB): This scale was compiled by Campbell et al. in 

1976. The scale includes two subscales: the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire and the 

Overall Affective Index. IWB has 9 questions; Overall Affective Index has 8 questions; 

the life Satisfaction Questionnaire has 1 question; the project uses 7 points; the total 

score is the sum of the scores of the life satisfaction questionnaire and the average score 

of the Overall Affective Index. Li Jing et al. revised the scale. After research, it was 

found that the correlation between the Overall Affective Index and the Happiness Sur-

vey was 0.53, and the consistency between the Overall Affective Index and Life Satis-

faction was 0.56, which could be used as a tool to measure the happiness index (Li et al., 

2000). 

The measurement process is strictly carried out in accordance with the proce-

dures of psychological measurement. The main test is to issue and collect question-

naires on site one week before and one week after the experiment, and to unify the in-

structions. Students are required to carefully fill out the questionnaire according to their 

actual situation, in order to ensure the recovery rate and efficiency of the questionnaire, 

the whole process of the questionnaire test is carried out under the joint supervision of 

the researcher and the class teacher to ensure the authenticity and scientificity of the 

data. 

Qualitative Research Instruments 

The qualitative research instruments we developed of this study include the Mindful-

ness Experience Log Sheet, the Homework Log Sheet, the Open Questionnaire, and the 

Interview Outline.  

The Mindfulness Experience Log Sheet is made by children to record their ex-

periences and feelings during the implementation of the course. For example, what do 

you think about? What physical feelings are you concerned about? What emotions and 

feelings have you experienced? The content is designed to match the weekly teaching 

activities. At the end of each course, the children fill in the forms themselves to under-

stand their learning state, as a reference for correcting teaching, and also as a source of 

research for researchers.  

The Homework Log Sheet: After the course, the children go home to complete 

the Homework Log Sheet. The content design is also matched with the weekly teaching 

activities. The ideas, feelings, thoughts, affects, words and deeds, etc. perceived in each 

exercise are recorded. The researcher conduct family work every week. Reviewing the 

assignments and give appropriate guidance and encouragement to form a quality of 

mindfulness and better integrate mindfulness into life.  

The Open Questionnaire: In addition, the researcher compiled a questionnaire 

and presented the interview questions in the form of a questionnaire to gain a more 

comprehensive understanding of the experiment results.  

Finally, the researcher conducted formal interviews or random interviews on 

children during the experiment. The formal interview was based on the interview out-

line prepared in advance to obtain the overall perception of children in the teaching of 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 235 

mindfulness courses. Random interviews paid more attention to the real feelings during 

class, through the perspective of individual differences, to obtain children’s different 

views on mindfulness education curriculum. 

Data Processing 

Using SPSS 20.0, the researcher analyzed the results of attention stability test question-

naire, mental health scale, positive and negative emotion scale, happiness scale, etc. in 

this study. The statistical analysis method used in this study can meet the research needs. 

Results and Analysis 

Through the comparative analysis of the difference results of pre-test and post-test be-

tween the experimental group and the control group and the results of pre-test and post-

test of experimental group, we found that mindfulness education has extremely signifi-

cant effects in promoting children’s attention development, mental health development, 

emotional balance, and happiness. 

Analysis of Homogeneity Test Results between the Experimental Group 

and the Control Group 

In order to test whether the two groups were homogeneous, the independent sample T 

test was used to examine the difference of pre-test. The results showed that there was no 

statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control group 

in the Attention Stability Test, Mental Health Rate Scale for Pupil, Positive and Nega-

tive Emotion Scales, and the Index of Well-being (Table 3). Therefore, students in the-

se two classes can be used as an experimental group and a control group.   

Analysis of the Difference between the Results of the Experimental 

Group and the Control Group Before and After the Experiment 

According to the independent sample T test, it can be seen from Table 4 that there is a 

statistically significant difference in the scores of the Attention Stability Test between 

the experimental group and the control group before and after the experiment (p = 

0.003); the mean value of the difference of the experimental group before and after the 

Attention Stability Test (M = 4.31) was significantly higher than that of the control 

group (M = 0.03), indicating that the stability of the attention of the experimental group 

was better than that of the control group. 

The mental health problems of the students in the mindfulness experimental 

group were significantly improved compared with the control group. There was a statis-

tically significant difference in the total score of the Mental Health Rate Scale for Pupil 

(p = 0.000), and the mean difference of the total score of the Mental Health Rate Scale 

for Pupil of the experimental group (post-test score minus pre-test score) (M = -9.27) 

was significantly larger than that of the control group (M = -1.48). It shows that the 

psychological improvement of the students in the experimental group, whether it is the 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 236 

Table 3. Homogeneity Test Results. 

 t p 

Attention Stability Test -0.325 0.746 
Mental Health Rate Scale for Pupil -0.019 0.985 
Positive Emotion Scale 0.296 0.768 
Negative Emotion Scale -0.088 0.930 
Index of Well-being  -0.228 0.821 
 

 

 

 

Table 4. Comparison of the Difference. 

Subscale 
Exp. (n = 26) Ctrl. (n = 29) 

t p 
M SD M SD 

AST A Test 0.46 0.905 -0.07 0.842 -2.252 0.028* 
AST B Test 3.85 7.103 0.10 0.724 -2.824 0.007** 
AST Total Test 4.31 7.287 0.03 1.085 -3.123 0.003** 
MHRSP Learning Disability -0.96 2.690 -0.10 0.939 1.613 0.113 
Emotional Disorder -1.62 2.174 -0.17 0.759 3.356 0.001*** 
Personality Defect -1.81 3.124 -0.24 0.830 2.602 0.012* 
Social Adaptation Disorder -1.69 2.526 -0.21 0.774 3.016 0.004** 
Moral Defect -0.12 2.123 -0.28 0.797 -0.379 0.706 
Bad Habit -1.08 2.911 -0.10 0.772 1.736 0.088 
Behavior Disorder -1.85 2.694 -0.21 0.819 3.123 0.003** 
Special Obstacle -0.15 1.736 -0.17 0.658 -0.053 0.958 
MHRSP Total Score -9.27 8.263 -1.48 2.278 4.877 0.000*** 
Positive Emotion 4.54 8.353 0.17 0.928 -2.798 0.007** 
Negative Emotion -2.65 6.066 -0.31 0.850 2.060 0.044* 
Overall Emotion Scale 4.58 8.941 0.17 1.256 -2.627 0.011* 
Life Satisfaction Question-
naire 0.73 0.919 0.03 0.944 -2.765 0.008** 

Overall Affective Index 5.31 8.749 0.21 1.656 -3.082 0.003** 
Note: *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001; the higher the mental health score, the more negative psychologi-
cal state; the higher the negative emotion score, the worse the mood. The same below. Exp.: Experi-
mental group; Ctrl.: Control group. 

 

 

 

overall level or mental health, personality defects, adaptation disorders and behavioral 

disorders, is significantly ahead of the control group after the mindfulness training. The 

results of the mindfulness education experiment are very significant. There are no statis-

tical differences in mental health, including learning disabilities, moral defects, bad be-

havior, and mental disorders. 

Before and after the experiment, the difference between the Positive and Nega-

tive Emotion Scales of the experimental group and the control group was statistically 

significant (p = 0.007; p = 0.044). The mean value of the difference before and after the 

Positive Emotion Scale test of the experimental group (M = 4.54) was significantly 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 237 

larger than that of the control group (M = 0.17); the mean value of the difference before 

and after the Negative Emotion Scale of the experimental group (M = -2.65) was signif-

icantly smaller than that of the control group (M = -0.31). It shows that the mindfulness 

education experiment can effectively promote children’s emotional development. 

The Index of Well-being indicates that mindfulness education is effective for 

improving student well-being. There was a significant difference in the scores of happi-

ness before and after the test between the experimental group and the control group (p = 

0.003). The mean difference of pre-test and post-test of happiness in the experimental 

group (M = 5.31) was significantly higher than that of the control group (M = 0.21). 

Comparison between Pre-Test and Post-Test Results of the Experi-

mental Group 

After performing the paired sample T test for the data of rating scale of attention (AST) 

in the experimental group before and after the test, the results showed (as shown in Ta-

ble 5): there was a significant difference between the overall data of attention between 

pre-test and post-test (p = 0.006), and the total average score of post-test of attention (M 

= 32.65) was significantly higher than the total average score of the pretest of attention 

(M = 28.35); the A and B subtests also obtained the same result. 

The average score of the experimental group’s post-test on mental health 

(MHRSP) is significantly different from that of pre-test (p = 0.000), and the average 

score of mental health in post-test was nearly 10 points less than that of the pre-test, 

indicating that the mindfulness education largely promotes students’ development of 

mental health. Specifically, the mindfulness education has different degrees of influence 

on the various dimensions of students’ mental health. According to the extent of effects 

by the mindfulness education, those dimensions can be successively arranged from top 

to the bottom in such order as behavioral disorders, personality defects, social adapta-

tion disorders, emotional disorders, bad habits, and learning disabilities. 

After analyzing the data of the Positive and Negative Emotion Scales of the 

experimental group after the experiment, it can be seen that there are significant differ-

ences between the positive and negative emotions (p = 0.010), and the total average 

score of post-test of the Positive Emotion Scale are 4.53 points higher than that of the 

pretest. The total average score of the Negative Emotion Scale of post-test is 2.65 points 

lower than that of the pretest. It shows that mindfulness education can enable students 

to gain more positive emotions and to promote the transformation from negative emo-

tions to positive emotions. 

The students in the experimental group have got better emotions. The scores of 

the Overall Affective Index were statistically significant (p = 0.015), and the total aver-

age scores of the overall emotional index of post-test (M = 43.31) were significantly 

higher than the total average scores of the Overall Affective Index of pretest; the scores 

of the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire of pretest and post-test were significantly differ-

ent (p = 0.000), and the total average score of post-test (M = 5.42) was higher than that 

of the pretest (M = 4.69); the total scores of the Index of Well-being of pretest and post-

test were statistically significant (p = 0.005), and the average score of the post-test of 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 238 

Table 5.  Descriptive Statistics of Pretest Results of the Experimental 
Group (n = 26). 

Subscale 
Pre-test Post-test 

t p 
M SD M SD 

AST A Test 9.46 0.859 9.92 0.392 -2.601 0.015* 
AST B Test 18.88 8.788 22.73 3.915 -2.761 0.011* 
AST Total Test 28.35 9.082 32.65 4.009 -3.014 0.006** 
MHRSP Learning Disabilities 4.85 3.283 3.88 2.422 1.822 0.080 
Emotional Disorders 6.15 1.515 4.54 1.392 3.789 0.001*** 
Personality Defects  6.54 3.455 4.73 3.471 2.950 0.007** 
Social Adaptation Disorders 5.35 1.573 3.65 2.591 3.416 0.002* 
Moral Defect  2.65 1.788 2.54 1.944 0.277 0.784 
Bad Habits 4.27 4.035 3.19 2.698 1.886 0.071 
Behavioral Disorders 6.15 2.444 4.31 2.363 3.495 0.002* 
Special Obstacle 3.19 2.713 3.04 2.615 0.452 0.655 
MHRSP Total Score 39.15 11.471 29.89 13.382 5.720 0.000*** 
Positive Emotion 30.12 9.905 34.65 8.275 -2.770 0.010** 
Negative Emotion 22.92 8.275 20.27 7.102 2.231 0.035* 
Overall Emotion Scale 38.73 8.586 43.31 6.078 -2.610 0.015* 
Life Satisfaction Questionnaire 4.69 0.970 5.42 0.987 -4.055 0.000*** 
Overall Affective Index 43.42 8.650 48.73 6.472 -3.093 0.005** 
 

 

 

 

Table 6. Correlation Analysis of Total Scores of Attention, Mental Health, Positive and 
Negative Emotions, and Happiness (Pearson). 

 1 2 3 4 5 

1 Attention -     
2 Mental Health -0.777** -    
3 Positive Emotion 0.690** -0.727** -   
4 Negative Emotion -0.658** 0.687** -0.867** -  
5 Happiness 0.767** -0.818** 0.727** -0.781** - 
Note: ** significantly correlated at .01 level (two-tailed) 

 

 

 

the Index of Well-being was 5.31 points higher than that of the pretest.  

Correlation Analysis Results 

Pearson Product-moment correlation was used to analyze the difference between atten-

tion, mental health, positive emotion and negative emotion, and happiness. The correla-

tion between each variable is shown in Table 6. It can be seen that there is a significant 

positive correlation between attention and happiness (r = 0.767), positive emotions (r = 

0.690); there is a significant negative correlation between attention and negative emo-

tions, mental health. There is a significant negative correlation between mental health 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 239 

and attention, positive emotions, and happiness; there is a significant positive correla-

tion between mental health and negative emotions. There is a significant positive corre-

lation between happiness and positive emotions; there is a significant negative correla-

tion between happiness and negative emotions. There is a significant negative correla-

tion between positive emotion and negative emotion. It shows that when children’s at-

tention is developed, their psychological barriers decrease, positive emotions increase, 

and happiness increases. Once children’s psychological disorders and negative emotion 

decrease, then their attention, positive emotions, and sentiment will develop. As chil-

dren’s emotional index and happiness increase, their negative emotions decrease, posi-

tive emotions increase, and their psychology tends to develop well. 

Conclusions and Implications 

According to the above analysis, the mindfulness education experiment promotes the 

children’s attention development, mental health development, social development, emo-

tional balance and development, happiness improvement, and also has an interactive 

effect, thereby promoting the overall development of children. 

In this study, mindfulness education can improve children’s attention stability 

and significantly improve their attention development. In the questionnaire, student S 

wrote, “When I am distracted, I can accept it and turn my attention back.” Student L 

said, “I copied the text from the first row to the third row before, but I don’t do this 

now.” Undoubtedly, mindfulness education can significantly reduce students’ learning 

pressure and improve their mental health. However, this study only found that the ef-

fects on emotional disorders, personality defects, social adaptation disorders and behav-

ior disorders in mental health were significant; the effects on learning disabilities, moral 

defects, bad habits and mental disorders were not obvious, but according to interviews 

and questionnaires, mindfulness education has an effect on children’s learning disabili-

ties, morality and bad habits to some extent. For example, student G said, “When I write 

homework, I can write it more quietly. I made many mistakes before, but now I can get 

an A for many times.” student D said frankly, “When I do homework or write words, I 

can write with mindfulness. When I can’t solve the problem, I can calculate it with a 

pen seriously." It explains that through mindfulness education children can develop 

good habits. 

This experimental study also proves that cultivating students to master the 

method of mindfulness through mindfulness education can make them control and 

evade negative emotions, gradually observe and feel the novelty and beauty of the pre-

sent life, understand thoroughly the happiness contained in the depths of the soul, and 

thereby, the experience of positive emotions can be strengthened and gathered. In addi-

tion, the study also finds that the improvement of the level of mindfulness plays a sig-

nificant mediating role in improving the effect of happiness, which is consistent with 

the research results of the researchers (Xu et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2013) and also with 

the qualitative findings of this study. For example, student W said, “I changed a lot after 

taking the mindfulness class, from fear to calm, from impatient to tolerant. I am more 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 240 

patient with things.” “When I am angry and unhappy, I can breathe and calm down. 

When I take the mindfulness class, I feel very happy. Mindfulness adds color to my life.” 

According to the above analysis, this experiment has achieved certain results 

and can provide some guidance for the practice of mindfulness education. However, if 

we want to ensure that mindfulness education plays a positively leading role in the chil-

dren development, we need to do the following work. 

(1) Raising Awareness, Actively Creating Conditions, and Appropriately 

Carrying Out Mindfulness Education 

Children are in a critical period of physical and mental development, with physical and 

psychological development and changes in study habits and school environment, they 

will face psychological problems affecting, interpersonal communication, personality 

development, self-awareness and the pressure of study and life. Through the findings, as 

a new form of school education, mindfulness education plays a unique role in promot-

ing children’s development and it is an effective way to achieve children’s all-round 

development and healthy growth. This study has shown that children mindfulness edu-

cation plays a significant role in regulating children’s negative emotions and promoting 

children’s happiness. In the state of mindfulness, the student’s parasympathetic (relaxa-

tion) nervous system is maximally activated, and can experience a state of joy, peace, 

calmness, and happiness. In mindfulness education, techniques such as body scans, 

mindfulness sensory awareness, mindfulness movement, mindfulness breathing, etc. are 

guiding students to consciously think, pay attention to and extend the awareness of the 

present. Mindfulness emphasizes non-judgment and acceptance; it promotes children’s 

cognitive reassessment, and creates the conditions in order to accept the current situa-

tion. All these attributes can cultivate deeper empathy and good qualities in children. 

Therefore, it is necessary to add more mindfulness education and training for children, 

improve the quality of mindfulness, and then can promote the all-round development 

and healthy growth of children. 

(2) Strengthening the Mindfulness Teaching Ability of Educators and 

Improving the Overall Development Level of Children 

When educators conduct mindfulness training for children, they should pay attention to 

guiding children to observe their physical or psychological feelings, so that children can 

learn to observe and accept their current state as much as possible without any evalua-

tion, so as to guide the emotions and ideas to be expressed. The purpose of mindfulness 

education is not only to achieve the goals of the established educational activities, but 

more importantly, how to integrate the attitudes and methods of focusing on and under-

standing the mind and body experience, open acceptance, and non-judgment in the 

whole process of education and teaching. Therefore, the words and deeds of educators 

are the most direct demonstration of mindfulness to students. This requires educators to 

have mindfulness learning experiences and continuous mindfulness practices and fur-

ther education. The most important thing is to be able to practice in daily life. Only 

when educators are aware of themselves can they constantly feel the needs of children 



Xie & Tu. Mindfulness Education on Children Development 

Vol.2, No. 2, 2019 241 

to be in the “being mode,” which in turn helps to accomplish improved educational 

achievement and the overall development level of children. 

(3) Drawing Nourishment from Related Mindfulness Projects and Lo-

calizing Western Mindfulness Education 

Many countries in the West have established social institutions such as the “Mindful-

ness Education Association,” “Mindfulness Education Network,” and “School of Mind-

fulness” to actively apply mindfulness education within schools. For example, Nan Tien 

Institute (Australia) provides a special course for mindfulness, education transforming 

teachers’ in-service training to enhance mindfulness teaching helping teachers better 

integrate “mindfulness” into specific teaching practices. In China’s Taiwan region, the 

“Mindfulness Development Association” and the “Chinese Mindfulness Decompression 

Center” have also been established, where the positive mindfulness training practice has 

been actively carried out in the primary school life curriculum action research, and has 

achieved certain results. The development of mindfulness education projects such as 

these provides abundant nutrients for the orderly implementation of mindfulness educa-

tion in mainland China.  

However, any kind of educational theory is not a universally applicable truth, 

but has its relevance or cultural constraints. If the practice of mindfulness education is 

to be carried out in an orderly manner and achieve the expected results, it is necessary 

to construct a “localized” mindfulness education theory that is locally compatible, so as 

to provide theoretical support. To this end, we need to combine the Chinese national 

conditions, based on local situations and reality, to localize the Western mindfulness 

education theory This will encourage educators to actively carry out the exploration and 

practice of mindfulness education, to accomplish experiences and achievements, and 

construct a mindfulness education model with Chinese characteristics, thus creating 

conditions for laying the foundation to improve the development of children in China.■ 

 

 

 

 

Acknowledgements 

We would like to thank Professor Marc Shelton for providing helpful comments on earlier 

drafts, and made suggestions for further revisions. Despite such support, this article is 

bound to contain errors which are, of course, the entire responsibility of the authors. 

 

 

 

 

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Received: 29 May 2019 

Revised: 11 June 2019 

Accepted: 09 July 2019 

 

 

The Chinese version of this article has been published in Educational Research and Experiment 

2018; 6:23-28. The English version has been authorized for being publication in BECE by the 

author(s) and the Chinese journal. 

谢晶, 涂艳国. 正念教育对儿童发展影响的研究—基于武汉市某小学五年级的正念实验. 教

育研究与实验, 2018; 6:23-28. 


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