OVERVIEW
Many adolescents experience school-related stress on a daily basis, especially those students making the transition from middle school to high school.
Because some high school students lack the necessary coping skills to effectively deal with stress, they are in need of new ways to manage their daily lives. Mindfulness training is one possible avenue to build youth’s coping repertoires. Emerging research in mindfulness with youth has revealed a range of benefits including improvements in self-regulatory abilities and effective stress responses and decreases in anxiety and externalizing behaviors. Training in mindfulness may provide adolescents with new ways to cope with stress, thereby preventing the development of future health illnesses and diseases. However, no evidence-based programs currently exist that utilize mindfulness as a tool to teach adolescents effective coping skills that may later reduce their stress, as well as physical health problems related to stress.
