Eight weeks of group mindfulness helped teens put off schoolwork less
Who it’s about: Students
- Helped
Teens in eight weekly group mindfulness sessions with home practice put off schoolwork less than those who got nothing.
- Action: Practise mindfulnesstested
- Action: Notice the unpleasant feeling and start anywaytested
- Rule: Every daytested
- Rule: Practise with a groupused
Small randomised trial of 30 high-school students in Iran · vs students who got nothing · they rated themselves · ⚠ results look too good to be true; numbers unreliable
The study
Who took part
30 high-school students aged 15 to 18 in Ramsar County, Iran, 15 in each group. They were picked from 120 students. They had low drive, little faith in their own skills, and put off schoolwork a lot.
What they did
One group had eight weekly 2-hour group sessions of mindfulness mixed with therapy on unhelpful thoughts, learning that thoughts are not facts. They practised breathing, body scans and meditation, and did daily mindfulness homework and a journal. The other group got nothing.
What happened
At the end, the mindfulness group said they put off schoolwork, exams and assignments much less. The other group stayed about the same. The gap is far larger than such studies usually find, which makes it hard to believe. The paper also broke one of the rules for its own maths, and there was no later check.
Source
Effects of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Academic Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and Procrastination in High School Students (2025)
DOI: 10.61838/ijbmc.v12i4.923 (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Action2
Notice the unpleasant feeling and start anywayEmotion regulation: name, accept or tolerate the feeling a task brings, then begin.
