Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper presents findings from a mindfulness-based cognitive and behavioral intervention for school-age rural migrant children (age 10-12) in China. Mindfulness emphasizes bringing attention to this moment in time, without judging the experience. It means to be aware of and focus on the “here-and-now”. Studies found that mindfulness can affect positive change in behavior in children and teenagers. However, as an emerging field, the approaches and effects of mindfulness practice have not been well elaborated in previous studies. Our study employs this approach in rural migrant children in China, a population that has increased sharply over the past three decades to a total number of 35.81 million today. These rural migrant children are faced with lower educational achievement and more psychosocial problems. This study examines the effect of mindfulness intervention on migrant children’s educational outcomes, and how psychosocial outcomes mediate this effect.

Method

This study employed an experimental design that included two randomly-selected groups (i.e. a treatment group and a control group) from a school that largely enrolls rural migrant children in Beijing, China. The treatment group includes two 5^th-grade classes that were provided eight sessions of intensive mindfulness training for three weeks and weekly follow-up review sessions for another eight weeks. The control group included two 5^th-grade classes that are on the waiting list for future intervention. A total number of 193 children were included in this study.

The research team designed a training manual that aims at helping migrant children cope with common issues following migration (e.g. stress, depression, interpersonal interaction problems, etc.), and therefore, improving their educational outcomes. The manual includes eight sessions. Each session involves a topic closely related to children’s daily life: from the most basic, everyday breathing and eating habit, to acknowledging and regulating emotions.

Child cognitive and behavioral outcomes were compared based on pre-test and post-test after one month of the intervention. The outcomes were measured by teacher-reported Chinese grades, math grades, and English grades, and children’s self-rated Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Task Completion Scale, and Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ).

Our analyses included descriptive statistics of main variables. These were followed by regression analyses of dependent variables to test the mediating effects of psychosocial variables.

Contribution to the Field

This study suggests that the emerging concept of mindfulness can be applied in Chinese migrant children. Mindfulness practice can improve children’s school grades through psychosocial outcomes. This approach is particularly relevant for migrant children to cope with difficulties in daily school life, family life, and interpersonal relationships, and improve their educational outcomes.

The findings call for teachers, parents, school social workers, and governments to collaboratively promote migrant children’s educational outcomes through psychosocial development. The effects of the mindfulness intervention program suggest the possibility of incorporating mindfulness activities in school curriculum. By exploring this new approach to improve migrant children’s developmental outcome, this paper provides implications for educational policies for migrant children both in the U.S. and abroad.