Measuring mindfulness in children: breath counting is unrelated to self-reported mindfulness but improves after mindfulness practice in 9-13 year-olds.

ABSTRACT: Recent calls for mindfulness measures beyond self-report abound, especially for children. Because breath awareness is central to many mindfulness practices, the breath counting task has been proposed as a behavioral measure of mindfulness for adults. In the current study, we investigated whether the breath counting task can also serve as a valid behavioral measure of children's mindfulness. We examined psychometric properties across breath counting, three established mindfulness questionnaires, and a behavioral cognitive control measure in a sample of 109 children ages 9-13 years. We also offered 1-2 weeks of audio-based mindfulness training to a subset of children (n = 67) who completed daily breathing exercises, then reassessed their breath counting and self-reported mindfulness.

SUBMITTER: Zhuang W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12518087 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature