A preliminary study of mindfulness in children as a conceptual framework for coping with bullying

Despite the general knowledge and programmatic recommendations obtained from research on bullying and children's coping processes and strategies, coping with the negative effects of peer aggression and victimization are still significant issues for children. This study used constructs from Ellen Langer's theory of mindfulness to focus on these issues. Specifically, mindful thinking was the basis of an intervention designed to help children interpret and cope with bullying. The process of mindfully thinking about bullying enables children to consider other perspectives, recognize situation novelty, avoid mindlessness, and generate and consider appropriate reactions in physically or socially threatening situations.;The purpose of this study was to introduce mindfulness as a framework for coping with bullying to (1) increase mindful thinking applied to bullying situations and (2) increase the general mindfulness of children. Thirty-seven third-grade students participated in the study and were assessed by experimental group (treatment, n = 20; control, n = 17), ability level (above average, n = 13; average, n = 20; below average, n = 7), and gender (female, n = 22; male, n = 15). The intervention included two forty-five minute classroom sessions. Those who received the intervention participated in class discussions, watched video examples of bullying, and completed activity sheets in small-groups.;Hypotheses were tested on pre to posttest difference scores. Significant differences were present for experimental groups on mindfulness applied to bullying but not for general mindfulness. No significant hypothesized differences were found for ability level or gender. Other significant findings included pre and posttest differences in general mindfulness for gender and posttest differences for experimental groups on applied mindfulness. Additionally, descriptive statistics revealed apparent differences for levels of the variables (experimental group, ability level, gender) that did not translate to significant inferential findings. These discrepancies were primarily due to sample size. Analyses of the applied mindfulness and general mindfulness sections of the pre/post measures also were limited due to the sample size. However, evidence for validity was found for both sections and acceptable reliability was present for the general mindfulness measure.;Overall, the current study indicates that constructs within mindfulness are appropriate and relevant frameworks for investigating children's coping with peer aggression and victimization that should further be explored.