Effects of Brief Mindfulness Practice on Reading Performance Among Racially Minoritized Adolescents

Abstract

This research evaluated the effects of a year-long mindfulness intervention in a predominately Black student sample in an urban high-poverty middle school. Five English Language Arts classrooms (n = 56) were randomly assigned to brief daily 5-min mindfulness practice or an active control. Students were measured at three time points throughout the school year on standardized curriculum-based measures of reading performance. Results indicate that students in the mindfulness condition had significantly higher reading scores (sentence-level comprehension and fluency) than students assigned to control condition at the end of the school year. Our findings indicate that brief mindfulness practice may indirectly affect performance in specific academic skills.