The Impact of Mindfulness Training on Middle Grades Students’ Office Discipline Referrals

Abstract

Young adolescents who experience stress may also exhibit negative behaviors at school. Students whose misbehavior causes an interruption to classroom learning may be sent to the office and, as a result, lose instructional time and learning. The goal of this quasi-experimental pilot study was to determine if mindfulness training would decrease the number of office discipline referrals for middle grades students with a high number of office discipline referrals. The treatment required students to use a Muse brain-sensing headband paired with an app to train them to focus on calming and self-regulating behaviors. Data analysis indicated a statistically significant correlation between using the headband for 3 min a week and a lower number of times students were sent to the office for behavior redirection. Research with a larger sample size is recommended.