Unpacking mindfulness: An exploration of mindfulness interventions in children through a developed conceptual framework

© 2019 Georgia Kate DawsonMindfulness interventions continue to exhibit popularity with children and youth with many demonstrating impacts on a range of cognitive, social and behavioural outcomes. However, research on mindfulness with children is troubled by the lack of conceptual clarity of what mindfulness actually is and the failure of many interventions to adequately define or conceptualise mindfulness at the outset. Mindfulness is variously described as a psychological and meditative construct that has been increasingly used to treat or prevent a range of physical and psychological problems. It is commonly defined as present moment awareness with an attitude of openness and acceptance (Kabat-Zinn, 2013) with its purist origins beginning in Buddhist philosophy. Nonetheless, many models, definitions and measures have been put forward in the literature. The challenge for research on mindfulness is to manage these multiple conceptualisations. Perhaps the solution to the current vexation of what is mindfulness is not to definitively capture it, but to provide a broader framework to accommodate a range of perspectives and theoretical underpinnings? This research explicated and synthesised theoretical accounts of mindfulness to construct a conceptual framework of common mindfulness domains. This developed framework was then utilised to understand the scope and focus of mindfulness in interventions with children and youth. The first study synthesised 14 theoretical accounts of mindfulness to develop a Conceptual Framework of Mindfulness explicating three underlying domains of this construct: Attitude, Cognition and Ontology. The framework was then utilised in Study 2 to map 178 mindfulness interventions with children (4-18 years) to understand the representation of these three domains in interventions and the effect sizes associated with each domain. The mapping study also explored how consistent studies were in their concept of mindfulness across the theory of change. Most studies demonstrated coverage of 2 domains of mindfulness: Attitude and Cognition with the Attitude domain demonstrating largest effect sizes where outcome measures of this nature were reported. Findings also indicated that very few studies demonstrated conceptual alignment across theory, activity and outcomes. The framework proved a valid and useful tool through which interventions could be mapped to understand conceptual scope. Findings generated from the framework have important implications for interventionists and program developers around the design of mindfulness interventions with children and the need to ensure conceptual consistency throughout an intervention’s theory of change. The framework could be applied in the planning and design of interventions and measures of mindfulness to ensure conceptual consistency. Furthermore, it allows for more meaningful aggregation of mindfulness research through the identification and comparison of interventions with similar conceptualisations of mindfulness