Building Resilience through School-Based Mindfulness Intervention with Chinese Migrant Children: Feasibility and Acceptability

Background and Purpose: Along with China’s urbanization in the past few decades, 35.81 million children have relocated from rural areas to cities. These migrant children are challenged by multi-dimensional vulnerability, such as low family income, perceived discrimination, minimal parental support, and exclusion from social resources. Consequently, they present significantly higher emotional and behavioral problems than their local peers: depression, suicidal ideation, self-injury behaviors, social anxiety, hyperactivity, conduct problems, and maladaptive behaviors. Despite the urgent emotional and behavioral needs of this massive number of migrant children, few evidence-based interventions have been provided to this population. While western research has increasingly discussed interventions that build child resilience, little research has examined resilience in Chinese migrant children. Recent school-based mindfulness interventions in western countries have shown positive effects on student emotion and behavior. Initial evidence suggests that the mindfulness constructs are closely related to resilience, but research lacks exploration of this mechanism and methodological rigor. Moreover, few studies have examined the effects of mindfulness in non-western contexts. This study presents the preliminary findings on the feasibility and acceptability of a school-based mindfulness intervention with elementary-school migrant students in China. Method: Using a 2-arm randomized controlled trial, a total of 300 4th–5th graders are recruited from migrant schools (privately-run schools for migrants who do not have access to public education) in Shenzhen. Participants are randomly assigned to a 16-week mindfulness intervention group (treatment), or a 16-week psychosocial education group (active control) over one semester. The outcome measures involve emotional and behavioral well-being, including Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children, Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The main predictors are children’s levels of mindfulness (measured by Mindful Attention Awareness Scale) and resilience (Child and Youth Resilience Measure). Participants’ understanding of mindfulness and satisfaction of the program are also measured. Results: The results suggest promising evidence for the acceptability and feasibility of the school-based mindfulness intervention. The participants show relatively high understanding and satisfaction with the intervention, possibly due to the shared components between mindfulness practices and Eastern culture. The preliminary results also show that levels of mindfulness are positively associated with resilience while negatively associated with emotional problems such as anxiety and depressive symptoms. Implications: This study provides implications for implementing a mindfulness-based intervention in an under-examined cultural context and an under-served at-risk child population. The findings provide recommendations for schools to implement preventive interventions to help migrant children cope with adversities, including increasing school staff’s levels of engagement in the intervention and integrating mindfulness exercises with Eastern cultural contexts.