Acute Effect of a Meditation-Oriented Physical Education Session on Stress Levels in School Children: A Randomized Controlled Study

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to identify the acute effect of a meditation-oriented Physical Education session on stress levels in schoolchildren aged 8 to 12 years, 34 Chilean schoolchildren participated, who were randomly divided into an experimental group (n18) and a control group (n16). During a Physical Education class, the experimental group carried out a 15-minute mindfulness meditation session, while the control group took a survey of healthy habits in sedentary behavior. Before and after the intervention the level of stress was measured with the Children's Daily Stress Inventory Test (IECI). The Shapiro Wilk test was used to determine the normality of the data, the t-Student test for related samples and the t-Student test for independent samples were used for comparison between groups, with the Cohen d test the effect size was calculated. The level of significance was established at p<0.05. A decrease in the total level of daily stress was observed with a moderate effect in the experimental group (PRE: 7.22 - POST: 6.17; P=0.037; TE=0.40), in the control group no effects were observed in the stress level (p>0.05) after the intervention. It is concluded that a short meditation session carried out during Physical Education class can provide a decrease in stress levels in schoolchildren, an aspect to be taken into account when improving learning at school.