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Transcendental Meditation can significantly reduce anxiety and increase resilience among urban youth, according to a new study conducted by WestEd, a highly respected educational research, development, and service agency. Regular meditators also showed significant increases in class attendance and even greater improvements in resilience. The study was made possible by a $157,000 grant from the Metta Fund in San Francisco and published in the July edition of Contemporary School Psychology.
The longitudinal study matched 141 freshmen at a participating “Quiet Time” school with 53 freshmen at a comparison school in the same district. After six months of Transcendental Meditation practice, the Quiet Time group exhibited a statistically significant increase in resilience and statistically significant reduction in anxiety as compared to controls. The Quiet Time group was nearly a half of a standard deviation (0.44) above the comparison group in resilience and over a half of a standard deviation (-0.59) below the comparison group in anxiety.
In addition, within the Quiet Time group, students who meditated regularly showed a significant increase in attendance levels over irregular meditators, as well as an even larger increase in levels of resilience. After participating in Quiet Time, students also self-reported increases in their sleep, happiness, and self-confidence.
“These results contribute to the growing research documenting the link between practicing meditation or other Quiet Time activities and student well-being and achievement,” says Staci Wendt, WestEd Research Associate and principal investigator for the study. “Future studies should continue to investigate the relationship, particularly because Quiet Time is a relatively inexpensive program to implement, and can easily be incorporated into the school day.”
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