literature review of emotional self regulation

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Using Mindfulness-Based Interventions to Support Self-regulation in Young Children: A Review of the Literature

• Published: 21 March 2022
• Volume 51 , pages 693–703, ( 2023 )

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• Jill O. Bockmann   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8888-3925 1 &
• Seon Yeong Yu 1  

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a rise in stress, mental health concerns, and externalizing behaviors in children and their caregivers across the globe and illuminated the need to reduce stress levels and support self-regulation skills in even the youngest of children. The goal of this literature review is to describe what research has shown about the use of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) to support young children’s self-regulation in early childhood settings. A total of 18 research studies conducted between 2010 and 2021 were identified. The main purposes of the studies reviewed were to examine the effects of MBIs on the development of emotional, behavioral, and cognitive self-regulation. Results showed that teachers generally found mindfulness practices feasible, acceptable, and effective in their classrooms. Although MBIs were found to have mixed effects on self-regulation in young children, positive effects on self-regulation were significantly greater for children in need of additional support, including those with difficulties or delays in developing self-regulation skills. The current review found a wide variety of MBIs used in early childhood settings globally. The results of this review suggest that teaching mindfulness practices to young children and their caregivers can both support the development of self-regulation of young children and foster socially and emotionally healthy environments in which this development can occur.

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Across the globe, research has revealed the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of young children and their caregivers (Calvano et al., 2021 ; Giannotti et al., 2021 ; Imran et al., 2020 ; Swigonski et al., 2021 ). The pandemic has caused increases in financial, physical, and mental stress, experiences of depression, and adverse childhood experiences, which have been recorded both at home and in the early childhood education setting. As noted by Kwon et al. ( 2019 ), adults’ psychological distress and expressed negative moods influence the quality of emotional supports to children and are reflected in children’s behavioral problems and difficulties with self-regulation. Thus, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to develop tools to support the self-regulation of young children and their caregivers.

Self-regulation is defined as the deliberate use of skills to respond to demands of the environment in a contextually appropriate way and to achieve desired goals (Montroy et al., 2014 ). While there are several models to explain how humans self-regulate (Razza et al., 2015 ; Siegel, 2009 ; Willis & Dinehart, 2014 ; Zelazo & Lyons, 2012 ), common elements of these models include arousal to external stimuli, intentional awareness of this arousal, and deliberate thoughtful response that balances cognition and emotion to act towards a desired goal. More simply, self-regulation is the ability to control one’s emotions, body, and attention in order to function and achieve goals and well-being.

Research shows that self-regulation is linked to empathy and conscience development, social competence, overall social and emotional well-being, peer acceptance, and academic success (Janz et al., 2019 ; Moffitt et al., 2011 ). In young children, low levels of self-regulation are predictive of disruptive external behaviors (e.g., aggression, impulsive behaviors, defiance), higher rates of rejection and exclusion by peers, more negative commands and redirections from teachers (Montroy et al., 2016 ), poor school readiness and sense of self-worth, lower academic achievement, difficulties managing stress, and high risk for substance abuse and law breaking (McClelland et al., 2013 ). The National Research Council and Institute of Medicine ( 2009 ) identified self-regulation as a risk factor for most mental, emotional and behavioral disorders, and as a protective factor for children with vulnerabilities for externalizing and internalizing disorders. Therefore, self-regulation is critical for success in almost every facet of life. Recent research indicates that digital learning (significantly expanded globally during the pandemic) demands substantial self-regulation skills (Limniou et al., 2021 ). This finding further emphasizes the need for deliberate and prompt attention to this skill during the early childhood years.

Early childhood is a critical time for the development of self-regulation skills, influenced by language skills, lived experiences, temperament, environment, and genetic inputs. Between the ages of 3 and 7, there is substantial development of the prefrontal cortex, allowing for the development of higher order thinking skills, including executive functioning, effortful control, theory of mind, and empathy (Zelazo & Lyons, 2012 ), which are all critical for self-regulation development (Razza et al., 2020 ). Research indicates that most children have foundational self-regulation skills by the end of kindergarten but 35% of children are delayed in their development of self-regulation as much as a year and a half behind their peers (Montroy et al., 2016 ). After the age of 7, self-regulation develops slowly (Razza et al., 2020 ), hindering those children who are behind their peers. Thus, the early childhood years must be considered a sensitive period for the development of self-regulation. It is essential to provide programs to support self-regulation in early childhood settings.

While there are various approaches and interventions for teaching self-regulation, mindfulness practices have been recently introduced in educational settings with the goal of promoting wellness and self-regulation in children and teachers. Secular mindfulness, introduced in Jon Kabat Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), has been clinically proven to reduce stress, promote self-compassion and empathy, increase both attention (Zenner et al., 2014 ) and emotional regulation (Goldin & Gross, 2010 ) in youth and adults. Cultivated through specific contemplative practices, including meditation, breath work, yoga, body scans, and attentional awareness to present moment (Zenner et al., 2014 ), mindfulness aims to reduce reactivity and judgement of experiences, increase awareness of sensations, feelings, and thoughts, and promote acting with awareness; all skills associated with self-regulation (Brown-Iannuzzi et al., 2014 )

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been found to both prevent impulsive behavior and interrupt periods of dysregulation. Research indicates that mindfulness enables cognitive and emotional awareness, diminishes emotional distraction and cognitive rigidity, and allows for intentional regulation of behavior, attention, and emotion (Siegel, 2009 ; Zelazo & Lyons, 2012 ). Farb et al. ( 2012 ) also found that mindful practices can stop dysregulation by interrupting perseveration on negative thoughts or behaviors, increasing tolerance of difficult emotional sensations, and promoting self-compassion and empathy. Blair and Dennis ( 2010 ) further determined that mindfulness allows for a cognitive and emotional rebalance, creating an opportunity for self-regulation. These research studies suggest that overt practice of mindfulness can support self-regulation.

However, the research regarding mindfulness practices and MBIs in school settings have largely focused on older children, adolescents, and adults, (Frank et al., 2015 ; Greenberg & Harris, 2012 ; Jennings et al., 2017 ; Zenner et al., 2014 ). A literature review by Nieminen and Sajaniemi ( 2016 ) described the potential of using MBIs in early childhood settings to support young children. However, their review of mindfulness studies focused on children between 3 and 15 years old with limited information on mindfulness practices for young children such as preschoolers and kindergarteners. Thus, it is critical to examine if mindfulness could be considered an evidence-based practice in early childhood settings. The main goal of the current literature review is to explore what MBIs have been used in early childhood settings and whether the programs were effective for young children’s self-regulation development, based on the following three guiding questions: (a) What does the research show about the effectiveness of MBIs in supporting the self-regulation of young children between 3 to 6 years old? (b) What do these findings suggest for future research regarding the use of MBIs in early childhood settings? and (c) What do these findings imply for the use of MBIs with young children to promote self-regulation?

For the purpose of this review, two online databases, Web of Science and ERIC, were independently searched. In the search for articles, keywords early childhood , preschool , kindergarten , young children , mindfulness , and self-regulation were used. The electronic literature search using Web of Science produced 24 research articles. An additional search using ERIC produced 4 more articles. After reviewing abstracts of the 28 articles, studies which met the following criteria were identified for this review: (a) studies that exclusively focused on mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) in early childhood settings that served children between 3 and 6 years old, (b) empirical research studies including measures for self-regulation skills, and (c) studies that were published in peer reviewed journals between 2010 and 2021 and written in English. Based on these criteria, 13 of 28 articles were removed: 3 articles that did not focus on early childhood settings, 3 literature reviews, 3 articles that were not published in peer reviewed journals, one study published in Spanish only, one study focused on mindful parenting skills, one study that examined the effects of a MBI on perceived discrimination, and one study that focused on participating children’s perceptions of self-regulation following a yoga based MBI. Additionally, through a secondary manual search of reference lists in the 15 found articles, 3 additional articles that met the criteria were identified. A total of 18 articles were ultimately selected for this review.

This review begins with an overview of the 18 identified studies. Subsequent sections highlight the findings of the studies reviewed with regards to the effectiveness of MBIs in supporting self-regulation in early childhood education settings.

Overview of the Studies Reviewed

Participants.

This review includes 18 studies, published between 2010 and 2021, involving 2,387 children from Australia, Canada, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. Children ranged in ages from 3 to 6. Seven studies (Crooks et al., 2020 ; Jackman et al., 2019 ; Lemberger-Truelove et al., 2018 ; Li-Grining et al., 2021 ; Poehlmann-Tynan et al., 2016 ; Thierry et al., 2016 ; Zelazo et al., 2018 ) indicated that participants lived in economically disadvantaged communities, and one study recruited participants from a high trauma community (Razza et al., 2020 ). Though not all studies reported the types of early childhood programs, three studies were conducted in federally funded or subsidized preschools (Li-Grining et al., 2021 ; Jackman et al., 2019 ; Poehlmann-Tynan et al., 2016 ) and one study focused on a university based early childhood center (Wood et al., 2018 ). Five studies indicated that the majority of the participants were bilingual Hispanic or Latin X children (Lemberger-Truelove et al., 2018 ; Li-Grining et al., 2021 ; Moreno-Gómez and Cejudo, 2019 ; Thierry et al., 2016 ; Thierry et al., 2018 ). In summary, the studies reviewed involved diverse participants across socio-economic levels, cultures, and risk factors. See Table 1 for more information about the participants of the reviewed studies.

Study Focus and Measures

All of the 18 studies reviewed examined the effects of MBIs on the participating children’s self-regulation (i.e., emotional, behavioral, and cognitive regulations). While almost all studies (n = 17/18) examined the effects of MBIs on cognitive regulations, 7 studies measured emotional regulation and 11 studies included behavioral regulations. Of the 18 studies, 4 studies measured all three areas of self-regulation and 5 studies focused on only one area. See Table 1 for more details about the targeted self-regulation skills examined across the studies.

In terms of self-regulation measures, researchers used various tools to assess changes in self-regulation following MBIs. The most frequently used measures (n = 14/18) were direct, performance-based assessments such as the Flanker Fish Task (FFT) and Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) from the NIH Toolbox of Cognitive Function Battery ( Weintraub et al., 2013 ), the Head Toes Knees Shoulders Task (HTKS) ( Ponitz et al., 2008 ) and Delay of Gratification Task, also known as the Marshmallow Test , (Mischel et al., 1972 ) These tools were administered to participants by trained assessors outside of the classroom setting. For example, the HTKS task measured inhibitory control, behavioral regulation and working memory. The DCCS and FFT measured cognitive flexibility and working memory. In addition to the performance-based assessments, 13 of the studies used teacher questionnaires or rating scales such as Child Behavior Scale (CBS) ( Merrell, 1996 ), Behavior Rating Scales of Executive Function (BRIEF) (Gioia, et al., 2015 ), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman, 1997 ) and Emotional Regulation Checklist (Shields & Cicchetti, 1997 ). These tools were based on teacher observation to measure an assortment of self-regulation skills, including prosocial behavior, emotional regulation, peer relationships, hyperactivity, conduct problems, and effortful control. Seven studies used parental scales and questionnaires such as SDQ-Parent (Goodman, 1997 ), CBS-Parent (Merrell, 1996 ), and BRIEF-Parent (Gioia et al., 2015 ) to measure expressions of self-regulation in the home, as observed by parents. Twelve studies combined both performance-based assessments and teacher or parental rating scales to measure self-regulation before and after MBI.

MBIs for Early Childhood

The studies reviewed revealed a wide array of MBIs used in early childhood classrooms globally. Across the 18 studies reviewed, 15 different models of MBIs were used, sharing a common element of breathwork. The programs varied widely in structure, design, skills taught, frequency of practice, and duration (See Table 2 ). The following three program trends emerged: Yoga-based MBI, Mind–body awareness, and MBIs combined with social-emotional learning (SEL). Yoga based MBIs (n = 2/18) utilized yoga poses and movement to integrate mindful breath work into the classroom routine. Mind–body awareness focused MBIs (n = 6/18) concentrated awareness on physical sensations and on the breath to bring attention to present moment, emotions, and tasks at hand. MBIs combined with SEL components (n = 10/18) directly taught metacognition, social and emotional awareness and breathing based mindfulness techniques, to build awareness of emotions, behavior and attention, and social-emotional skills. The component variation revealed in the studies, as well as the variability in duration and frequency of mindfulness practice are worthy of note when considering the effectiveness of MBIs in self-regulation development.

Effectiveness of MBIs on Self-regulation

All 18 studies reviewed examined the effects of MBIs on the participating children’s self-regulation skills (e.g., emotional, behavioral, cognitive regulation) using teacher rating scales, parent rating scales, and direct performance-based assessments, as described above. See Table 2 for findings about the effects of the MBIs across the reviewed studies.

Emotion Regulation

Six studies examined the influence of MBIs on emotion regulation with mixed results. Changes in emotion regulation were indicated by increases in awareness of emotions and self-calming techniques, or decreases in emotional arousal, reactivity arousal, and/or expressed stress. For example, Flook et al. ( 2015 ) found significant pre/post change in emotional regulation with a large effect size ( d  = 1.22) for the MBI, but a small effect size ( d  = 0.25) was noted in emotional regulation between the experimental and the control groups. Kim et al. ( 2020 ) revealed that while the experimental group scored significantly higher for lability/negativity on the Emotional Regulation Checklist than the control group prior to the MBI, following the intervention, the experimental group had significantly reduced lability scores whereas the control group scores increased. The experimental group scored higher in emotional awareness, self-calming, and empathy than the control group following the MBI. These results suggested positive changes in emotion regulation both over time and in comparison to the control group. Several studies showed no statistically significant changes in emotion regulation as measured on direct performance-based assessments (Jackman et al., 2019 ; Janz et al., 2019 ; Thierry et al., 2016 ). However, teacher rating scales in both Jackman et al. ( 2019 ) and Janz et al. ( 2019 ) indicated positive changes in emotional awareness, self-calming, and internalizing behaviors. These researchers also suggested a possible positive shift in teacher perception of difficult behaviors following MBIs.

Behavioral Regulation

Across the 18 studies, 10 studies examined the influence of MBIs on behavioral regulation. Changes in behavioral regulation were measured with decreases in hyperactivity, aggression and behavioral problems, and increases in impulse control. All of the 10 studies indicated a positive change in behavioral regulation for children who participated in the MBIs. While some reported an overall positive direction of behavior change (Li-Grining et al., 2021 ; Wood et al., 2018 ), other studies revealed reductions in conduct and behavioral problems, including hyperactivity and aggression (Crooks et al., 2020 ; Janz et al., 2019 ; Moreno-Gómez and Cejudo, 2019 ), as indicated in teacher rating scales and reports. Several researchers also found significant increases in behavioral regulation and behavior control after their participation in MBIs (Lemberger-Truelove et al., 2018 ; Poehlmann-Tynan et al., 2016 ; Razza et al., 2020 ). Specifically, Lim and Qu ( 2017 ) demonstrated that a 15-min mindfulness activity (e.g., breathwork, yoga, sensory awareness) was effective for children to stop an automatic impulsive response and to choose a more intentional and deliberate response.

Cognitive Regulation

Almost all studies reviewed (n = 17/18) measured cognitive regulation and those studies found that MBIs had positive effects on cognitive self-regulation in young children. Changes in cognitive regulation were indicated by increases in attention, executive functions, including inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and working memory. The use of MBIs in early childhood settings led to decreases in executive function deficits (Crooks et al., 2020 ), increases in cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control (Flook et al., 2015 ), attention regulation (Li-Grining et al., 2021 ; Janz et al., 2019 ; Razza et al., 2015 ; Razza et al., 2020 ; Viglas & Perlman, 2018 ), and moderate reductions in academic problems (Moreno-Gómez and Cejudo, 2019 ). All these studies suggest that mindfulness practices with young children have potential to support the development of cognitive self-regulation by fostering awareness, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and executive functions.

Children with Additional Challenges

Across the studies reviewed, MBIs were found to be especially impactful with children whose temperament, social-emotional skills, domestic circumstances (i.e., economic instability, chronic stress, or trauma experience) or learning differences may result in difficulties achieving success in school settings. Several studies showed that those children with lower levels of executive function (Flook et al., 2015 ), lower self-regulation and difficulties with social skills (Viglas & Perlman, 2018 ), hyperactivity and attention deficits in clinical range (Janz et al., 2019 ) and high social risk indicators and higher levels of behavioral challenges (Crooks et al., 2020 ) had the highest levels of change in self-regulation skills following MBIs. Thierry et al. ( 2016 ) revealed that children in the control group who spoke Spanish at home but were taught in English showed a loss in executive function skills over time, but those who participated in a MBI did not have the same loss of executive function skills. These findings suggested that the MBIs supported executive functions in circumstance of greater cognitive challenge for young children. Finally, Kim et al. ( 2020 ) found that children with overall lower levels of self-regulation skills prior to the MBI surpassed the scores of the control group at the post intervention measurements. These studies suggest that while mindfulness-based interventions and practices may have a positive effect on all children, the effect may be most significant for those who are struggling to develop behavioral, cognitive, and emotional self-regulation skills.

Duration and Frequency of MBIs

As noted in Table 2 , the MBIs used in the reviewed studies varied widely in their duration and frequency. Overall, results from the studies suggest that duration of an intervention is related to the effectiveness of interventions. Lim and Qu ( 2017 ) found that a single session MBI changed the attentional scope of 4- to 6-year-old children, de-automatizing their responses, and thus promoting attention and behavior control, but did not achieve long term change. Leyland et al. ( 2018 )’s study involving a single mindfulness “induction” did not effect change in executive functioning. Longer duration and higher frequency of MBIs led to greater benefits. For example, MBIs taught over the 6 to 12-week periods had positive effects on children in the intervention groups compared to the control groups (Flook et al., 2015 ; Poehlmann-Tynan et al., 2016 ; Viglas & Perlman, 2018 ; Wood et al., 2018 ; Zelazo et al., 2018 ). Longer mindfulness interventions similarly led to even greater improvements in children’s executive functions, self-awareness, and self-regulation compared to children in the control groups. Studies that implemented MBIs for the full academic year also showed positive effects for the intervention groups (Jackman et al., 2019 ; Kim et al., 2020 ; Razza et al., 2015 , 2020 ; Thierry et al., 2016 , 2018 ). Thierry et al. ( 2016 ) followed children in a multiyear MBI, in which mindfulness practices were integrated into the daily schedule of the classroom over two years. The study revealed that the MBI was effective for promoting emotional and cognitive self-regulation as well as higher vocabulary scores and reading scores.

Parent Involvement

Parent involvement in the studies reviewed was limited. Only Jackman et al. ( 2019 ) included a component for training parents in the use of mindfulness practices at home, and participation level in this training was noted as low. Several studies included parent ratings in addition to teacher ratings in measures of self-regulation (Crooks et al., 2020 ; Jackman et al., 2019 ; Li-Grining et al., 2021 ; Wood et al., 2018 ; Zelazo et al., 2018 ), though low levels of completion of these rating scales were reported. Notably, discrepancies were found between parent ratings and teacher ratings in terms of changes in children’s self-regulation after their participations in MBIs. Possible explanations for these discrepancies may include that self-regulation growth may not have generalized to the home environment, potential bias on the part of teachers who were responsible for implementing the intervention, or lack of knowledge of skills and language of mindfulness and thus inability to reinforce the use of mindfulness techniques at home. In addition to parent ratings for self-regulation measures, several researchers asked parents to complete the social validity measures of MBIs, which all showed overall positive results (Kim et al., 2020 ; Li-Grining et al., 2021 ; Wood et al., 2018 ). For example, in Li-Grining et al., 14 of 15 parents expressed interest in learning and implementing mindfulness practices in the home.

Results from the studies reviewed demonstrated that over time, with practice and integration, mindfulness programs can support the development of self-regulation in young children, particularly cognitive regulation, but emotional and behavior regulation as well, with potential academic benefits. Research indicates that mindfulness programs particularly help children who face additional economic, domestic, temperamental, behavioral, or cognitive challenges, as these children consistently exhibited the most growth from MBI programs. The plethora of MBI in use reflects a demand for mindfulness programs across age groups. Teachers who use mindfulness programs, both those with experience and those for whom the practices are a novelty, find the programs feasible, acceptable, and desirable. Teachers also report that the programs help their children show more prosocial behaviors, use more kindness language and actions, and be more aware and empathetic (Flook et al., 2015 ; Jackman, et al., 2019 ), thus improving the overall atmosphere in the classroom. As previous research has indicated, mindfulness supports the mental health and emotional regulation of teachers, providing a healthier classroom environment for all children.

Related to the effectiveness of MBIs, the majority of the reviewed studies (n = 15/18) reported on the social validity and feasibility of MBIs. Several researchers measured the social validity based on participating parents’ reports, which indicated desirability and acceptability of MBIs (Kim et al., 2020 ; Li-Grining et al., 2021 ; Wood et al., 2018 ). Jackman et al. ( 2019 ) showed that MBIs were considered as feasible, acceptable, and desirable by teachers as well, though the teachers also reported that they rarely found time in the school day for the recommended 20 minutes of teacher meditation. Both Flook et al. ( 2015 ) and Li-Grining et al. ( 2021 ) showed that participating teachers reported MBIs to be affordable and simple to implement, while other studies (Razza et al., 2020 ; Viglas & Perlman, 2018 ; Wood et al., 2018 ) pointed out the lack of sustainability for MBIs that demanded outside instructors to implement the program. In this light, MBIs, which train teachers to use mindfulness in the classroom and to teach children mindfulness techniques, have potential for integration of the programs into the daily schedule and culture of the classroom, and therefore to promote generalization beyond the classroom (Wood et al., 2018 ). As noted in Li-Grining et al. ( 2021 ), when trained in MBIs, teachers used the techniques more frequently than expected, and teachers reported using mindfulness to “turn transitions into teachable moments.” Future program development and studies may benefit from focusing on training teachers in mindfulness, integrating mindfulness into the daily schedule and activities of the classroom, and extending training to parents, guardians and caregivers to support generalization outside of the school environment.

Implications for Future Research

Several limitations were found in the studies reviewed. One limitation was related to sample size. Most of the studies included a small sample and the median sample size for the 18 studies reviewed were 86. Only four of the studies included over two hundred participants (Crooks et al., 2020 ; Jackman et al., 2019 ; Thierry et al., 2018 ; Zelazo et al., 2018 ). Thus, these results suggest a need for more studies with larger sample sizes that include various early childhood settings serving children with diverse backgrounds (e.g., cultural, linguistic, socio-economic backgrounds) as well as children at risk or children with disabilities.

Another limitation includes some issues in measurements. First, of the 13 studies which used teacher rating scales to measure changes in children’s self-regulation, only four studies (Flook et al., 2015 ; Kim et al., 2020 ; Moreno-Gómez and Cejudo, 2019 ; Wood et al., 2018 ) used blind measures, meaning that the purpose of the MBIs and/or teacher measures were not shared with the participating teachers. Thus, other studies might involve the potential for biased reporting from teachers regarding self-regulation changes. Another issue in measures is that only three studies included follow up measures, each noting ongoing growth in self-regulation up to 6 months later (Moreno-Gómez and Cejudo, 2019 ; Zelazo et al., 2018 ). Lack of follow up measures may preclude determination of prolonged changes in self-regulation due to the MBIs. Thus, future research needs to consider blind measures and follow-ups when examining the effectiveness of MBIs.

Additionally, the intervention fidelity is an area that needs more attention. Across the 18 studies, 15 different programs were used under the umbrella of MBI. Each MBI’s unique characteristics, including intervention components, duration and frequency of the MBI, and teacher training and program fidelity, limit the ability to determine which characteristics of each program support emotional, behavior, or cognitive self-regulation, and what factors moderate the effects of the interventions. This issue is addressed by several researchers (Crooks et al., 2020 ; Thierry et al., 2018 ; Viglas & Perlman, 2018 ; Zelazo et al., 2018 ), all of whom recommend closer examination of specific components of MBIs and measures of those components to determine which practices directly support (a) the development of self-regulation, (b) different facets of regulation and (c) the maximum child engagement in mindfulness-based programs. Only six studies reviewed reported measures for intervention fidelity using teacher rating scales (Crooks et al., 2020 ; Janz et al., 2019 ; Li-Grining et al., 2021 ; Thierry et al., 2016 , 2018 ; Wood et al., 2018 ). Thus, future research needs to examine intervention fidelity that can help researchers more accurately interpret the study outcomes and replicate the MBIs.

As described in the results section, many of the MBIs used in the reviewed studies did not include substantial parental participation. Only five studies (Crooks et al., 2020 ; Jackman et al., 2019 ; Razza et al., 2015 ; Thierry et al., 2016 ; Wood et al., 2018 ) included parental measures for their children’s change in self-regulation. Only the study by Jackman et al. ( 2019 ) included parental training in mindful parenting skills. Lack of significant parental involvement, in the form of training in mindful parenting skills and mindfulness practices, may prevent the usage of mindfulness practices outside of the school environment. Given the significant influence that parenting and other cultural factors play on the development of self-regulation, a lack of family components in the MBIs may impact the ability of children to generalize mindfulness practices across home and school settings. Thus, researchers have recommended the inclusion of parent components, including mindfulness training in future MBI research efforts (Crooks et al., 2020 ; Flook et al., 2015 ; Jackman et al., 2019 ; Janz et al., 2019 ; Li-Grining et al., 2021 ; Razza et al., 2020 ; Zelazo et al., 2018 ).

Additionally, attention should be drawn to the need for measuring children’s perceptions of mindfulness practices, and the effect that self-awareness has on children’s self-regulation of emotions, attention, and behaviors. Components of the OM program (used in Jackman et al., 2019 ), the MindUp program (Thierry et al., 2016 ) and the Settle Your Glitter program (Thierry et al., 2018 ), which included direct lessons in neuroscience, emotions, impulse control, and awareness, should be examined to determine the role the programs play in increasing children’s self-awareness, and the subsequent impact this has on self-regulation. As revealed in Rashedi and Schonert-Reichl ( 2019 ), children who participate in MBIs use more language related to awareness of their self-regulation skills. In this light, including children’s perspectives in research has potential to shed light on the value of direct instruction in metacognition and self-regulation, and should be included in future research regarding using MBIs to build self-awareness, as a potentially essential component of self-regulation.

Additional research into the impact of MBIs on the atmosphere and stress of the classroom is also worthy of consideration. Jennings et al. ( 2017 ) found that using mindfulness practices in the classroom reduced teacher stress, and improved the well-being and overall quality of the classroom. Janz et al. ( 2019 ) suggested that mindfulness in the classroom reduced the stress levels of teachers and thus lowered the incidence of emotional reactivity of teachers to challenging behaviors of the classroom. Thus, exploring the impact of mindfulness-based programs on teachers’ perceptions of challenging behaviors would, therefore, be an important topic of future research. In addition, several studies (Flook et al., 2015 ; Razza et al., 2015 , 2020 ; Zelazo et al., 2018 ) that measured changes in participating children’s stress and cortisol levels also provided further insight into the benefits of mindfulness on children’s stress levels and subsequent abilities to self-regulate. If mindfulness work can lower the stress and emotional reactivity of teachers, similar changes may be found in children who practice mindfulness. In this way, incorporating mindfulness into daily classroom routines in early childhood settings may result in less stressful environments, less emotional reactivity, and thus a healthier emotional climate for the development of self-regulatory skills. Given the current context of the global COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on teachers, families, and school environments, use of mindfulness skills in the classroom seems to be more urgently needed than ever.

Implications for Practice and Policy

Results from the current review showed positive effects of mindfulness-based programs on the development of self-regulation skills in young children. Despite the short duration of some studies and the need for longitudinal studies to track the effects of mindfulness practices across multiple years and settings, the research findings were positive regarding mindfulness-based programs, their feasibility and acceptability in the classroom, and general teacher perceptions of the program values in early childhood settings. Given these trends, administrators, social workers, guidance personnel, teachers, and families may benefit from increasing their knowledge of MBIs, which are designed to bring mindfulness into the classroom setting and the home setting in an age-appropriate manner for young children. Professional development opportunities that focus on teaching mindfulness skills to teachers via programs such as Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education ( CARE ; Jennings et al., 2017 ) or Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction ( MBSR ; Kabat-Zinn, 2003 ), have potential to build a foundation for bringing mindfulness into schools and reducing the overall stress level of teachers (Razza et al., 2020 ). Further professional development which introduces teachers to age appropriate mindfulness tools and programs for children, and which reflect research findings regarding maximizing young children’s engagement (Poehlmann-Tynan et al., 2016 ; Rashedi & and Schonert-Reichl 2019 ; Wood et al., 2018 ) has potential to support the organic integration of mindfulness practices into classroom routines, reduce the need for supplemental instructors or specialists, and promote program sustainability (Flook et al., 2015 ; Poehlmann-Tynan et al., 2016 ; Razza et al., 2020 ).

The current review further highlights the potential role of families in the development of mindfulness skills of young children. As noted above, several researchers iterated the importance of increasing parental involvement in MBIs to increase the potential for reinforcement at home, and generalization of mindfulness skills and self-regulation skills across multiple settings. Generalization of skills across settings suggested by the multi-year work of Thierry et al. ( 2016 ) and prolonged use of mindfulness practices throughout development has the potential to support self-regulation skills, reduce stress, and promote overall wellness for children. As parents/guardians are ideally a constant for children throughout their lives, their involvement is essential to ongoing use of practices to support self-regulation. In this light, early childhood settings may benefit from providing opportunities to share mindful parenting skills, and mindfulness practices with parents and guardians, through parent education opportunities, feedback and support conversations with parents, weekly communications with parents, or shared training in the programs (e.g., CARE or MBSR ) as noted above.

As noted across the studies reviewed, MBIs used in early childhood settings had positive effects on all children, but the most significant effects on the children who needed the skills the most (e.g., children with delayed self-regulation, experienced trauma, or executive functioning deficits). Given these findings, the potential for mindfulness to support the development and health of children as a targeted Tier 2 or intensive Tier 3 intervention is worth exploration. For example, the successful use of an MBI in dialectical behavioral therapy for adolescents (Goldstein et al., 2007 ) and Siegel’s Mindsight for young children (2007) across the developmental spectrum indicated a potential for targeted and intensive age-appropriate use of mindfulness interventions. Given the significance of self-regulation in relation with the trajectories of social and emotional health, utilizing mindfulness tools intensively with young children who exhibit dysregulation has potential to build protective factors against later developing behavioral and academic difficulties and social and emotional disorders.

Finally, it is important to note the implications of this research for educational policy. As research indicates, self-regulation skills play a significant role in young children’s successful trajectory that includes the development of resilience, social emotional skills, and coping strategies (Janz et al., 2019 ; McClelland et al., 2013 ; Moffitt et al., 2011 ; Montroy et al., 2016 ). It is thus the responsibility of educational policy makers to refocus measures of early childhood program effectiveness on children’s emotional, behavioral, and cognitive self-regulation skills and well-being and to support administrators and teachers to incorporate developmentally appropriate mindfulness-based programs in daily school activities. Despite this need, public funding for early childhood centers in the United States is increasingly tied to academic and cognition-based outcomes (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021 ). Policy support for MBI use in the school setting and funding to support research of MBIs for children of all ages, have potential to support the emotional and academic success of all children, including very young children. These supports will help the development of healthy school environments and provide opportunities for children to practice self-regulation skills, which are necessary for life success.

Limitations and Conclusion

The current literature review has several limitations. First, when searching for articles for this review, the broad spectrum of mindfulness-based programs was not anticipated. In this light, results of this review did not provide differentiations among the MBIs (e.g., yoga based, sensory awareness focused, or mindfulness plus SEL). While this review revealed this plethora of programs and the growing momentum of mindfulness programming in early childhood, the variety of the program components brings into the review a wide range of potential moderators, which make determination of effectiveness difficult. Another limitation was that all studies reviewed focused on mindfulness as universal programs in general early childhood classroom settings. As mentioned above, studies which examine MBIs in small group settings with targeted at-risk populations or in intensive therapies with young children may provide additional insight regarding the potential of MBI for supporting self-regulation development. Finally, as this review included studies published in peer-reviewed journals that examined mindfulness and MBIs in early childhood settings, these inclusion criteria limited the extent that other literature such as book chapters, unpublished studies or thesis, and literature review papers could be identified and included.

Despite the limitations, findings from this literature review provide a thought-provoking view of mindfulness practices and MBIs used in early childhood settings. The momentum mindfulness programs are currently experiencing in school settings (Oaklander, 2016 ) cannot happen without research support. As described above, ongoing research on mindfulness in schools, and education of practitioners and teacher trainers in the skills of mindfulness hold significant potential to increase the health and wellness in schools, and provide vulnerable children with protective skills to support their success. In an era in which educators, families, and children are facing unprecedented levels of stress and distress caused by a global pandemic, the need for these skills feels more important than ever.

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Bockmann, J.O., Yu, S.Y. Using Mindfulness-Based Interventions to Support Self-regulation in Young Children: A Review of the Literature. Early Childhood Educ J 51 , 693–703 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01333-2

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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Analysis of personal competences in teachers: a systematic review.

• 1 Department of Psychology, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
• 2 Department of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Background: The relevance of teachers’ emotional and social competencies in education has been highlighted as they enable them to establish effective relationships, manage emotional situations and create positive learning environments. The absence of these competencies can lead to emotional exhaustion and negatively affect the classroom environment, thus stressing the need to strengthen these skills so that teaching professionals can adapt to the changing demands of the educational environment.

Objective: The primary aim of this paper is to analyze the existing programs for training socioemotional skills in teachers and evaluate their effectiveness. To achieve this, a systematic review of the literature is conducted, focusing on the empirical research existing to date that promotes and enhances these skills through intervention programs.

Methods: A literature search was performed using the electronic databases Psycinfo, Psicodoc, Psychology Database, Pubmed, Science Direct and Dialnet Plus, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Studies were eligible for inclusion in this review if they investigated the effectiveness of interventions and training protocols for enhancing personal competencies of a sample of participants composed of teachers.

Results: Activities aimed at strengthening personal competencies in teachers tend to have a positive impact on areas such as job satisfaction, professional commitment, emotional management, and stress reduction, which has a favorable impact on students. However, the effectiveness of these interventions may vary depending on the design of the study and the individual characteristics of the participants.

Conclusion: The importance of training educators in personal and emotional skills is highlighted, due to its feasibility and the benefits it implies for both educators and students. Valuable insights for future practices, emphasizing the need for continuous training, digital technologies, mentoring, and holistic well-being to improve educational quality and job satisfaction for teachers are provided.

1 Introduction

The school’s mission has evolved from merely transmitting academic content to fostering competencies and values for the personal development of students by promoting their socio-emotional skills ( Pérez-Fuentes et al., 2019 ; Zych, 2022 ). Current education system aims to ensure the complete development and well-being of both teachers and students, promoting socio-emotional connections and subsequently enhancing their personal competencies, thereby reducing vulnerability to risky behaviors ( Sandoval, 2014 ; Pérez-Fuentes et al., 2019 ). To achieve the transfer of necessary knowledge, skills, values, and principles for the ethical, socio-affective, and intellectual development of students, teachers need specific personal competencies that enhance the teaching-learning process, and address individual and collective characteristics ( Lytle et al., 2018 ). Personal competencies include encompassing self-knowledge and emotional and cognitive control ( Galvis, 2007 ), and optimism, sociability, emotional understanding, and self-efficacy, have been highlighted as some of them, among others ( Pérez-Fuentes et al., 2019 ).

Therefore, teachers constantly face a wide variety of challenges in educational institutions ( Clandinin et al., 2015 ; Funes, 2016 ). Sometimes, these challenging situations exceed an individual’s personal resources and, far from fostering a positive emotional environment, there is an increase in student and teacher attitudes that are detrimental and have a negative impact on student learning and the well-being of the entire educational community ( Schutz et al., 2009 ; Extremera et al., 2019 ).

Education professionals who have an adequate personal repertoire of competencies are able to recognize and understand their own emotions and those of others and, therefore, use this information effectively to guide their behavior and make appropriate decisions in the classroom ( Schutz et al., 2009 ; García, 2013 ). Teachers’ personal competencies refer to the ability of teachers to recognize, understand and regulate their own emotional states, establish effective interpersonal relationships, and promote the development of socioemotional skills in the educational environment, such as emotional self-awareness, emotional self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills ( Salovey and Mayer, 1990 ; García, 2013 ). It has been observed that the presence of these psychological skills is related to greater job satisfaction, a greater sense of excitement for the performance of their teaching work, better management of emotionally demanding situations and a reduction in job burnout since these competencies enable them to adapt to different personal and professional contexts ( Salovey and Mayer, 1990 ; Bakker and Demerouti, 2017 ; Mérida López et al., 2020 ). Another factor that becomes important in teachers is metacognition, which refers to the ability to control one’s cognitive processes by enabling one to understand oneself and others in terms of mental states, such as feelings, convictions, intentions, and desires, and to be able to reflect on one’s own and others’ behaviors ( Iacolino et al., 2023 ). Thus, teachers who have a better repertoire of emotional regulation are more likely to be more effective in achieving their academic goals, creating quality social relationships and appropriately managing classroom functioning, preventing the occurrence of negative classroom situations and problems associated with adolescent disruptive behavior, such as bullying (in the classroom or through the Internet, interpersonal violence and substance abuse) ( Sutton, 2004 ; Pérez-Fuentes et al., 2021 ; Molero et al., 2023 ).

Teachers with good personal competencies tend to create an emotionally safe classroom environment that favors the learning and socioemotional development of students, who develop skills such as empathy, peaceful conflict resolution and the cultivation of life skills; and benefit their state of well-being, the academic performance of their students and their personal development within the educational environment ( Lasauskiene and Rauduvaite, 2015 ; Aristulle and Paoloni-Stente, 2019 ; Molero et al., 2022 ; Al-Jbouri et al., 2023 ). In contrast, teachers who lack good emotional skills tend to experience emotional exhaustion and may transmit negative emotions to their students, generating an unfavorable classroom environment for learning and hindering the establishment of positive relationships and effective conflict resolution, as well as the occurrence of burnout in students and a detriment in their school performance ( Bermúdez and Amaíz, 2017 ; Martos et al., 2018 ; Calleja et al., 2019 ; Laudadío and Mazzitelli, 2019 ). Teachers who experience stress, job distress and burnout tend to have a lower sense of job satisfaction and a higher number of absenteeism episodes at work, as well as poorer teaching performance, with negative effects on both classroom climate and student performance and, therefore, with detrimental consequences for the quality of the educational abilities imparted ( Gkontelos et al., 2023 ).

There are empirical studies that have been aimed at the development and implementation of designs, interventions, formations or trainings to strengthen social and emotional skills in students ( Campayo-Muñoz and Cabedo-Mas, 2017 ; Badau and Trifan, 2022 ; Al-Jbouri et al., 2023 ). However, the need for comprehensive and continuous training of teachers in social–emotional skills has been highlighted in order to promote and develop their personal competencies ( Aristulle and Paoloni-Stente, 2019 ). Although there are works focused on teachers’ emotions ( Sutton and Wheatley, 2003 ), the evolution of society and the current challenges in the educational field require a constant updating of interventions and trainings aimed at strengthening teachers’ personal competencies, and social and emotional abilities given the associations between the capacity for emotional regulation and personal fulfillment and job satisfaction ( Brackett et al., 2010 ). Personal competencies are critical to the well-being and academic success of teachers and their students who, in addition to benefiting from the presence of them, are also harmed by their absence ( Jennings and Greenberg, 2009 ; Kelly et al., 2019 ). Research and interventions to date have provided valuable information, but there is a need to continue to review and update the literature to adapt to the changing needs of the educational environment. The development of personal competencies in teachers is essential to creating positive learning environments and fostering students’ social–emotional growth ( Jennings and Greenberg, 2009 ).

Given the benefits and risks associated with personal competencies in teachers, this paper aims to explore existing studies on socioemotional training programs for teachers. The objective is to analyze how this kind of competencies have been trained and the effectiveness of the included programs. To achieve this, a systematic review of the literature was conducted, focusing on empirical studies that aim to promote and enhance these skills in teachers through different intervention programs.

2 Methodology

To achieve greater rigor in the process, this systematic review was based and developed according to the standards indicated by the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses PRISMA methodology ( Page et al., 2021 ).

2.1 Search strategy

The following databases were used for the search and review of documents: Psycinfo, Psicodoc, Psychology Database, Pubmed, Science Direct and Dialnet Plus. Based on the objective of this review, the search was to collect studies that addressed a training program aimed at fostering the development of personal competencies with participants who worked as teachers in an educational institution. For this reason, the chosen databases are particularly relevant to the subject matter of the study due to their specialized focus on psychological and educational research, which is relevant for studies on socioemotional skills.

To collect as many publications as possible, two search formulas were established and reviewed using a series of Spanish and English terms as descriptors combined with the Boolean operators “AND” and “OR,” some of them searched for in the title of the publication (ti) and others in the abstract (ab). The two search formulas used in the databases were as follows (the first with English terms and the second with Spanish terms): (1) ti(“emotional competencies” OR “emotional skills” OR “psychosocial competencies” OR “psychosocial skills” OR “personal competencies” OR “personal skills” OR “psychosocial well-being” OR “social–emotional competencies”) AND ab[(Intervention OR treatment OR training OR enhance OR improvement OR program) AND (teacher OR professor)]; and (2) ti(“emotional competencies” OR “emotional skills” OR “psychosocial competencies” OR “psychosocial skills” OR “personal skills” OR “personal skills” OR “psychosocial well-being” OR “social–emotional competencies”) AND ab[(Intervention OR treatment OR training OR training OR enhance OR improvement OR program) AND (teacher OR professor)].

In all the databases and for all the searches performed, the following filters were applied: type of document (scientific journal article, with full text access and evaluated by experts), date (from 2010 to 2023) and language (Spanish and English). The databases used and the results of each search are shown in Table 1 , detailing the publications obtained before applying the filters (initial results) and the results that passed the filters (final results).

Table 1 . Databases and search results.

2.2 Eligibility criteria

Once the eligibility criteria were established and applied, two reviewers independently examined each of the titles and abstracts of the remaining papers to assess their potential eligibility. When the abstract was not sufficient to assess its selection and inclusion in the present work, an exhaustive review of the full text was carried out. Any discrepancies detected in the selection of papers were resolved by consensus. We excluded those studies that did not meet these criteria or did not provide relevant information to respond to the proposed objective.

To establish the exclusion and inclusion criteria, the model known as PICOS ( Landa-Ramírez and Arredondo-Pantaleón, 2014 ) was followed.

Based on this strategy, guidelines have been developed to reject or include documents in this study through its four elements:

1. Population: studies that provided samples of teachers of any educational level were chosen for this review.

2. Subject of interest: all the studies that carry out a training program with the objective of enhancing personal competencies with teachers have been considered.

3. Context: we selected research related to the educational field, excluding intervention studies carried out in any other type of professional context.

4. Study design: the documents included are empirical scientific articles, peer-reviewed and published in both Spanish and English from 2010 to the present. This publication date filter had the intention of compiling and analyzing as many intervention studies as possible. Studies that were narrative, review or intervention proposals were discarded, as well as those that were descriptive in nature and studies that did not address the training of personal competencies. In addition, articles whose text was not in Spanish or English were excluded.

2.3 Studies selection process

Of the 303 publications initially identified, 196 were selected after applying the filters. The title and abstract were reviewed to confirm their inclusion in the review, leaving 26 available. Finally, of the remaining 26 studies, 13 were rejected after review of the full text, leaving 13 papers selected and included in the review. The selection process of the publications included and reviewed in this work can be seen in Figure 1 .

Figure 1 . Flow diagram of the studies selection process.

A synthesis of the selected studies has been carried out. Table 2 shows the most relevant results of the papers reviewed and included in this work. From left to right, the authors, date of publication and country of origin of each study are shown first. Next, the number of participants and their occupation are shown. Next, the design of each study, the objectives established, the measuring instruments used, the data to be highlighted on the training carried out and, finally, the results obtained are indicated.

Table 2 . Synthesis of the selected studies.

It should be noted that Spain is the country that has implemented the largest number of programs in this line of research, being the origin of eight of the 13 studies reviewed. It is also worth mentioning that the most recent study is that of Caires et al. (2023) and the oldest corresponds to Karimzadeh et al. (2012) . The largest sample is observed in the work of Schoeps et al. (2019) , of 340 participants, while the smallest had 20 teachers ( Chianese and Prats, 2021 ). Five of the samples analyzed are composed of future teachers, i.e., Education students, while the rest of the participants were teachers working in different educational institutions (either public or private schools, and at different formative levels: Pre-school, Primary and/or Secondary). It was found that the most used design was quasi-experimental and, finally, although all the studies had the same research objective (to foster emotional skills in teachers), a great variety was found in the measurement instruments used, the intervention used, its duration, and the results obtained.

Bustamante and Mejía (2019) designed 12 workshops of two hours each, based on EI skills and aimed at fostering the development of competencies such as emotional self-awareness, empathy, emotional regulation, motivation, assertive communication, teamwork, and conflict resolution in teachers of a training center. The activities, both face-to-face and experiential, such as dance and theater, allowed the participants to express positive emotions and manage well-being, based on internal dialogue, attention, concentration, stress control and assertiveness. The results showed favorable effects on the development of competencies: they improved in coping with setbacks and work stress; in the management and expression of emotions, although they were not significant.

In the study conducted by Caires et al. (2023) , they carried out an emotional education program consisting of six 90-min sessions in which socioemotional training was applied to future teachers. Participants indicate that, according to their experience, the program positively impacted four of the five domains covered by the program framework: self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. Results showed that participants experienced an improvement in their emotional repertoire, including the ability to express and understand their own and others’ emotions, as well as empathy and emotional connection.

The training by Castillo-Gualda et al. (2017) followed the RULER method, a social–emotional intervention based on the EI model of Mayer and Salovey (1997) with a duration of three months (eight sessions of three hours each) and the development of EI skills: improving job satisfaction, the level of teaching commitment, and the reduction of work stress levels. Through a face-to-face methodology, teachers improved their emotional understanding (understanding the causes and consequences of their emotions), expanded their emotional vocabulary, acquired a greater emotional management repertoire, and increased their feelings of job satisfaction and performance (personal fulfillment, job effectiveness, and greater concentration and motivation at work). However, no significant differences were obtained in the levels of burnout measured.

Chianese and Prats (2021) applied a Coaching in Education Program (CEd) that consisted of two phases (the first lasted 15.5 h and the second 9.5 h). Group training, individual sessions (face-to-face and online) and peer coaching sessions were conducted. Both qualitative and quantitative results showed a general improvement in these competencies, although the latter were not significant. According to the students, classroom management turned out to be more practical and they were more motivated after the training. On the other hand, teachers and the management team alluded to participation and space for reflection inside and outside the classroom as facilitators of change (justified by the authors as a possible contagion effect), as well as lack of time and overlapping with similar programs as variables that hindered improvement.

Dolev and Leshem’s (2016) work consisted of 12 group workshops and 10 personal coaching sessions, conducted over a 2-year period, as part of an EI training program. Participants conclude that they experienced improvements in their emotional competencies and related behaviors, and that these changes had a positive impact on their work. In addition, many participants showed improvements as reported on the EQ-i measure.

Harvey et al. (2016) worked on classroom environments, relationships, patterns, beliefs, and emotional coaching. Through an emotional coaching of three semi-structured workshops called Quality Learning Circles (based on cognitive-behavioral therapy), each lasting one day and developed over a three-month period, as well as in a follow-up session, peer support was provided, performance practices were compared, and skills tested were reflected upon. The results show an improvement in the teachers’ relationships, boundary setting and emotional awareness. However, not all of them improved and just over a third worsened in the data related to classroom climate. No change in improvement was observed in the students.

The 14-week program of Izquierdo et al. (2022) was based on the work of five dimensions: intrapersonal, interpersonal, stress management, adaptation, and mood/humor. The didactic approaches used in the classroom and their contribution to the development of competencies were analyzed, personal and professional strengths and skills of teachers were discovered, and the development of innovative methodologies and teamwork among teachers, strategies for their emotional development and for effective conflict resolution, work organization, time, communication, and leadership, among others, were encouraged. The dimensions addressed improved significantly in the participants of the intervention condition, highlighting the state of mind, a relevant factor in the creation of a more positive and healthier educational environment.

Karimzadeh et al. (2012) conducted an emotional intelligence teacher (EIT) program for 10 two-hour sessions over 10 weeks, the training provided teachers with a series of practical activities to perform on their own and in the classroom to promote the development of each EI skill, creating a more stable and productive learning environment through positive social interaction, engagement, and academic performance among students. The results showed a significant increase in social–emotional skills and their components in teachers, as well as a positive correlation between increased emotional skills and mental health.

During 10 weeks of a four-month period with two sessions of two hours each, Palomera et al. (2017) integrated an emotional training of active and cooperative methodology in a compulsory subject. Students were organized in small groups and deepened in the competencies introduced by their teacher: self-esteem, emotional regulation, empathy, assertiveness, and social skills; and individual and group practices (role plays, case studies, video analysis, self-reports, group dynamics) were carried out among them. Using audiovisual recordings and scores based on group coordination, communication skills, the quality of the content presented and creativity in the design of the practice, it was possible to increase creativity, self-esteem, and oratorical confidence, and to improve the empathic concern and assertiveness of the future teachers. However, they allude to a “sleeper effect” to explain that the effects at follow-up, 6 months or more after completion, are greater than those observed in the post measures.

Schoeps et al. (2019) organized teachers into seven groups and participated in an intervention program based on the EI skills model of Mayer et al. (2016) , completing seven sessions of two hours each (over three months) on experiential dynamics: visualization/meditation, role-playing exercises, and discussions. At the beginning, group cohesion and EI skills were worked on, and in the last two sessions, assertiveness, conflict resolution, self-esteem and empathy were practiced in a natural context. Through the development of emotional skills and abilities, participants significantly reduced their levels of depression and anxiety, and decreased their levels of burnout : they felt less indifference towards work, psychological exhaustion, and feelings of guilt. On the other hand, motivation and commitment remained stable in both groups and, although the experimental group reported feeling more life satisfaction and higher self-esteem than the control group, this result was not maintained over time.

Torrijos et al. (2016) taught an Emotional Education program (Pro-Emociona) in which participants worked on six thematic blocks (emotional recognition and regulation, self-motivation, empathy, and social competencies) through a practical, active, and participatory methodology lasting 30 h in total (two weekly sessions of 3 h). Participants refer to the need, importance, and usefulness of developing this type of competencies both for their teaching practice and for their personal and social well-being. The self-report measure and the satisfaction questionnaire reflect higher levels of intrapersonal competencies (emotional awareness, regulation, and motivation) and interpersonal competencies (empathy and social skills) once the training is completed.

Zych and Llorent (2020) applied an intervention program inspired by the social and emotional learning approach of Elbertson et al. (2009) . Over ten sessions of one and a half hours each, they addressed awareness, understanding and emotional management: self-esteem, empathy, assertiveness and responsible decision making. In the intervention group, the program was incorporated into the regular curriculum as a mandatory course called School Climate and Culture of Peace in Early Childhood Education, while the control group followed their regular curriculum, which includes group work, role-playing and some content directly and indirectly related to these competencies. The classes were interactive, with group work, practical examples and role-plays in which participants worked in teams. The results reflect an improvement in the emotional clarity of the intervention group and in participants with low initial level in socioemotional competencies, a statistically significant improvement was found in emotional repair and self-management.

Finally, the author Zych together with other collaborators ( Zych et al., 2022 ) implemented an intervention program based on at least 4 tasks carried out in each subject that was part of the plan for the promotion of social and emotional competencies. These tasks were interactive activities, with techniques such as role-playing and group work, designed to promote empathy, social competencies and emotional understanding and management. It was possible to promote social and emotional competencies in the participants of the intervention group, compared to those of the control group.

4 Discussion

The objective of this review was to analyze a series of experimental studies designed to enhance personal competencies in teachers at different educational levels, with the aim of collecting the work that has been done to date with this population in any educational context in the world. To this end, 13 documents were compiled and analyzed, revealing a certain variety in the approaches, interventions and results of the studies carried out.

First, it was observed that Spain was the country where the largest number of studies following this line of research was developed, indicating a significant interest in the topic in the Spanish educational context. Regarding the participants, some differences were found in the size of the samples, the largest being 340 teachers ( Schoeps et al., 2019 ), while the smallest sample was composed of 20 teachers in the study by Chianese and Prats (2021) . In addition, five of the samples analyzed were composed of prospective teachers, while the rest were made up of practicing teachers in different educational institutions. This diversity of participants provides a broader view of the effects of interventions at different stages of the teaching career. It was also noted that the most recent study corresponds to Caires et al. (2023) , while the oldest is that of Karimzadeh et al. (2012) . In addition, it is highlighted that the quasi-experimental has been the most employed in the reviewed studies.

Given the objective of the present systematic review, all the studies reviewed have shared the objective of enhancing the personal competencies of teachers through different training programs under the premise that EI-based skills can be improved with educational intervention ( Izquierdo et al., 2022 ).

The school we once knew has evolved, transitioning from merely teaching academic content to fostering students’ socio-emotional skills with the aim of enhancing their competencies and values to promote personal growth ( Pérez-Fuentes et al., 2019 ; Zych, 2022 ). The current education system seeks the holistic development and well-being of both teachers and students by strengthening socio-emotional connections to reduce vulnerability to risky behaviors ( Sandoval, 2014 ; Pérez-Fuentes et al., 2019 ) and to achieve this, teachers need specific personal competencies ( Galvis, 2007 ; Lytle et al., 2018 ; Pérez-Fuentes et al., 2019 ).

In line with this, several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of programs that promote these personal competencies through effective interventions ( Zych et al., 2022 ). For instance, Bustamante and Mejía (2019) developed an emotional training program that had favorable effects on the overall development of socio-emotional skills. Other programs have targeted specific competencies such as the ability to express and understand emotions, feel empathy and connection ( Caires et al., 2023 ), leadership, kindness, understanding, and student responsibility/freedom ( Harvey et al., 2016 ), self-esteem, empathy, and confidence in public speaking, as well as a significant reduction in fear of public communication ( Palomera et al., 2017 ), and skills in emotional perception, understanding, and regulation ( Castillo-Gualda et al., 2017 ). Some programs have focused on personal competencies related to intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence, stress management, adaptability, and mood ( Izquierdo et al., 2022 ), and on teachers’ emotional skills through emotional intelligence, improving aspects such as emotional repair, self-management, and motivation ( Dolev and Leshem, 2016 ; Zych and Llorent, 2020 ).

These programs have provided significant benefits, such as overall improvements in emotional competencies, more practical classroom management, and increased student motivation, as well as changes in participation and reflection ( Chianese and Prats, 2021 ). They have also positively impacted the promotion of work-related variables associated with job satisfaction and performance ( Castillo-Gualda et al., 2017 ), proving effective in the short-and long-term prevention of burnout and emotional symptoms ( Schoeps et al., 2019 ), and improving teachers’ mental health ( Karimzadeh et al., 2012 ).

A great diversity was found in terms of the measurement instruments used, the content of the training sessions, the duration of these trainings, and the results finally obtained in each study. This variety reflects the fact that there is no single, uniform approach to the promotion of emotional skills in teachers, although it may be necessary to design personalized approaches adapted to the specific needs of each group of participants. When analyzing the effects of the exercises presented, it was found that the development of emotional competencies in teachers was generally favorable, although not all the results were statistically significant. This type of interventions aimed at fostering emotional skills in teachers can have positive effects on certain aspects of their professional well-being, such as job satisfaction, teacher commitment, emotional regulation, and stress reduction at work; variables that have a beneficial impact on a student body made up of children and adolescents. However, it is important to note that the results vary according to the design of the study, the duration and nature of the intervention, as well as the characteristics of the participants. More research with rigorous designs and incorporating programs of this type consistently across the curriculum and at all levels is needed, as schools using the social and emotional learning program have been found to report improvements in academic success, less problem behavior, and better-quality educator-student relationships ( Karimzadeh et al., 2012 ). Therefore, it is necessary to investigate this line of action since there is little empirical literature that proposes the development of experimental training programs with education professionals to enhance their cognitive, emotional, and social skills.

5 Conclusions

The results showed that training education professionals in personal and emotional skills is feasible and has numerous positive implications, both for themselves and for the rest of the educational community, especially the students. In this work, the objective was to review training programs aimed at improving personal skills in the educational context with teachers and educators.

One of the main limitations identified in this systematic review is the heterogeneity of the interventions. Programs can vary widely in terms of content, duration, frequency, and methodology, which makes direct comparison between studies difficult, as each intervention may be designed and applied differently, according to the professional delivering it and responding to specific needs of the contexts in which they are implemented. Another limitation to be highlighted is the cultural and geographical context in which the studies are conducted since intervention programs carried out in different cultural and geographical contexts may present results that are not directly applicable to other settings. Sociocultural characteristics, educational systems, and local norms and values can influence the effectiveness of interventions and how they are received by participants, underscoring the relevance of considering the context when interpreting study results and designing intervention programs for different educational environments.

Despite the mentioned limitations, this systematic review has provided valuable insights that can inform future practices in personal competency training for teachers. Training personal competencies in teachers not only improves educational quality but also contributes to educators’ well-being and job satisfaction. Future practice lines should focus on the integration of continuous training, the use of digital technologies, evaluation and feedback systems, personalized research, and the promotion of holistic well-being. These integrated and sustainable approaches will ensure effective and adaptable development of personal competencies in teachers, preparing educators to face the challenges and opportunities of the contemporary educational environment.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

PM-M: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization. MM-J: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. MP-F: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. JG-L: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization.

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This publication is part of the I+D+i PID2020-119411RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/and FEDER “Una manera de hacer Europa”.

Acknowledgments

The authors thanks to the aid for pre-doctoral contracts for the training of doctors, contemplated in the State Training Sub-programme of the State Programme to Develop, Attract and Retain Talent, within the framework of the State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research 2021-2023, granted to Pablo Molina Moreno (reference: PRE2021-097460).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Zych, I., and Llorent, V. J. (2020). An intervention program to enhance social and emotional competencies in pre-service early childhood education teachers. Psychol. Soc. Educ. 12, 17–30. doi: 10.25115/psye.v0i0.2374

Zych, I., Marín-López, I., Fernández-Rabanillo, J. L., and Fernández, C. M. G. (2022). Docentes emocional y socialmente competentes: innovaciones para el fomento de las competencias sociales y emocionales en el alumnado de Ciencias de la Educación. Cont. Educ. 29, 189–201. doi: 10.18172/con.5111

Keywords: teachers, education, emotions, programs, personal competencies

Citation: Molina-Moreno P, Molero-Jurado MdM, Pérez-Fuentes MdC and Gázquez-Linares JJ (2024) Analysis of personal competences in teachers: a systematic review. Front. Educ . 9:1433908. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1433908

Received: 16 May 2024; Accepted: 26 July 2024; Published: 06 August 2024.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2024 Molina-Moreno, Molero-Jurado, Pérez-Fuentes and Gázquez-Linares. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: María del Mar Molero-Jurado, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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A systematic literature review of emotion regulation measurement in individuals with autism spectrum disorder

Affiliation.

• 1 Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• PMID: 25346416
• DOI: 10.1002/aur.1426

Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties are a potential common factor underlying the presentation of multiple emotional and behavioral problems in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). To provide an overview of how ER has been studied in individuals with ASD, we conducted a systematic review of the past 20 years of ER research in the ASD population, using established keywords from the most comprehensive ER literature review of the typically developing population to date. Out of an initial sampling of 305 studies, 32 were eligible for review. We examined the types of methods (self-report, informant report, naturalistic observation/ behavior coding, physiological, and open-ended) and the ER constructs based on Gross and Thompson's modal model (situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation). Studies most often assessed ER using one type of method and from a unidimensional perspective. Across the 32 studies, we documented the types of measures used and found that 38% of studies used self-report, 44% included an informant report measure, 31% included at least one naturalistic observation/behavior coding measure, 13% included at least one physiological measure, and 13% included at least one open-ended measure. Only 25% of studies used more than one method of measurement. The findings of the current review provide the field with an in-depth analysis of various ER measures and how each measure taps into an ER framework. Future research can use this model to examine ER in a multicomponent way and through multiple methods.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; emotion regulation; literature review; measurement; psychopathology.

© 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e35733
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The Role of Dance Movement Therapy in Enhancing Emotional Regulation: A Literature Review

• Xiaomei Zhang , Yaming Wei
• Published in Heliyon 1 August 2024
• Psychology, Art

36 References

The neuroscience of dance: a conceptual framework and systematic review, stress, subjective wellbeing and self-knowledge in higher education teachers: a pilot study through bodyfulness approaches, feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of school-based dance movement psychotherapy for children with emotional and behavioral difficulties, dance movement therapy processes and interventions in the treatment of children with anxiety disorders derived from therapy logs, a proposal for emotional intelligence development through dance movement therapy, dancing but not cycle ergometer use improves emotional regulation in women with methamphetamine use disorder, move and be moved: the effect of moving specific movement elements on the experience of happiness, emotional benefits of brief creative movement and art interventions, using creative dance for expressing emotions in preschool children, re-inhabiting one’s body: a pilot study on the effects of dance movement therapy on body image and alexithymia in eating disorders, related papers.

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The Ultimate Emotion Regulation Kit

Essential strategies for better mental health and wellbeing..

Posted August 4, 2024 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

• Mental health improvement begins with regulating emotions.
• Emotional wellbeing includes an interplay between mind, body, and behavior.
• When it comes to emotional health, social connections matter.

To my amazement, this August marks my first decade of teaching psychology. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that regulating emotions is a paramount skill for every aspect of life. Many of my students have voiced how this topic made a bigger impact on them than several other psychology concepts. The better students, professors, parents, coworkers, and community members learn to recognize and regulate their emotions, the better their health and relationships will be.

Emotion regulation is what we do when we want to manage our emotional state. This includes changing, taking control of, or fully processing our emotions. There are a host of ways we change our emotional state using unhealthy tools such as illegal drugs, excessive alcohol consumption, overeating nutrient-lacking foods, or lashing out at others. Thankfully, psychologists have found dozens of ways to regulate emotions that lead to better long-term mental, physical, and social health.

In honor of the hundreds of incredible students I’ve had over the years, here is my Ultimate Emotion Regulation Kit. Not every tool will work for everyone or every situation, but we can focus on one or two new strategies to experiment with. When we have healthy options at our fingertips, the self-destructive are less enticing.

Slow Your Body

Strong emotions can make us feel out of control. We’re especially likely to succumb to our impulses when our physical health is neglected. The first step is to prioritize good sleep hygiene. Turn off devices an hour before bed, end caffeine consumption by midday, keep a consistent sleep schedule, and avoid late-night meals. These are the steps psychologist Lisa Dimour finds to be crucial when helping clients. She said,

Why is getting sleep necessary before turning to anything else? Because sleep is the glue that holds human beings together. Even in the absence of a tragedy, people who aren’t sleeping soon find that they struggle to regulate their emotions…and it has been amply demonstrated by research. (p. 160)

In addition to sleep, many tools can help us engage our parasympathetic nervous systems and bring us into a calm and clarifying state. These include:

• Breathing exercises
• Mindful eating
• Various types of meditation
• Fostering feelings of awe , especially while in nature[1]
• Taking a warm aromatherapy bath
• Bonus: Engage in compassion meditation to get the added benefit of cognitive empathy

Move Your Body

Exercise is one of the most underutilized tools when it comes to regulating emotions. As Myers and Dewall said, “Exercise is like a drug that prevents and treats disease, increases energy, calms anxiety , and boosts mood—a drug we would all take if available. Yet few people take advantage of it.” The important thing is that we do something we enjoy and can do consistently. Here are a few ideas:

• Go for a walk, jog, or hike
• Play a sport
• Box or kickbox
• Attend a local spin or other exercise class
• Follow an online workout video
• Exercise using interactive video games or virtual reality
• Bonus: Exercise with a friend for greater accountability and coregulation

Work Your Mind

Our minds are powerful meaning-making machines. The emotions we experience are determined by how we interpret internal and external cues. With practice, we can be more intentional with how we interpret and act on those cues. To hone this skill, we can:

• Label emotions out loud or on paper and aim for granularity (that is, the more specific the better)
• Learn new emotional expressions from other languages[2]
• Talk with a therapist
• Reframe a difficult event in a way that brings new meaning or insight
• Use a gratitude journal
• Intentionally invite feelings of flow through art, music, writing, activism, or other hobbies
• Bonus: If we find ourselves ruminating (that is, rehashing the same negative emotions over and over without progress), we can avoid thinking about the triggering circumstances surrounding the emotion except during specific scheduled times

Foster Connections

Decades of research have revealed how insidious loneliness can be on our health and emotional wellbeing. We have evolved as a cooperative and social species. As child psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry said , “One of the most helpful forms of regulation is other people.” Social activities strengthen our relationships and often bring feelings of transcendence and fulfillment. To use social connections as a tool for emotion regulation:

• Join a book (or other interest) club
• Participate in a community choir/band/theater
• Attend a church service
• Support a local sports/dance team
• Take a community class
• Join an online group with shared interests
• Volunteer with a local non-profit or school
• Start a regular meetup with friends for games/coffee/movie nights
• Bonus: Visit aging neighbors, relatives, and nursing home residents to give both parties a needed social boost

Sometimes the best thing we can do for our emotional wellbeing is to change large environmental stressors. This might look like quitting a job with a toxic environment, arranging to have a shorter commute time, finding reliable transportation and childcare, increasing our income, ending harmful relationships and nurturing healthy ones, or getting access to affordable healthcare.

These mental health tips are inadequate when it comes to needed societal shifts—we can’t cognitive-behavioral therapy our way out of oppressive systemic issues. However, intentionally using emotion regulation strategies can make us more capable of taking on the seemingly insurmountable barriers to emotional health.

[1] Awe often comes when we feel the vastness of the world around us, of which we are a small part. Gaze at the stars and the towering trees around you, or picture the earth from a tiny spaceship in orbit. “The physiological profile of awe documented thus far—elevated vagal tone, reduced sympathetic activation, increased oxytocin, and reduced inflammation—is associated with enhanced mental health. This is evident in studies of increased optimism, sense of connection, and well-being; an openness to others and prosocial tendencies; reduced anxiety, depression, social rejection and cardiovascular problems and autoimmune disease.” (see the report on awe here )

[2] For example, try incorporating the Japanese emotion concept “arigata-meiwaku” into your vocabulary, which describes how you feel when someone has done you a favor you didn’t want, and then you feel pressured to be grateful. See p. 147 of How Emotions are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett.

Veronika Tait, Ph.D., is a social psychologist who teaches as an assistant professor at Snow College.

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• Published: 29 July 2024

Gender differences in the relationship between medical students’ emotional intelligence and stress coping: a cross-sectional study

• Na Zhang 1 ,
• Xiaoyu Ren 1 ,
• Zhen Xu 2 &
• Kun Zhang 3  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  810 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

205 Accesses

Metrics details

Given the increasing stress levels among medical students due to the impact of COVID-19, it is crucial to effectively reduce their stress levels for their future development. To better understand medical students’ stress coping, this study investigated how their emotional intelligence is related to stress coping and whether this relationship is moderated by gender differences.

A cross-sectional study was conducted. A random sample of 744 medical students from Hebei Province, China, was investigated via an emotional intelligence scale and stress coping questionnaire from March–May 2023. The response rate was 93%. SPSS and Mplus statistical software were used for the data analysis.

The self-emotional appraisal of medical students had a significant negative effect on avoidant coping (β = -0.173, CI 95% = [-0.243, -0.099], p  < .001). However, the other dimensions of emotional intelligence (others’ emotional appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion) had a significant positive impact on the active coping of female medical students (β = 0.146, CI 95% = [0.082,0.214], p  < .001; β = 0.235, CI 95% = [0.167,0.304], p  < .001; β = 0.165, CI 95% = [0.084,0.247], p  < .001). In contrast to those of female medical students, other dimensions of emotional intelligence had a significant positive impact on the avoidant coping of male medical students (β = -0.161, CI 95% = [-0.284, -0.062]; p  < 0.01; β = 0.126, CI 95% = [0.043,0.246], p  < 0.001; β = 0.159, CI 95% = [0.054,0.277], p  < 0.05; β = -0.221, CI 95% = [-0.363, -0.129], p  < 0.001). Moreover, the use of emotion had a significant positive impact on the active coping of male medical students (β = 0.272, CI 95% = [0.182,0.382], p  < .001). Furthermore, gender differences had a moderating effect on the relationship between emotional intelligence dimensions and stress coping (β = 0.178; CI 95% = [0.068,0.292]; p  < 0.05). Others’ emotional appraisal has a greater impact on female students’ active coping. In addition, with increasing regulation of emotion ability, female medical students reduce avoidant coping (β = 0.169, CI 95% = [0.002,0.326]; p  < 0.05).

Conclusions

The current study revealed that gender is a significant moderator of the relationship between medical students’ emotional intelligence and stress coping. These findings may help medical colleges focus on gender differences when improving medical students’ ability to cope with stress.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

College students are faced with many internal and external stresses that mainly come from academic, personal, and interpersonal relationships. Since COVID-19, the stress level of college students has increased [ 1 ]. This is especially true for medical students, who are more likely to encounter COVID-19-infected individuals [ 2 ]. Stress is regarded as a life crisis that affects the development of college students at all stages. High stress levels among medical students may lead to psychological problems such as depression, anxiety, and irritability [ 3 , 4 ], which can cause serious harm to their physical and mental health [ 5 ]. Furthermore, it will have a certain degree of influence on the career planning of medical students [ 6 ]. Therefore, effectively reducing the stress level of medical students is highly important for their future development.

As a special group, medical students are also facing the pressure of changing from being college students to being qualified medical workers [ 7 ]. Thus, medical students face more pressure than students from other majors [ 8 ]. Stress coping involves the different ways people deal with stress. Many medical students try to eliminate or reduce the impact of stressors by using effective or ineffective styles to cope with stress [ 9 ]. As an intermediary mechanism of stress and health, stress coping has important protective effects on individuals’ physical and mental health. As a new force in the field of health care, medical students’ effective stress coping and maintenance of mental health have a crucial impact on their social development.

Previous research on stress often coincides with research on emotion, which is experienced both physically and mentally [ 10 ]. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize one’s own and others’ emotions, to motivate one’s own emotions, and to manage one’s emotions in interpersonal relationships [ 11 ]. Emotional intelligence greatly affects individuals’ behavior and performance [ 12 ]. It helps students select the most appropriate stress coping style [ 13 ]. In previous studies, emotional intelligence was shown to buffer stress through active coping [ 14 , 15 ]. In other words, emotional intelligence minimizes the negative effects of stress and improves coping [ 16 ].

Gender has been shown to be an important factor that influences stress coping. Researchers have found that females tend to use behavioral coping more actively than males do [ 17 , 18 ]. However, some scholars believe that, based on the socialization hypothesis, females are more likely to use avoidant coping, while males are more likely to adopt active coping [ 19 , 20 ]. There is no consistent conclusion on the impact of gender on stress coping. These inconsistent findings highlight the need to consider gender differences when examining medical students’ stress coping.

Similarly, the study of emotional intelligence also emphasizes gender differences [ 21 ]. On the one hand, there are significant differences in the level of emotional intelligence between males and females [ 22 ]. On the other hand, gender has an important influence on the role of emotional intelligence [ 23 ]. Gender differences exist in both emotional intelligence and stress coping. However, to date, little research has been conducted on the potential role of gender as a moderator in the relationship between emotional intelligence and stress coping. As a moderator, the relationship between emotional intelligence and stress coping can still exist in the Chinese context, even in the absence of gender [ 15 , 24 ]. Therefore, whether there is a gender difference in the impact of emotional intelligence on stress coping among Chinese medical students is worth further exploration.

Therefore, this study explored the gender differences in stress coping in the field of health care and further explored the role of medical students’ gender as a moderator of emotional intelligence dimensions on stress coping. Thus, the influence mechanism of emotional intelligence on the stress coping of medical college students is clearer. At the same time, we expand the research on the influence of gender differences on stress coping.

• Stress coping

Individuals try to alleviate stress by reducing stressors, regulating negative emotions, and re-establishing their inner balance; in other words, they engage in coping [ 25 ]. The most commonly used definition of stress coping by Lazarus and Folkman is “constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external or internal demands that are far beyond the existing resources of the person” [ 26 ].

Researchers have typically divided coping into two styles: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping [ 27 , 28 ]. However, some researchers have divided coping from the perspective of behavior into two categories: active and avoidant coping [ 17 , 29 ]. Active coping involves considering ways to overcome stress and make plans for subsequent efforts, seeking social support and taking advantage of the situation by learning lessons from it [ 30 ]. Avoidant coping includes withdrawal and avoidance [ 31 , 32 ]. This division is more concise and easier to understand and analyze. Therefore, to better guide practice, we chose this division.

Many scholars have proposed that emotional intelligence and stress coping are inseparable [ 15 , 33 ]. An increasing number of articles have established a relationship between emotional intelligence and stress coping among students [ 16 , 34 ]. These studies seemingly indicate that students with greater emotional intelligence display better stress coping.

In this research, we used Lazarus and Folkman’s definition of stress coping to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and stress coping among medical students of different genders.

Emotional intelligence and stress coping

Emotional intelligence is related to an individual’s ability to deal with stress [ 24 ]. Emotional intelligence is the ability of individuals to recognize, evaluate, manage and control their own or others’ emotions [ 35 ]. The Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) is one of the most widely used measures of trait emotional intelligence. According to this measure, emotional intelligence includes an individual's specific ability in four aspects: (1) self-emotional appraisal, (2) others’ emotional appraisal, (3) use of emotion, and (4) regulation of emotion. Specifically, self-emotional appraisal relates to the individual’s ability to understand their deep emotions and be able to express these emotions naturally; regulation of emotion is the ability of people to regulate their emotions, which will enable a more rapid recovery from psychological distress; use of emotion is the ability of individuals to make use of their emotions by directing them toward constructive activities and personal performance; and others’ emotional appraisal is the ability to perceive and understand the emotions of those people [ 36 ].

With regard to stress coping, Moradi confirmed that people’s level of emotional intelligence helps in predicting useful stress coping [ 37 ]. Similar results were found in subsequent studies. Goleman argued that emotional intelligence includes traits such as motivation, optimism, adaptability, and warmth [ 38 ]. This adaptive capacity, also known as resilience, enables people to recover from stressful situations in the face of adversity [ 39 ]. High emotional intelligence is related to good adaptability [ 40 ]. In other words, students with high emotional intelligence have greater adaptability when facing stress. Due to their future occupation, medical students face more stress, so adaptability is necessary for them. Students with greater adaptability show a greater tendency to adopt active coping when faced with pressure and mental health problems [ 41 ].

In a study of college students’ stress coping, Fteiha reported a positive correlation between emotional intelligence and active coping [ 33 ]. Similarly, Por reported that individuals with higher emotional intelligence scores engaged in more active coping [ 42 ]. Based on the above discussion, the first hypothesis for this study is as follows:

H1: Emotional intelligence has a positive impact on the active coping of medical students.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to address one’s emotions, and an individual with high emotional intelligence is generally optimistic [ 43 ]. Optimistic students can see the positive side of the undesirable status quo and adopt active coping [ 44 ] instead of avoidant coping to escape stress.

According to a study of first-year law students, those with greater positive affect were less likely to adopt avoidant coping [ 45 ]. Similarly, many studies have shown that individuals with low emotional intelligence use more avoidant coping [ 24 , 46 ]. Based on the above discussion, the second hypothesis of this study is as follows:

H2: Emotional intelligence has a negative impact on the avoidant coping of medical students.

Gender differences and stress coping

Gender is recognized as an important predictor of differences in stress coping. The majority of prior studies found different results. Women believe that they do not have sufficient resources to cope with stress and tend to adopt an active coping style by seeking support from others [ 47 ]. Carver reported that women coped with stress positively by seeking social support, while men coped negatively by using distracting means such as alcohol and drugs [ 48 ]. Similarly, a recent study of law enforcement officers revealed that female officers were significantly more likely to use active coping, including emotional and social support, than male officers were [ 49 ].

However, the results remain somewhat mixed. Due to gender stereotypes, males are often associated with reason, while females are associated with emotion. According to Howerton, females are more likely to adopt avoidance-centered avoidant coping [ 50 ]. Another study revealed that females engage in more avoidant coping and that males engage in more rational active coping [ 51 ]. However, recent research has suggested that there are no statistically significant differences in the methods of coping with psychological stress based on gender [ 24 ].

Gender differences in stress coping can be explained by variations in the types of situations that female and male students typically encounter. Being female may be socially associated with exposure to a specific set of gender-related stressors, such as discrimination, battering, rape, and sexual harassment [ 52 ]. This may mean that different types of stress coping are needed.

Mixed results for the impact of gender on stress coping were found in the previous literature. However, the majority of related research suggests that gender differences have an impact on stress coping. Hence, we clarify the impact of gender differences on the stress coping of medical students. We propose the third hypothesis of the study:

H3: Gender moderates the emotional intelligence and stress coping of medical students.

Above literature reviews indicated that stress coping can be affected by gender and emotional intelligence. This research aimed to compare the associations between emotional intelligence dimensions and stress coping among medical students of different genders.

Sample and data collection

The study was mainly built on a quantitative design and survey research. This research adopted cluster random sampling. Hebei Province, a major province for the enrollment of medical students, was selected as the sampling area. Then, three medical colleges (enrollment number > 1200) were randomly selected from Hebei, as the medical colleges specialize in training medical students.

During the period of March–May 2023, we conducted a survey on the senior students of the two schools with the largest number of students in the three medical colleges, basic medical school and nursing school. The third author distributed the survey questionnaires to 800 Chinese medical students. Written informed consent was obtained from the participants after the researchers explained the purpose, risks, and benefits of the study, as suggested in prior research. Participation was voluntary, and no personally identifiable information was collected. In addition, at the beginning of the questionnaire, there was a cover letter containing information concerning purpose, anonymity, and confidentiality. The letter also included instructions and fill-in methods for those medical student participants.

The distribution of the questionnaires was completed in the classroom. The survey instrument included demographic conditions, the emotional intelligence scale and the stress coping scale and was distributed to each student by the researchers with the assistance of teachers. The questionnaires took approximately 20 min to complete. A questionnaire recovery box was set up in the college, and the participants completed the questionnaire and put into the box by themselves. After 56 invalid questionnaires were excluded, 744 valid questionnaires were finally collected, yielding an effective response rate of 93%.

All the measures were prepared in Chinese. The emotional intelligence scale was initially developed by Law K [ 53 ], and we used a Chinese version of the scale. To avoid distortion in the translation, the scale was independently translated back to English by two professionals and compared with the original English version. The scale has good reliability and validity in the Chinese context [ 54 , 55 ].

Emotional intelligence. Students’ emotional intelligence was measured using the questionnaire adapted from Law K, which consisted of four dimensions: self-emotion appraisal, other-emotion appraisal, use of emotion and regulation of emotion [ 53 ]. The survey included 16 items rated on a five-point scale (from 1 ‘strongly agree’ to 5 ‘strongly disagree’). High scores indicate good emotional intelligence, and low scores indicate poor emotional intelligence. Sample items included “I truly understand what I feel”, “I always know my friends’ emotions from their behavior”, and “I always tell myself I am a competent person”. The internal reliability of this questionnaire was sufficiently high (α = 0. 859).

Stress coping. Students’ stress coping ability was measured using the Chinese version of the questionnaire adapted from Frydenberg, which consisted of two dimensions: active coping and avoidant coping [ 56 ]. The survey included 13 items rated on a four-point scale (from 1 ‘do not use’ to 4 ‘often use’). Sample items were “I do not take the problem too seriously” and “I try to forget the whole thing”. The internal reliability of this questionnaire was sufficiently high (α = 0. 893). The Cronbach’s α for active coping and avoidant coping was 0. 871 and 0. 889, respectively.

Control variables. The moderator of gender was measured as 0 = female and 1 = male. The other demographic variables included only child (1 = yes; 2 = no), major (1 = nursing major; 2 = anesthesiology major, 3 = medical imaging major, 4 = medical laboratory science major), origin (1 = countryside; 2 = town; 3 = city), and class leader (1 = yes; 2 = no). Previous studies have shown that demographic variables, such as origin and being an only child, are likely to influence emotional intelligence and stress coping [ 57 , 58 ]; therefore, these variables were included as control variables.

In this study, the measurement scales were presented to the participants in the following order: demographic variables such as student gender, the emotional intelligence scale, and the stress coping scale.

Data analysis

The SPSS 26 statistical software package was first used for data analysis. The demographic characteristics of the sample are described as the mean (M), standard deviation (SD), number (n), and percentage (%), as appropriate. Group differences in stress coping ability were tested by t tests or one-way ANOVA. We then presented the means, standard deviations, and correlation values among the study variables. Because gender is a binary variable (female or male), we used group comparisons. We asked participants to self-identify their genders. After controlling for other demographic variables, Mplus 7.4 was used to compare the relationship between emotional intelligence and stress coping among students of different genders.

Descriptive statistics

Of all the students who participated in the survey, 81.6% were female, 73% were from the countryside, and 79.3% had brothers or sisters. The majority of the sample (60.1%) were nursing majors, and 79.2% of the students adopted active coping. The respondents’ demographic information and group differences in emotional intelligence and positive and avoidant coping are described in detail in Table  1 . Students who not-only child ( p  < 0.05), who served as class leader ( p  < 0,01) had higher level of emotional intelligence. Students from city had higher level of emotional intelligence ( p  < 0.01). Medical laboratory science major students had a higher level of active coping ( p  < . 001). Anesthesiology students ( p  < 0.01) who served as class leaders ( p  < . 001) had a greater level of avoidant coping. Furthermore, a comparison of emotional intelligence, active coping, and avoidant coping among students from three medical colleges revealed no significant differences. Table 2 details the means, standard deviations, and intervariable correlations. The results indicate a significant correlation between emotional intelligence and stress coping.

Hypothesis testing

Group comparisons were used to compare the associations between emotional intelligence dimensions and stress coping among medical students of different genders. The results are shown in Table  3 .

Figure  1 shows the results of the influence of female medical students’ emotional intelligence dimensions on stress coping. Specifically, for female medical students, self-emotional appraisal significantly negatively predicted avoidant coping (β = -0.173, CI 95% = [-0.243, -0.099], p  < 0.001). However, others’ emotional appraisal significantly positively predicted their active coping (β = 0.146, CI 95% = [0.082,0.214], p  < 0.001). Moreover, use of emotion (β = 0.235, CI 95% = [0.167,0.304], p  < 0.001) and regulation of emotion (β = 0.165, CI 95% = [0.084,0.247], p  < 0.001) significantly predicted active coping.

Female medical students’ emotional intelligence on stress coping. Note: * p  < . 05, ** p  < . 01

Furthermore, Fig.  2 shows the results of the influence of female medical students’ emotional intelligence dimensions on stress coping. For male medical students, the results showed that self-emotional appraisal significantly negatively predicted avoidant coping (β = -0.161, CI 95% = [-0.284, -0.062]; p  < 0.01). In contrast to female medical students, others’ emotional appraisal significantly positively predicted male medical students’ avoidant coping (β = 0.126, CI 95% = [0.043,0.246], p  < 0.001). The use of emotion significantly predicted active coping (β = 0.272, CI 95% = [0.182,0.382], p  < 0.001) and avoidant coping (β = 0.159, CI 95% = [0.054,0.277], p  < 0.05). Additionally, the regulation of emotion significantly negatively predicted avoidant coping (β = -0.221, CI 95% = [-0.363, -0.129], p  < 0.001).

Male medical students’ emotional intelligence on stress coping. Note: * p  < . 05, ** p  < . 01

Subsequently, we tested the moderating effects of gender on emotional intelligence dimensions and stress coping. As shown in Table  4 , we defined Diff = female‒male. None of the 95% CIs included zero, suggesting that the main effect of others’ emotional appraisal on medical students’ active coping was significant and positive (β = 0.178, CI 95% = [0.068,0.292]; p  < 0.05), indicating that others’ emotional appraisal had a greater effect on the active coping of female medical students than on that of male medical students. Additionally, the main effect of regulation of emotion on medical students’ avoidant coping was significant and positive (β = 0.169, CI 95% = [0.002,0.326]; p  < 0.05), which revealed that regulation of emotion had a greater effect on the active coping of female medical students than on that of male medical students.

Figures  3 and 4 provide graphical representations of the moderating effects of gender. The figure shows that with an increase in others' emotional appraisal score, female students engage in more active coping. Similarly, with increasing regulation of emotion, there are significant differences in avoidant coping between female students and male students.

Moderation of gender on others’ emotional appraisal-active coping correlation

Moderation of gender on regulation of emotion-avoidant coping correlation

Interpreting the findings

First, this study is the first to compare the connection between emotional intelligence and stress coping among medical students of different genders. This finding confirms that different emotional intelligence dimensions influence how medical students cope with stress. These comparisons indicate that medical students’ stress coping is complex and influenced by many individual factors. This study therefore contributes to the literature on medical students’ psychological health.

Second, the outcome of the current study confirms that self-emotional appraisal significantly negatively predicts both female and male medical students’ avoidant coping. Medical students with high self-emotional appraisal ability are more aware of changes in their emotional patterns, and they are also more likely to make plans and engage in active coping [ 59 ]. In other words, they will reduce the use of alcohol and other avoidant coping to vent their emotions. However, this finding is contrary to that presented by Jung and Yoon [ 34 ].

Additionally, the use of emotion was found to have the greatest impact on both female and male medical students’ active coping and to have positive and significant effects on male students’ avoidant coping. Students with high scores for the use of emotions will use emotions to relieve stress. There is robust evidence that positive emotions cooccur with negative emotions during intensely stressful situations [ 60 ]. Therefore, students can make full use of positive emotions and adopt positive coping styles. It is also possible to avoid coping due to the guidance of negative emotions. Compared with females, male medical students are less able to identify their negative emotions [ 61 ], resulting in their inability to use negative emotions correctly. Thus, male medical students are more likely to avoid coping under the guidance of negative emotions.

Additionally, the regulation of emotion significantly positively predicts female medical students’ active coping but significantly negatively predicts male medical students’ avoidant coping. Regulation of emotion is the ability of people to regulate their emotions. In other words, medical students with high regulation of emotion ability have greater adaptability [ 10 ]. They are more likely to face stress when they have a positive and optimistic attitude. Thus, the ability to regulate emotion helps female students cope more actively and helps male students cope less effectively. This conclusion is consistent with the literature, which indicates that an increase in the regulation of emotion increases the use of active coping [ 15 , 24 , 34 ]. However, in contrast to Eschenbeck’s results, no gender differences occurred for stress coping related to emotion regulation [ 62 ].

Fourth, others’ emotional appraisal significantly positively predicts female medical students’ active coping. Females pay more attention to participating in social activities [ 63 ], and females are more likely to seek social support to reduce stress [ 64 ]. Thus, students with greater emotional appraisal can better ‘read’ the environment and others’ emotions and respond accordingly to obtain more social support when faced with stress. Videlicet, they will cope more actively. This finding is consistent with previous research findings showing that females cope more actively to relieve stress [ 49 , 65 ].

However, for male medical students, others’ emotional appraisal has statistically positive and significant effects on avoidant coping. Male students who score higher in others’ emotional appraisal are more sensitive to others’ emotions, which leads them to bear more pressure [ 66 ]. Males are more independent and rarely seek help in the face of pressure [ 67 ]. This leads them to engage in more avoidance coping.

Finally, when comparing the influence of the emotional intelligence dimensions of students of different genders on their stress coping, our research indicates that female medical students’ others’ emotional appraisal has a much greater effect on active coping. This may be because under the influence of traditional Chinese culture, the expectations of males and females are different, males are more independent and more responsible, and females are more sensitive and more careful [ 68 ]. Thus, compared with male medical students, female medical students are more sensitive and concerned about the emotions of others. In other words, female medical students are more careful than male medical students in interpersonal relationships. This makes female medical students’ friendships more active, intimate, and emotionally supportive [ 69 ]. Thus, high others’ emotional appraisal helps female medical students maintain a better interpersonal circle and obtain more social support. When female medical students face stress, they are more likely than male medical students to use help-seeking behaviors to actively cope [ 39 ].

Furthermore, male medical students’ regulation of emotion had a stronger effect on the reduction of avoidant coping. This may be because tobacco use and alcohol consumption are greater in males than in females in China [ 70 ]. In other words, when facing stress, males are prone to think of using avoidant coping, such as smoking and drinking, to relieve stress, while females usually do not. Therefore, because females use less avoidant coping, better regulation of emotion has less of an effect on avoidant coping. In contrast, for male medical students, the ability to regulate emotion helps them to better restrain negative feelings and, in its place, promote positive feelings such as confidence, empathy and friendliness [ 71 ]. This helps male medical students face stress with optimism, so they will take the initiative to find a solution and take less avoidant coping.

In general, although female medical students suffer more stressors and are more likely to be affected by stressors [ 72 ], we have found that emotional intelligence can better help female medical students relieve stress than can male medical students.

Contributions to the literature

This research contributes to the empirical investigation of stress coping in several ways. First, we confirmed the moderating effect of gender. Previous studies have reached different conclusions about gender differences in stress coping [ 18 , 20 ]. Moreover, few studies have focused on gender differences in stress coping in the Chinese context. In China, medical students are under great pressure. We examined gender differences in stress coping and identified inconsistencies in previous studies. This study fills the gap in the literature on gender differences in the stress coping of medical students in the Chinese context and helps Chinese medical students better relieve stress.

Second, previous studies have shown that there are gender differences in emotional intelligence and stress coping. However, few studies have tested gender differences in the effect of emotional intelligence on stress coping, which represents a serious gap in the literature. Thus, we have comprehensively promoted the research progress on gender differences in these two fields rather than studying gender differences in emotional intelligence or stress coping in isolation. This can better guide medical students to relieve stress.

Furthermore, in previous research, stress coping strategies have been divided into two categories: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. We divided stress coping behavior into two categories: active coping and avoidant coping. This division is more concise and easier to understand and analyze, so our results can better guide practice.

Implications for Management

The results of this study have many important implications for college education, particularly for medical majors. First, the results of this paper shed light on the complex ways in which emotional intelligence is relevant to Chinese medical students’ active stress coping. Colleges should offer mental health courses so that medical students can maintain a positive and optimistic attitude and can adopt more effective active coping in the face of pressure.

Second, given the larger proportion of female medical students, the results showing that gender differences moderate the effect of emotional intelligence on stress coping could provide an effective solution for college students. Colleges can increase medical students’ emotional intelligence skills through courses and practice, particularly for female students. This can improve students’ emotional intelligence and help them actively cope with stress to relieve their stress and anxiety. A healthy psychological state has a crucial impact on future doctors and nurses.

Finally, according to Damla, seeking social support is the most common stress coping style among doctors and nurses [ 73 ]. Social support is provided by networks comprising family, relatives, and friends. Thus, colleges should encourage students to socialize and make friends. At the same time, colleges should regularly communicate with parents to provide necessary support for students.

Limitations

There are some limitations of this study that may affect the results. One potential limitation is that all variables were measured by self-reports, which may have led to response bias. To overcome this weakness, multiple indices (e.g., physiological and physiological indices) should be used to obtain more reliable information about the emotional intelligence levels of participants in the future.

Second, all the participants in the study were from 3 regions in Hebei Province and from 3 medical colleges. Medical colleges in other provinces were not investigated. The sample data we used may not be sufficiently comprehensive. Future research should attempt to select more colleges by expanding the geographical scope and especially focusing on colleges in first-tier cities to compare the effect of different levels of economic development on students’ emotional intelligence and stress coping. In addition, there are still some important sociocultural factors that we do not take into account. Thus, attention to other variables, such as Chinese culture, is also one of the future research directions.

Finally, we use a cross-sectional study, and only preliminary inferences are made on the relationships between variables. It is impossible to clarify the causal relationships between variables. Tracking research design or experimental research is still needed to further improve the paper.

The results show that the different dimensions of emotional intelligence have different effects on the active/avoidant coping of medical students of different genders. In addition, there are gender differences in the impact of others’ emotional appraisal on active coping and the impact of the regulation of emotion on avoidant coping. This study provides compelling evidence that focusing on gender is useful for improving medical students’ stress management skills. Therefore, different interventions for medical students of different genders are beneficial for increasing the impact of emotional intelligence on stress coping and can be used to help medical students relieve severe stress.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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The authors thank all the participating medical teachers and students. We would like to express our gratitude to them for their assistance.

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China 71901031.

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Zhang, N., Ren, X., Xu, Z. et al. Gender differences in the relationship between medical students’ emotional intelligence and stress coping: a cross-sectional study. BMC Med Educ 24 , 810 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05781-9

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Emotion Regulation, Stress, and Well-Being in Academic Education: Analyzing the Effect of Mindfulness-Based Intervention

Liana santos alves peixoto.

1 Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Bahia, Emotions, Feelings and Affections in Work Contexts (EMOTRAB), Estrada de Sao Lázaro, Sao Lázaro, Salvador, BA Brasil

Sonia Maria Guedes Gondim

2 Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Bahia, Estrada de São Lázaro, São Lázaro, Salvador, BA Brasil

Cícero Roberto Pereira

3 Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Paraiba, Centro de Ciências Humanas Letras E Artes - Campus I, AC Cidade Universitária João Pessoa,, Castelo Branco, CEP: 58051970 João Pessoa, PB Brasil

Associated Data

Recent studies point to an increase in psychological distress among graduate students. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of mindfulness practices on emotion regulation, on the perception of stress, and on the psychological well-being of graduate students. Forty-five (45) graduate students participated in the study, divided into an intervention and a control group. Questionnaires were applied for self-assessment of mindfulness, perceived stress, and psychological well-being, in addition to qualitative interviews in the pre- and post-timeframes of a mindfulness-based intervention. Quantitative data were analyzed using ANOVAs for repeated measures, while the interviews were analyzed using the thematic content analysis technique. The results indicated increases in the levels of mindfulness and psychological well-being, and a reduction in perceived stress in the intervention group, post-intervention. The interviews indicated the presence of ambivalent emotions in relation to graduate studies and the development of new strategies to cope with the stress in this work context. The main contribution of the study was to present empirical evidence of the effectiveness of mindfulness practices in the graduate-level education context, allowing students to become more capable of dealing with the challenges of an academic career.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43076-021-00092-0.

In recent decades, there has been an increase in studies on the constructs that are related to subjective (Diener, 1984 ; Diener et al., 2018 ; Jovanović, 2015 ) and psychological (Disabato et al., 2016 ; Ryff, 1989 ) individual well-being (Sonnentag, 2015 ), especially in those contexts with a strong presence of stressors such as academic education (Klainin-Yobas et al., 2016 ; Schmidt & Hansson, 2018 ; Smith & Yang, 2017 ). According to Faro ( 2013a ), graduate school is a complex reality that requires various adjustments, from career planning to facing daily challenges in the exercise of this work activity, and recent studies point to an increase in psychological distress among graduate students (Farrer et al., 2016 ; Marais et al., 2018 ; Mendes & Iora, 2014 ). The relationship of the students with their advisors, the few resources available, the work overload, the arduous learning of scientific writing, and the preparation and development of the research project proves to be contributing factors to this distress (Faro, 2013a ; Galvan et al., 2015 ; Santos et al., 2015 ). Thus, it becomes relevant to identify and deepen our understanding of the predictors of health and well-being in this population, to guide actions in the area of academic education.

It is observed in the scientific literature (Gross & John, 2003 ; Santana & Gondim, 2016 ) that well-being is associated with emotion regulation, defined as a psychological process that can occur both at the conscious level and automatically. It aims to modulate the way emotions are felt and expressed for the purpose of adaptation and social adjustment (Gross, 2015 ). Mindfulness has been considered an ally in the process of emotion regulation. Recent studies have demonstrated positive effects of mindfulness on the individual’s health, decreasing the intensity of distress, accelerating emotional recovery, and increasing the ability to engage in goal-oriented behavior (Bullis et al., 2014 ; MacDonald & Baxter, 2017 ; Mahmoudzadeh et al., 2015 ; Mandal et al., 2017 ; Roemer et al., 2015 ; Shapiro et al., 2006 ). In mindfulness training, individuals learn to self-regulate their attention (sustaining it or changing the focus, when necessary). They also learn to observe mental and emotional patterns, maintaining an attitude of openness and acceptance, without ignoring unpleasant experiences (Bishop et al., 2004 ; Iani et al., 2019 ; Kabat-Zinn, 2017 ; Shapiro et al., 2006 ). Acceptance-based strategies for responding to negative emotions were associated with less psychological symptoms and more well-being (Baer et al., 2006 ). This acceptance is not to be confused with passivity in the face of reality. More recent empirical evidence (Ford et al., 2018 ) indicates that there is no association between mental acceptance of the negative emotional experience and passive acceptance of the negative situation. Thus, it is suggested that there is an association between the practice of mindfulness and processes of emotion regulation in the promotion of greater general well-being (Brown & Ryan, 2003 ; Mitmansgruber et al., 2009 ).

According to Baer et al. ( 2006 ), mindfulness would involve cognitive, attitudinal, and affective aspects, when contemplating and cultivating thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations without trying to avoid them and not becoming overly engaged in them. It is based on an attitude of non-judgment, being anchored in the present moment, and avoiding automatic and reactive forms (Bishop et al., 2004 ; Iani et al., 2019 ). According to Kabat-Zinn ( 2017 ), mindfulness as a life practice is associated with the introjection of seven attitudes that can help change the individual’s perspective and relationship with him/herself, with others, and with everyday situations: non-judging, patience, beginner’s mind, confidence, non-striving, acceptance, and letting go. In being conceived as a posture towards life, a set of attitudes, and a state of consciousness to be reached, mindfulness makes use of formal and informal practices for personal development (Crane et al., 2014 ; Goldberg et al., 2014 ; Parsons et al., 2017 ).

The attention, intention, and attitudes cultivated with the practice of mindfulness, for Shapiro et al. ( 2006 ), help in the process of emotion regulation because it promotes a change in perspective in the interpretation of reality, helps in the consolidation of values, increases emotional and cognitive flexibility, and favors openness to experience. Investigations on the neurobiological aspects involved in the practice of mindfulness have demonstrated changes in the brain regions and neural mechanisms involved in emotional processing (amygdala and prefrontal cortex) with improvements in self-regulation (Doll et al., 2016 ; Kral et al., 2018 ; Xiao et al., 2019 ; Zhang et al., 2019 ). However, there is demand for further research on how mindfulness would promote an improvement in adaptive functioning, in the choice of regulatory strategies, and in personal well-being (Alkoby et al., 2018 ; Erisman & Roemer, 2010 ), especially in more challenging contexts such as those involving an academic career (Beck et al., 2017 ; Galante et al., 2017 ; Regehr et al., 2013 ).

Some professional careers are more challenging and require more efforts in the use of emotion regulation strategies to maintain or improve individual well-being. Scientific activity is currently going through difficult times due to budget constraints. The situation worsened with the coronavirus pandemic that struck in February 2020. The isolation measures had a clear impact on economic and social life, especially in universities. Additionally, academic life generates a source of stress due to competitiveness and pressure for scientific productivity, causing an emotional overload (Graham et al., 2016 ; Simonelli-Muñoz et al., 2018 ).

Given the challenging context for graduate-level education and its impacts on emotion regulation processes, this research sought to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between mindfulness, perception of stress, and psychological well-being. An intervention study was carried out with graduate students with the objective of evaluating the effects of mindfulness practices (mindfulness as a technique) on the increase of psychological well-being (PWB), on decreasing perceived stress, and on increasing full attention (mindfulness treated as a state of consciousness) in a sample of graduate students. The decrease in the level of stress, the increase in PWB, also accompanied by the increase in full attention would be indications that the practice of mindfulness has repercussions on the process of emotion regulation of the study participants. According to Gondim and Rentería-Perez ( 2019 ), the scientific value of intervention-based knowledge production is revealed in the capacity of this research design to approach the dynamism of the phenomenon, as is the case in the learning and practice of mindfulness as a resource for emotion regulation purposes, and additionally to evaluate its practical effects. It is expected that the results of this study can be incorporated into the processes for training researchers, making them more capable of ensuring their well-being and dealing with the challenges of a career with continuous and growing demands for emotion regulation.

Participants

Participants were recruited with an invitation letter from the office of the dean of graduate studies and from the graduate student association at the university where the study was conducted. Inclusion criteria comprised the following: (i) be a graduate student and (ii) be enrolled in their studies from the first semester to 6 months before the probable date of their conclusion. Initially, 125 students signed up to participate. Upon applying the inclusion criteria and confirming the interest and availability to participate in the study, 45 students enrolled in graduate studies programs (master’s, doctorate, or specialization) were selected.

Most of the participants were women (72%), aged between 24 and 58 (M = 33; SD = 8.4). Roughly half of them were studying for a Master’s degree, 46% were working on a PhD, and 2% a Specialist degree. Most of the students (70%) were receiving a fellowship grant, and 35% were engaged in other work beyond their graduate studies.

Randomization

We used a randomized experimental research design to ensure that the only difference between the treatment and control groups was the manipulated variable. For this reason, participants were randomly allocated to one of five groups resulting in 10 to 13 participants per group. Four of these groups received the intervention, and one was the control group. Thus, 37 participants were allocated to the intervention conditions, divided into four subgroups (ranging from eight to 10 participants each). This number of participants per group allowed better monitoring of practices by the instructor. Of these, only one dropped out of the study. The control group included 13 individuals, but only eight remained until the end of the experiment. Data from participants who dropped out of the study were excluded from the analyses. Finally, we conducted a sensitivity power analysis using Webpower (Zhang & Yuan, 2018 ), which indicated that our sample size had an 80% chance of detecting a main effect or interaction effect as small as f  = 0.42 with α  = 0.05.

Mindfulness-Based Intervention

The intervention was based on the MTi protocol (Mindfulness Trainings International), for which the first author is certified. It was held in eight weekly 2-h meetings in the same room of a federal institution of higher education. Each meeting had a specific theme and was divided into two parts. The first was dedicated to sharing the experiences of homework, reviewing concepts and practices from the previous meeting, and guidance/suggestions for the challenges identified by the participants. In the second part, new practices and techniques were introduced to assist in the development of mindfulness, with specific instructions for homework.

The intervention provided for the use of formal and informal practices and proposals for changing habits. The formal ones had a specific structure and duration, with audio support and the need to set aside time and space to carry them out, and were intended to improve the quality of mindfulness. Four formal practices were taught: developing mindfulness while seated; lying down; walking; and moving the body. Informal practices referred to the inclusion of mindfulness in the routine activities of individuals, such as, eating with mindfulness, establishing conversations attentive to body signals, such as breathing, relaxation, or tensing of muscles, among others. The proposals for habit change were intended to stimulate the experience of the seven mindfulness attitudes, such as brushing with the non-dominant hand, which, in general, puts the individual in a beginner’s mindset.

In order to offer a variety of stimuli for the development of mindfulness and the seven mindfulness attitudes, which are fundamental to the practice, each week, different formal and informal practices and proposals for habit changes were presented. The homework included a formal practice and at least one informal practice and one habit change.

In general, in the first four meetings, the focus was on understanding what mindfulness is, especially on mindfulness attitudes, and practices centered on the individuals themselves, developing their mindfulness and focusing on their emotions. From the fifth meeting on, the practices also included relationships with other people. In addition to these meetings, there was one extra meeting (for immersion purposes) lasting 3 h in a space with nature and in silence, to deepen the formal practices taught during the weekly meetings. This meeting also took place on the premises of the same educational institution.

Data Collection Instruments

Mindfulness Scale (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire — FFMQ-BR): instrument by Baer et al. ( 2006 ) validated in the Brazilian context by Barros et al. ( 2014 ). The FFMQ presents 39 items related to everyday situations and assesses the individual’s general level of mindfulness. Some examples of this instrument’s items are “I pay attention to sounds, such as the clock ticking, birds singing, or cars passing by”; “I’m good at finding words that describe my feelings”; “I find it difficult to stay focused on what is happening in the present moment”; “I make judgments about whether my thoughts are good or bad”; “I perceive my feelings and emotions without having to react to them.” The overall reliability index (Cronbach’s alpha) of the scale was considered satisfactory both before and after the intervention (0.88 and 0.87, respectively).

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS): the original scale by Cohen et al. ( 1983 ) was validated for the Brazilian context by Luft et al. ( 2007 ). It assesses the degree to which respondents perceive their lives as unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overburdened. It consists of 14 items (e.g., “Have you been feeling that problems accumulate to the point where you believe you cannot overcome them?”; “Have you been feeling that you are dealing well with the important changes that are occurring in your life?”) with a Likert scale of responses ranging from zero to four (0 = never; 1 = almost never; 2 = sometimes; 3 = almost always; 4 = always). Cronbach’s alpha was considered satisfactory both in the pre-intervention (0.87) and post-intervention (0.89) measurements.

Psychological Well-being Scale (PWBS): the original scale (Ryff & Essex, 1992 ) was validated for the Brazilian context with a sample of university students by Machado et al. ( 2013 ) and used a Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 6 (completely agree). Two dimensions more sensitive to the influence of the development of mindfulness were selected (positive relationship with others and self-acceptance) and some examples of items are “People would describe me as someone willing to share my time with others”; “In general I feel confident and positive about myself.”

Cogni ( https://cogniapp.com/ ): Application installed on smartphones that allows the recording of momentary affective states and associated events. The version used allows viewing the data in the form of a report for each participant about their mood, momentary emotions, and contextualization of emotions (situation, thoughts, and behavior associated with momentary affective states).

Individual qualitative interview (Fraser & Gondim, 2004 ; Warren, 2001 ): the objective was to explore the impressions, beliefs, opinions, and experiences of the participants. The interview script before and after the intervention with mindfulness was similar, thus making it possible to compare the two moments of data collection, addressing the following topics: (i) knowledge about mindfulness, in order to understand if there were changes in the conception of this construct based on the daily experience of the practices; (ii) expectations related to the intervention, to identify if there was a change in expectations based on the mindfulness experience and what were the students’ intentions about continuing with the practices after the training; (iii) carrying out mindfulness practices, to explore the frequency and regularity in the practices during the intervention and afterwards; (iv) demands of graduate studies, aiming to relate them to the student’s perception of stress and well-being; and (v) affective states towards graduate studies and life in general, with the objective of identifying which are the prevalent affective states and possible associations with the increase in mindfulness practices.

Data Collection Procedure

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the higher education institution where the research was carried out via Plataforma Brasil (CAEE: 71,455,317.2.0000.5686). All participants and the first author signed the Free and Informed Consent Form (ICF).

Participants were randomly allocated (draw, as specified in “Participants”) to the four intervention condition subgroups and the control group. At moment 1, both the participants in the intervention subgroups, done concurrently, but on alternate days, and those in the control group, were submitted to individual interviews and filled out the instruments. Upon completing the 8 weeks of the intervention, totaling 16 h, the participants were again interviewed and filled out the same instruments. During the 2-month period, the control group did not participate in any activity. Only after the second data collection moment, did the participants in the control group undergo the intervention.

All interventions were conducted by the researcher, a certified instructor. The individual interviews with each participant in the pre- and post-intervention moments were carried out in a private room, without noise or interference, by a trained interviewer, a member of the research group who had participated as an interviewer in the first stage, but who had not monitored the intervention. They were also recorded in audio, after the participant’s consent.

During the 8-week intervention, each participant was asked twice a week to complete Cogni information on days and times not previously established. The point was to surprise the participant, avoiding planned responses. The instruction was to access the application and fill in the requested information about how they felt at the moment, the situation that was being experienced, current thoughts, and actions taken regarding the situation.

Data Processing and Analysis Procedure

Quantitative (self-report scales) and qualitative (individual interviews) data were compared, observing the intragroup (before and after the intervention within each group) and intergroup (control and intervention, considering the pre- and post-intervention moments) aspects.

The values for skewness, kurtosis, and the Shapiro–Wilk test of all variables used in the study in the pre- and post-intervention moments did not violate the assumptions of normality, authorizing the use of parametric tests. As there was no violation of the assumption of normal distribution of the residuals and recognizing that the participants were randomly allocated to the groups, repeated-measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used, with the analysis parameters being time (pre and post), group condition (intervention and control), and the overall scores of the scales for mindfulness, psychological well-being, and perceived stress.

The Cogni data was exported to an Excel spreadsheet for processing and analyzing the information. The frequency of response and mood of the participants in the intervention group were taken into account. The use of this application was intended to monitor the affective states of the participants during the mindfulness-based intervention program, as a complementary data item for interpreting the participant’s perceived well-being.

Finally, the interviews were converted from audio to text by one of the researchers. The first two authors adopted the coding procedure and thematic category analysis of each of the interview topics in order to respond to the research problem. Words or excerpts from the participants’ statements were coded, grouping them by similarities of meaning, and aligned with the concepts covered in the study (Bardin, 2010 ; Gondim & Bendassolli, 2014 ). The thematic category structure was analyzed by another member of the research group who had not monitored the intervention nor conducted the interview.

Mindfulness, Perceived Stress, and Psychological Well-Being

Table ​ Table1 1 and Fig.  1 show the increase for the Intervention Group (IG) in the FFMQ [ F (1.43) = 24.25; p  = 0.00001; η p 2  = 0.36], decrease in the PSS [ F (1.43) = 18.84; p  = 0.00008; η p 2  = 0.30], and increase in the PWBS [ F (1.43) = 9.05; p  = 0.004; η p 2  = 0.17] scores, in comparison with the control group (CG) [CG pre- and post-results for the FFMQ: F (1.43) = 0.08; p  = 0.77; η p 2  = 0.00] [CG pre- and post-results for perceived stress: F (1.43) = 0.091; p  = 0.76; η p 2  = 0.002] [CG pre- and post-results for psychological well-being: F (1.43) = 0.51; p  = 0.48; η p 2  = 0.012].

Means and standard deviations (in parentheses) of the assessments of mindfulness, perceived stress, and psychological well-being of the intervention and control groups in the pre- and post-intervention

Mindfulness scale ranged from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest mindfulness index; perceived stress from 0 to 4, with 4 indicating more perceived stress, and psychological well-being from 1 to 6, where 6 indicates greater perceived well-being

Comparison of the overall scores for mindfulness (top), perceived stress (center), psychological well-being (bottom) in the pre- and post-intervention, intervention and control groups

Analysis of Cogni

In total, 16 messages were sent during the 2 months of intervention (two messages per week) on days and times drawn at random between 8 am and 9 pm to all participants in the intervention group, with the aim of monitoring the most frequent affective states during the intervention. The response frequency throughout the intervention had a minimum of one response (one participant) and a maximum of 15 responses (six participants). The mood most mentioned in these responses was “happy,” followed by “normal,” while the mean was 3.7 (point between the “normal” and “happy” moods, closer to “happy”). In total, we had the following frequency of readings in the affective states: 244 happy, 156 normal, 50 very happy, 38 sad, and 12 very sad. Thus, a prevalence of positive affective state (happy) was observed among the participants during the intervention.

Analysis of the Interviews

In this section, we will discuss the interview data only for the participants who underwent the intervention, considering that the focus was to capture information about possible changes resulting from participation in the proposed intervention.

Knowledge About Mindfulness

After the intervention, the participants indicated that they had increased their understanding of the philosophical aspect of mindfulness practice, not restricting it to a meditation technique, as was more evident in the initial pre-intervention interview. This new perspective helps in the transfer and generalization of the concepts learned for the daily lives of the individuals, as it brings more clarity about how mindfulness attitudes, for example, can be present in relationships and positions towards life. In addition, many participants emphasized in the second interview that the practice helped in the process of self-knowledge, since they were more attentive to body sensations, thoughts, breathing, and emotions. Even though, in the first interview, the expectations regarding mindfulness were focused on the cognitive and emotional aspects that this practice could help, giving more focus and allowing relaxation, the participants identified that there were gains in the development of greater awareness of themselves (Table ​ (Table2 2 ).

Categories about mindfulness knowledge

Prepared by the authors based on the data

Expectations Related to the Mindfulness-Based Intervention

The expectations about the intervention proved to be in line with the answers to the previous question, because in the post-intervention moment, the participants reported that they were realizing that the practice of mindfulness helped in the development of greater awareness (of themselves, body, breathing, contextual elements), but also of the potential of applying the technique and philosophical aspects, such as mindfulness attitudes, in their daily lives. This allowed the participants to see how much the practice of mindfulness helped them to develop new perspectives regarding the problems of graduate studies, such as handling time pressure, conflicts, and also changes in habits and postures. Thus, even though in the first interview the expectation of cognitive gains (improvement of focus, concentration, and organization of thinking) and emotional gains (experience of relaxation or reduction of stress) prevailed, after the training, the gains were related to the incorporation of the practice in daily life and the development of awareness (Table ​ (Table3 3 ).

Categories about expectations related to the mindfulness-based intervention

Carrying Out Mindfulness Practices

In the post-intervention interview, a question about the frequency of the practices (formal and informal) was added. Most participants ( n  = 29, 78%) reported engaging in such practices on a daily basis, almost every day, or four times a week; six said they made little use of informal practices, sometimes, or two to three times a week. Only two participants reported not performing the practices. Regarding formal practices, thirteen participants (35%) mentioned having a regular frequency, doing them daily, almost every day, or four times a week; thirteen said little, sometimes, or two or three times a week; and 11 were not performing formal practices.

Graduate School Demands

The participants reported having managed to reframe some of the academic demands after the intervention, adopting new analysis perspectives and new attitudes and behaviors regarding the challenging situations, post-intervention. In addition to understanding and learning from their positive and negative experiences in graduate school, they managed to improve the planning and execution of activities, with greater focus and better management of time and deadlines. In the first interview, by contrast, the focus fell more on general issues inherent to the research process, such as the project’s theme, career concerns, scientific production, and the structure of the university. They also made more comments about the impacts of their emotions (fear, insecurity) and personal situations (change of city, lack of family support, personal demands) in the graduate school experience. The results suggest that mindfulness may have helped them find alternative ways to deal with problems, including those of an interpersonal nature. Relational problems appeared more in the first interview than in the post-intervention interview (Table ​ (Table4 4 ).

Categories and subcategories about graduate school demands

Affective States Towards Graduate School and Life in General

Regarding the affective states most present in life in general and in graduate school, there was a strong reference to ambivalent states, such as joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment, accompanied by anxiety, distress, and insecurity in the two interviews carried out. In the second interview, there was more mention of pleasant affective states and less of unpleasant affective states in comparison with the pre-intervention interview (Table ​ (Table5 5 ).

Categories about affective states in the interviews

This study aimed to assess the effects of mindfulness practices (mindfulness as a technique) on mindfulness (mindfulness as a state of consciousness), perceived stress, and psychological well-being, in graduate students. The results indicated that initially, in both groups (control and intervention), the scores for mindfulness and perceived stress were very close to the midpoint of the scale, which indicates the equivalence of these groups resulting from the success of the participant randomization procedure. After the intervention, however, the control group maintained their levels of mindfulness, perceived stress, and well-being, while the intervention group presented an increase in mindfulness and well-being, and a reduction in perceived stress. The analysis of the interviews offered interpretative support for this result.

It must be considered, however, that these variations in the scores of the intervention group, although significant, presented a moderate effect size. One of the possible interpretations may be in the varied engagement in the tasks proposed by the instructor, considering that most of the participants in the intervention group engaged in informal practices, although a minority maintained regularity in the formal practices. It is important to highlight the complementarity of the formal and informal practices, since the formal assists in mindfulness quality, while the informal enables the daily experience (induction of a state) of mindfulness. On the other hand, studies (Hindman et al., 2015 ) indicate that engaging in informal practices on a regular basis has impacts on reducing stress, just as formal practices do.

Thus, evidence in the literature also points out that the benefits of mindfulness depend on regular practice (Goldberg et al., 2014 ; Kabat-Zinn, 2017 ). A meta-analysis study conducted by Parsons et al. ( 2017 ) identified a small, but significant, association between formal home practice and the benefits of mindfulness intervention. On the other hand, Crane et al. ( 2014 ) found no evidence of an association between informal practices and the benefits of mindfulness-based intervention but reflected on the difficulty of measuring these practices, since they are less structured than formal ones.

The formal mindfulness technique that focuses on breathing, for example, does not propose a change in emotional or physical states but only observes them as they appear and accepts them as experiences, keeping the focus on the sensations of breathing. This posture can generate a change in the perception of the demands of the context, as reported by graduate students, with the visualization of aspects not previously perceived. The conscious sustaining of attention enables the development of a more flexible and adaptive emotion regulation, facilitated by the expansion of awareness and perception of the here and now (Alkoby et al., 2018 ; Roemer et al., 2015 ; Shapiro et al., 2006 ).

In this perspective, the data from the interviews provide support, since the reference to the increase in self-awareness (breathing, body, emotions, reactions) and changes in the perception of demands, development of new attitudes towards challenges, and greater awareness of the situations and choices stand out in the words of the participants, in the post-intervention moment. Greater awareness and capacity for observation help in choosing emotion regulation strategies that are more appropriate to the context, also offering feedback on the effectiveness of the strategies used (Coffey & Hartman, 2008 ). This can give greater flexibility to the emotion regulation process, as the awareness of internal and external factors is increased and the freedom to choose the strategy to use makes the person become less reactive.

Although the indicators of well-being for both groups (control and intervention) were above the midpoint of the scale at the pre-intervention moment, the intervention group showed a small increase in the score. Evidence suggests that to maintain well-being, it is necessary to have a posture of acceptance in relation to one’s emotions, a key aspect of the attitudes and the practice of mindfulness (Mitmansgruber et al., 2009 ).

In the interviews with the graduate students, it was also possible to capture some aspects related to the subjective experience of graduate school and the challenges inherent in this context. Although the perceived stress scores in the pre-intervention moment of both groups are close to the midpoint of the scale, the statements demonstrate ambivalent thoughts and feelings in relation to graduate school. The changes cited by the participants as a result of entering graduate school (routine, activity, and even city and social circle, in some cases) associated with the lack of institutional or relational support (difficulties in the relationship with advisor, research group, professors, and colleagues) and financial difficulties are potential stressors that are aggravated by the difficulty of planning, short deadlines, external and internal demands, and uncertainties regarding the future. Some students also reported the need to reconcile graduate education with other work activities, with difficulties related to time, fatigue, and prioritizing activities.

The literature points to numerous interrelated variables in the academic training process at the stricto sensu level that can generate feelings of anxiety and lack of control, with psychological distress (Faro, 2013b ; Farrer et al., 2016 ; Mendes & Iora, 2014 ). Some of these were also cited by the students in this study, such as running the research project, excess hours of study, poor academic performance evaluations, relationship with advisor, reconciling with one’s personal life, demand for productivity, deadlines, and institutional problems (Galvan et al., 2015 ; Graner & Cerqueira, 2019 ; Hoffmann et al., 2018 ; Santos et al., 2015 ).

In some post-intervention interviews, the students mentioned improvements in planning and execution, indicating better focus and achievement of graduate school tasks, and better management of time and deadlines. This data is in line with the result found by Ju and Lien ( 2016 ) in which the strategy of focusing attention on breathing (one of the practices of mindfulness) proved to be effective in reducing distracted minds and intrusive thoughts. This data can also be related to the reduction in perceived stress detected in the post-intervention in the intervention group.

The analysis of these data indicates that mindfulness training can be understood as a resource for coping with emotional situations (Shapiro et al., 2006 ) with a focus on the actual experience (Bishop et al., 2004 ), contributing to emotion regulation, reducing stress, and increasing well-being. The focus on the seven mindfulness attitudes (posture towards life) also proves relevant, since they are the fundamentals of the practice. According to Kabat-Zinn ( 2017 ), the attitude during the practices is decisive for the development of mindfulness. Each formal or informal practice and the changes of habit provide rich reflections about the seven mindfulness attitudes and, through the process of transference and generalization, such attitudes can come to be incorporated into the experiences of everyday life. It cannot be said for certain why, in this study, the informal practices were retained in the learning process more than the formal ones. Perhaps because they are easier to incorporate, since formal practices require the formation of habit, supported by systematic repetitions.

Finally, in relation to the procedural measures instrument (Cogni), it was observed that the predominant mood during the intervention was “happy” and “normal” and there is a possible connection with the data collected in the post-intervention interview, in which a slight decrease in negative affects and an increase in positive affects were identified, even though the predominant reference was to ambivalence (referring to the simultaneous presence of positive and negative affects). The increase in the overall psychological well-being score of the participants in the intervention group can be associated with the presence of more positive affects.

According to Erisman and Roemer ( 2010 ), there is empirical support for the relationship between mindfulness, positive affect, and well-being (Baer et al., 2006 ; Brockman et al., 2017 ; Brown & Ryan, 2003 ), since the cultivation of an attitude centered on the present and without judgment in relation to emotional experiences can promote greater awareness and attention to positive events, adding richness and depth to these experiences and contributing to a feeling of greater well-being. In the present study, some attitudes, cultivated in the homework related to gratitude and awareness of emotions, for example, may have favored the emergence of positive affects and increased self-awareness. In the post-intervention interview, some participants commented that the practice of mindfulness made contextual aspects visible that previously went unnoticed.

The data also point to the ambivalence of affects of the graduate students, which may be related to the academic context. Although students long for an academic career and value it, they are not always emotionally prepared for the excessive demands, the pressure for productivity, the short deadlines, and the competitiveness. This ambivalent experience was also identified in the study by Bujdoso and Cohn ( 2008 ) in which, despite the stressful moments brought on by graduate school, the students also saw its positive aspects, as a critical space for reflection and legitimization of knowledge.

As for the limitations of this study, it is highlighted that the number of participants in the control group ( n  = 8) was much lower than that in the intervention group ( n  = 37). Furthermore, the control group was not submitted to any intervention concurrently with the intervention group, in a neutral manner. The control group only went through the intervention in mindfulness after the completion of the intervention groups. Another limitation refers to the lack of control over the participants’ beliefs about the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions and the lack of measurement of anxiety and depression levels in the pre-intervention moment. A final limitation to be mentioned is that the study did not contemplate the effect of retaining the learning in mindfulness over time. Without systematic practice, incorporated into the individual repertoire, the effects achieved can be diminished.

Conclusions

The results point to improvements in the indicators of mindfulness and in the assessment of psychological well-being, in addition to a reduction in the perception of stress. The interviews clearly showed an increase in awareness regarding emotions, the body, and contextual aspects. There were also gains in the acquisition of new attitudes regarding challenges and in the quality of interpersonal relationships, and in the planning and execution of activities linked to graduate studies, which may be associated with the decrease in perceived stress. In summary, the mindfulness-based intervention presented gains for psychological well-being, increased mindfulness (as a state), and reduced psychological stress for graduate students participating in this study.

Students experience ambivalent feelings in the graduate education process because, although they value academia, they experience much distress in this context. Mindfulness-based interventions can help strengthen coping strategies to deal with this reality, preserving students’ mental health and well-being. However, it is necessary to be clear about the limits of interventions at the individual level. More experienced coordinators, teachers, and advisors can offer support to these students who, although desiring to pursue an academic career, are emotionally unprepared to deal with so many demands. However, the sphere of action of graduate school programs is also limited, considering that the teachers and advisors are also subject to the same rules and institutional demands, with negative impacts on their well-being and health. This makes the need for structural changes evident, as well in the national graduate school system. In summary, the study contributes to fostering discussion about the need for actions aimed at preserving and promoting health and well-being in the academic environment, which in a worrying manner, has been provoking suffering.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Table ​ silence6 6

Descriptive table of the mindfulness-based intervention conducted in the study

Declarations

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (Comitê de Ética de Psicologia da Universidade Federal da Bahia—CAEE: 71455317.2.0000.5686) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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