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Mindfulness-Based Interventions as School-Based Mental Health Promoting Programs

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Abstract

Prevalence of mental health problems in youth is high and appear to be on the increase. Therefore there is a critical need for effective low-threshold evidence-based mental health promoting programs. Universal school-based approaches might have the most potential as they have a broad social scope and can be made available to all students. The program should focus on training self-regulatory skills based on alterations in basic cognitive and emotional processes and may affect neural systems, psychological functions and behavioral outcomes. Self-regulatory skills that can enable young people to successfully cope with the challenges they will face in their future life. Solid evidence is emerging that mindfulness based interventions tick all these boxes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is an ongoing debate about delivering universal versus targeted interventions into schools based on both ethical and scientific arguments (e.g., [58–60]).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Katleen Van der Gucht Ph.D., Peter Kuppens Ph.D. & Filip Raes Ph.D.

  2. Ziekenhuis Netwerk Antwerpen, Leopoldstraat 26, 2000, Antwerpen, Belgium

    Edel Maex M.D.

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  1. Katleen Van der Gucht Ph.D.
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  2. Peter Kuppens Ph.D.
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  3. Edel Maex M.D.
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  4. Filip Raes Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Katleen Van der Gucht Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The UCSF Dep.Cent.,Langley Porter Psy.In, University of California, San Franc, San Francisco, California, USA

    Stuart J. Eisendrath

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Van der Gucht, K., Kuppens, P., Maex, E., Raes, F. (2016). Mindfulness-Based Interventions as School-Based Mental Health Promoting Programs. In: Eisendrath, S. (eds) Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29866-5_19

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