Exploring children's despair in the face of climate change.

Interventions targeting children's eco-anxiety have focused on fostering hope, however this is disconnected from children's need to explore and express despair regarding the climate crisis. Adults can help by acknowledging and discussing these emotions with children.

Existential Therapy for Children: Impact of a Philosophy for Children Intervention on Positive and Negative Indicators of Mental Health in Elementary School Children.

BACKGROUND: Philosophy for children (P4C) was initially developed in the 1970s and served as an educational program to promote critical thinking, caring, creative reasoning and inquiry in the educational environment. Quasi-experimental research on P4C, a school-based approach that aims to develop children's capacity to think by and for themselves, has suggested it could be an interesting intervention to foster greater basic psychological need satisfaction in children in school settings. OBJECTIVE: The goal of the present study was to evaluate the impact of P4C on basic psychological need satisfaction and mental health in elementary school students. METHOD: Students from grades one to three (N = 57) took part in this study and completed pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. A randomized cluster trial with a wait-list control group was implemented to compare the effects of P4C on students' mental health. RESULTS: Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) revealed a significant effect of group condition on levels of autonomy and anxiety, after controlling for baseline levels. Participants in the experimental group showed higher scores in autonomy, when compared to participants in the control group, and participants in the experimental group showed lower anxiety scores, when compared to participants in the control group. CONCLUSION: Overall, results from this study show that P4C may be a promising intervention to foster greater autonomy in elementary school children, while also improving mental health.

Online art therapy in elementary schools during COVID-19: results from a randomized cluster pilot and feasibility study and impact on mental health.

BACKGROUND: Emerging literature on the current COVID-19 crisis suggests that children may experience increased anxiety and depression as a result of the pandemic. To prevent such school and mental health-related problems, there is a timely need to develop preventive strategies and interventions to address potential negative impacts of COVID-19 on children's mental health, especially in school settings. Results from previous child clinical research indicate that art-based therapies, including mindfulness-based art therapy, have shown promise to increase children's well-being and reduce psychological distress. OBJECTIVE: The goal of the present pilot and feasibility study was to compare the impact of an emotion-based directed drawing intervention and a mandala drawing intervention, on mental health in elementary school children (N = 22), in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both interventions were group-based and delivered online and remotely. A pilot study using a randomized cluster design was implemented to evaluate and compare both interventions in relation to child anxiety, depression, inattention and hyperactivity symptoms. RESULTS: Analyses of covariance revealed a significant effect of the type of drawing intervention on levels of inattention, after controlling for baseline levels. Participants in the emotion-based directed drawing group showed lower inattention scores at post-test, when compared to participants in the mandala group. Post-hoc sensitivity analyses showed significant decreases in pre-to-post scores for levels of hyperactivity for the complete sample. CONCLUSION: Overall, results from this pilot and feasibility study showed that both an emotion-based directed drawing intervention and a mandala drawing intervention may be beneficial to improve mental health in elementary school children, in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. From a feasibility standpoint, results indicate that the implementation of both interventions online and remotely, through a videoconference platform, is feasible and adequate in school-based settings. Further work incorporating larger sample sizes, longitudinal data and ensuring sufficient statistical power is warranted to evaluate the long-term impact of both interventions on children's mental health.

Philosophy for children and mindfulness during COVID-19: Results from a randomized cluster trial and impact on mental health in elementary school students.

BACKGROUND: Preliminary evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on children's mental health. Given these problems can have significant impacts throughout the lifespan, preventing the negative repercussions of COVID-19 on children's mental health is essential. Philosophy for children (P4C) and mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) show promise in this regard. OBJECTIVE: The goal of the present study was to compare the impact of online MBI and P4C interventions on mental health, within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a randomized cluster trial to assess and compare the impact of both interventions on elementary school students' (N = 37) anxiety and inattention symptoms as well as on their basic psychological need satisfaction (BPN). RESULTS: ANCOVAs revealed a significant effect of the P4C intervention on mental health difficulties, controlling for baseline levels. Participants in the P4C group showed lower scores on the measured symptoms at post-test than participants in the MBI group. Significant effects of the MBI on levels of BPN were also found. Participants in the MBI intervention reported greater BPN satisfaction at post-test than participants in the P4C intervention. CONCLUSION: Results from this study suggest that, in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, a P4C intervention centered around COVID-19 related themes may be helpful to reduce mental health difficulties, that a MBI may be useful to satisfy BPN, and that both interventions were easy to offer online to elementary school students. Future work including a larger sample size and follow-up measures is warranted. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE: Practice: Philosophy for children (P4C) and mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can be used to foster mental health in elementary school students, in the current COVID-19 context. Policy: As we do not anticipate that facilitators will be allowed in schools during the 2020-2021 school year and that children will, most likely, be attending school in the current COVID-19 context, policymakers who want to implement psychological support measures in elementary schools should consider an online modality, which has shown in this study to work well, be feasible, and yield positive results on youth mental health.

Impact of a Combined Philosophy and Mindfulness Intervention on Positive and Negative Indicators of Mental Health Among Pre-kindergarten Children: Results From a Pilot and Feasibility Study.

Background: Fostering greater resiliency to stress, optimal psychosocial development and promoting better mental health and well-being in youth is an important goal of the Canadian and American elementary school systems (1, 2). Recent research on mindfulness and philosophy for children (P4C) has yielded promising results regarding innovative interventions that may be implemented in elementary school settings to foster greater child resiliency and well-being (3-5). Goal: The goal of this feasibility study was to pilot a new intervention, which combines mindfulness meditation and P4C activities, with the goal of improving mental health in pre-kindergarten children, assessed with positive (i.e., social skills and adaptability) and negative (i.e., internalized symptoms, comprises depression, anxiety, inattention; and hyperactivity) indicators. Methods: A randomized cluster trial with a wait-list control group was employed to evaluate the impact of the combined MBI and P4C intervention on child mental health. Two classrooms of pre-kindergarten children (N = 38, mean age = 4.6 years old) took part in this study and were randomly allocated to the experimental or wait-list control conditions. Teachers completed pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Results: ANCOVAs did not reveal a significant effect of condition on internalized symptoms, controlling for baseline levels. Sensitivity analyses indicated that for the whole sample, internalized symptom scores were statistically significantly lower at post-intervention, when compared to pre-intervention scores. No impact of group on levels of hyperactivity was found, however, sensitivity analyses indicated that for both the experimental and control groups, hyperactivity scores were statistically significantly lower at post-intervention, when compared to pre-intervention scores. Finally, no impact of group on levels of social skills and adaptability were found. Sensitivity analyses conducted using paired t-tests did not indicate statistically significant pre-to-post changes in scores for both variables. Conclusion: These preliminary results suggest that mindfulness and philosophy for children may not be the most effective intervention to foster short-term resiliency, well-being and better mental health in children. Yet, group differences were often small and past research suggested the effectiveness of this type of intervention. Further research considering the impact of moderators such as age or baseline levels of psychopathology, using longer time frames and comparing the effectiveness of this combined intervention with other types of school-based interventions with similar aims (such as, e.g., P4C or MBI alone) is warranted, to evaluate if mindfulness and P4C interventions have an added value compared to other types of interventions implemented in school settings.