Does Mindfulness work as a Universal Intervention for Young Teens in Schools? The Results of the MYRIAD Trial.

Psychology in the Classroom

This is the third and final episode with Professor Willem Kuyken. Over the last two episodes we have discussed the national picture of mental health in young people, the role of schools in providing mental health and wellbeing education to young people, what mindfulness is and how it might help people with their mental health. In this episode we discuss the findings of the Myriad Trial (My Resilience in Adolescence) a large, randomised control trial funded by the Wellcome which looked at the impact of a brief Mindfulness intervention on the wellbeing of young teens. Willem was one of four principal investigators (with Mark Williams, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and Tim Dalgleish) on this trial and as you will hear, the findings challenge us to think afresh about how best to support young people, teachers, parents and policy makers in addressing the challenges of ensuring mental health in young people.

You can find more about the Myriad project here. If you would like to read the papers they are open source and available here. There is also a film you can watch here made with a group of young people from schools that took part in the trial, that provides their perspective on mental health and the role of schools.

Links mentioned in the episode were Casel and Penn State University