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. 2023 Jul 12;18(7):e0278501.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278501. eCollection 2023.

Mindfulness supports emotional resilience in children during the COVID-19 pandemic

Isaac N Treves  1   2   3 , Cindy E Li  3 , Kimberly L Wang  1   2 , Ola Ozernov-Palchik  1   2 , Halie A Olson  1   2 , John D E Gabrieli  1   2
Affiliations

Mindfulness supports emotional resilience in children during the COVID-19 pandemic

Isaac N Treves et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

An important aspect of mental health in children is emotional resilience: the capacity to adapt to, and recover from, stressors and emotional challenges. Variation in trait mindfulness, one's disposition to attend to experiences with an open and nonjudgmental attitude, may be an important individual difference in children that supports emotional resilience. In this study, we investigated whether trait mindfulness was related to emotional resilience in response to stressful changes in education and home-life during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We conducted a correlational study examining self-report data from July 2020 to February 2021, from 163 eight-to ten-year-old children living in the US. Higher trait mindfulness scores correlated with less stress, anxiety, depression, and negative affect in children, and lower ratings of COVID-19 impact on their lives. Mindfulness moderated the relationship between COVID-19 child impact and negative affect. Children scoring high on mindfulness showed no correlation between rated COVID-19 impact and negative affect, whereas those who scored low on mindfulness showed a positive correlation between child COVID-19 impact and negative affect. Higher levels of trait mindfulness may have helped children to better cope with a wide range of COVID-19 stressors. Future studies should investigate the mechanisms by which trait mindfulness supports emotional resilience in children.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Relationship between child COVID-Impact and negative affect, median split by mindfulness.
A) Low mindfulness children show positive correlation between COVID Impact and Negative Affect. B) High mindfulness children show no relationship between COVID Impact and Negative Affect. In black are linear regression fits with gray confidence bar, and regression slope and p-values are listed in bold.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Update of

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