Students are at risk? Elucidating the impact of health risks of COVID-19 on emotional exhaustion and academic performance: role of mindfulness and online interaction quality

Although previous online learning studies have looked at how student outcomes are influenced in different settings, this study is unique in that it looks at the role of COVID-19 as a particular stressor. This study discussed how students' perceptions of health risks of COVID-19 (PHRC) influenced their academic performance through emotional exhaustion. This study also looked at how mindfulness and online interaction quality (OIQ) affected PHRC's direct effects on exhaustion, as well as PHRC's indirect effects on academic performance via exhaustion. The data for the current study were collected from 336 students in three waves who were studying online during COVID-19. The results through structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that PHRC influenced academic performance. The results further revealed that mindfulness and OIQ attenuated the direct effects of PHRC on emotional exhaustion as well as indirect effects on academic performance through emotional exhaustion. This study provides some novel implications for practice and research.

What do Teachers do to Show They Care? Learning From the Voices of Early Adolescents

This mixed methods study examined how middle school students (ages 11–13) in middle-class neighborhoods in Western Canada characterized a caring teacher. Specifically, qualitative content analysis was conducted on 199 sixth and seventh grade students’ written responses to the question “What are three things that teachers do to show they care?” Guided by recent work in the area of mindfulness in teaching, we identified 19 themes: one was categorized as General Teaching (e.g., “They teach”), and 18 that were grouped into one of three thematic categories associated with mindful teaching: Calm (e.g., calm/not reactive), Clear (e.g., democratic communication), and Kind (e.g., empathy). In their descriptions of caring teachers, almost all students (97.5%) used Kind themes, while many used Clear themes (41%); with fewer students using Calm (13.6%) or General Teaching (10.6%) themes. Chi square analyses revealed that girls were more likely to mention Clear themes compared to boys, while boys were more likely to use the specific themes of nurturance and helpfulness. Additional demographic differences were also explored. This research adds to the growing body of studies aimed at elucidating the role of mindful teaching in caring student-teacher relationships, particularly from the perspectives of early adolescents.

Naturalistic development of trait mindfulness: A longitudinal examination of victimization and supportive relationships in early adolescence

Scholars have only just begun to examine elements of young adolescents' social ecologies that explain naturalistic variation in trait mindfulness and its development over time. We argue that trait mindfulness develops as a function of chronically encountered ecologies that are likely to foster or thwart the repeated enactment of mindful states over time. Using data from 4,593 fourth and seventh grade students (50% female; MageG4 = 9.02; 71% English first language) from 32 public school districts in British Columbia (BC), Canada, we examined links from peer belonging, connectedness with adults at home, and peer victimization to mindfulness over time. Variable-centered analyses indicated that young adolescents with lower victimization in fourth grade reported higher mindfulness in seventh grade, and that cross-sectionally within seventh grade victimization, peer belonging, and connectedness with adults at home were each associated with mindfulness. Contrary to our hypothesis, connectedness with adults at home moderated the longitudinal association between victimization and mindfulness such that the negative association was stronger among young adolescents with high (vs. low) levels of connectedness with adults at home. Person-centered analysis of the fourth graders' data confirmed our variable-centered findings, yielding four latent classes of social ecology whose mindfulness levels in seventh grade largely tracked with their victimization levels (from highest to lowest mindfulness): (1) flourishing relationships, (2) unvictimized but weak relationships with adults, (3) moderately victimized but strong relationships, and (4) victimized but strong relationships. Overall, our findings contribute to a growing body of evidence indicating that trait mindfulness may develop as a function of ecologically normative experiences in young adolescents' everyday lives.

How is Mindfulness Linked to Negative and Positive Affect? Rumination as an Explanatory Process in a Prospective Longitudinal Study of Adolescents

Research shows greater mindfulness is associated with less negative affect and more positive affect. Fewer studies have examined the mediating psychological processes linking mindfulness to these outcomes in adolescents. This three-wave, prospective longitudinal study examines rumination-the tendency to engage in repetitive and negative self-focused thinking-as one potential explanatory process. High school students (N = 599, M_age = 16.3 years; 49% girls) completed a short-form version of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, in addition to self-report measures of rumination and negative and positive affect three times over the course of a school year. Autoregressive, cross-lagged panel models tested reciprocal, prospective associations between mindfulness, rumination, and negative and positive affect, while accounting for prior levels of each construct, within-wave covariances, and gender and grade level. The results showed that the nonjudgment mindfulness facet (and the total mindfulness score) predicted cross-wave reductions in rumination, that in turn predicted cross-wave reductions in negative affect. No evidence for mediation was found for positive affect, or for any of the other mindfulness facets (describe, acting with awareness, and nonreactivity). This study provides suggestive evidence that individual differences in mindfulness, and in particular nonjudgmental acceptance, prospectively predict less negative affect through lower rumination.

Introduction to the special section: Mindfulness in me and in you—Measurement, development, and implications for adolescents’ emotional and academic resilience

An introduction to the special section titled ‘Mindfulness in me and in you—Measurement, development, and implications for adolescents’ emotional and academic resilience’.