The University of California, San Francisco, US carried out an eight-week intensive meditation and emotion regulation training service to reduce destructive emotions and increase pleasant social responses in teachers. Eighty-two female school teachers took part, assigned to a training group or a control group, in the training, as well as pre- and post-assessment, and assessment 5 months after training.

The assessments, which included self-reports and tasks designed to capture changes in emotion behaviour, found that the training group experienced reduced depression, anxiety and rumination, and increased positive affect and mindfulness in comparison to the control group.

The training increased recognition of emotions in others, appeared to activate cognitive networks associated with compassion, and affected hostile behavior in the Marital Interaction Task. Most effects at post-assessment that were examined at follow-up were maintained, meaning that meditation and increased awareness of mental processes can influence emotional behavior, and therefore support the benefit of these methods

Source: American Psychological Association

More research reports on meditation

First Published in March 2012

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