Yoga classes in school may help kids fight stress, anxiety

Participating in yoga and mindfulness activities at school helps relieve stress and anxiety in young children, improving their wellbeing and emotional health, a study has found.

Researchers from Tulane University in the US worked with a public school to add mindfulness and yoga to the school's existing empathy-based programming for students needing supplementary support.

Third graders who were screened for symptoms of anxiety at the beginning of the school year were randomly assigned to two groups.

A control group of 32 students received care as usual, which included counselling and other activities led by a school social worker.

The intervention group of 20 students participated in small group yoga/mindfulness activities for eight weeks using a Yoga Ed curriculum.

Students attended the small group activities at the beginning of the school day. The sessions included breathing exercises, guided relaxation and several traditional yoga poses appropriate for children.

The study, published in the journal Psychology Research and Behavior Management, evaluated each group's health related quality of life before and after the intervention, using two widely recognised research tools.

"The intervention improved psychosocial and emotional quality of life scores for students, as compared to their peers who received standard care," said Alessandra Bazzano, associate professor at Tulane University.

"We also heard from teachers about the benefits of using yoga in the classroom, and they reported using yoga more often each week, and throughout each day in class, following the professional development component of intervention," Bazzano said.

Researchers targeted third grade because it is a crucial time of transition for elementary students, when academic expectations increase.

"Our initial work found that many kids expressed anxious feelings in third grade as the classroom work becomes more developmentally complex," Bazzano said.

"Even younger children are experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety, especially around test time," she said.