An experiment involving primary school children in Germany found that daily breathing practices in classrooms might be effective in maintaining supportive peer relationships. These exercises appear to stimulate prosocial behavior in girls, though not in boys. However, this effect diminished five months after the intervention ended. The paper was published in Mindfulness.
For schoolchildren, being part of social groups, sports teams, work groups, and similar peer assemblies is essential for their well-being. It is also significant for their academic success. Yet, fostering good social cohesion in a classroom can be challenging. A comprehensive study in Germany indicated that 18% of primary school children experience emotional problems, often caused or worsened by bullying and other aggressive behaviors from classmates. Research has shown that peer victimization leads to numerous negative outcomes, including anxiety, diminished school engagement, and poor academic performance.
This is the reason why maintaining good interpersonal relationships in school is crucial. For this purpose, prosocial behaviors are of primary importance. Prosocial behavior refers to voluntary actions intended to benefit others, such as helping, sharing, and cooperating. This behavior is crucial in a school environment as it fosters a positive and supportive community, enhancing students’ social and emotional development. Encouraging prosocial behavior in schools can lead to improved peer relationships, reduced bullying, and a more inclusive atmosphere.
Study authors Maria von Salisch and Katharina Voltmer wanted to evaluate the effects of the teacher-led short breathing exercise called Breathing Break on children’s prosocial behavior and their perceptions of the social classroom climate. Their expectations were that children included in this intervention will perceive peer relationships in their classrooms as more supportive and that their classmates will note that they act more prosocially after the intervention.
The study included children and teachers from five primary schools in Lower Saxony, Germany, with a total of 146 participating children from third and fourth grades. The schools were randomly assigned to either an intervention or a waitlist group.
Participating teachers whose students were assigned to the intervention group were introduced to the Breathing Break curriculum and they underwent a short mindfulness training with an external trainer. This training involved six teachers and included three sessions plus a mindfulness day, totaling 15 hours.
The Breathing Break intervention lasted for 10 weeks. Teachers in the intervention group were instructed to conduct Breathing Breaks with their classes up to three times daily on each school day and to record which of the 15 exercises from the curriculum they used. Meanwhile, teachers in the waitlist group incorporated coloring exercises into their classes three times daily.
Both before and after the intervention, and during a corresponding 10-week period for the waitlist group, the participating children nominated their prosocial peers and reported on supportive peer relationships in their classrooms through online surveys completed on tablets. Research assistants helped with any technical issues related to the surveys. The survey was repeated five months post-intervention. Post-intervention, children in the intervention group also provided feedback on the Breathing Breaks.
Teachers rated the prosocial behavior of each child in their classroom at all three measurement points (before, after, 5 months later – the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire). They also completed an assessment of mindfulness (the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire) at the start of the study. During the study, teachers in the intervention group were asked to fill in an intervention implementation calendar for each school day.
The results showed that older children generally perceived the classroom climate as less supportive. After the intervention, the intervention group’s perception of the classroom climate remained unchanged, while it worsened in the waitlist group.
Further analysis revealed that post-intervention, girls in the intervention group, but not boys, were more frequently nominated as prosocial by their peers compared to girls in the waitlist group. However, these differences vanished by the five-month follow-up. Regardless of the intervention, girls received more prosocial nominations than boys. The intervention did not affect the teachers’ ratings; they consistently rated girls as better behaved than boys.
“This study demonstrated that implementing regular mindful breathing exercises can improve primary school girls’ prosocial behavior and has the potential to stabilize a supportive classroom climate among peers during challenging times, such as social distancing. Being on the receiving end of their peers’ supportive behavior may convince children (and teachers) that it is a good idea to adopt Breathing Breaks as a classroom ritual for longer periods of time,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the effects of mindful breathing exercises on schoolchildren’s relationships with peers. However, it also has limitations that need to be taken into account. Notably, study authors report that the waitlist group children performed breathing exercises on their own more often than the intervention group children at the pretest. Additionally, researchers were also able to measure the quality of the Breathing Break intervention themselves, but relied on reports.
The paper, “A Daily Breathing Practice Bolsters Girls’ Prosocial Behavior and Third and Fourth Graders’ Supportive Peer Relationships: A Randomized Controlled Trial”, was authored by Maria von Salisch and Katharina Voltmer.