Teaching adolescents to BREATHE: The implementation of the learning to BREATHE curriculum in schools through remote learning

ABSTRACT

There has been a significant rise in mental health needs in adolescents, and the COVID-19 pandemic has severely disturbed everyday life, causing an increase in anxiety and social isolation amongst adolescents throughout the world (CDC, 2017;Yale Child Study Center, 2020). Effective Tier 1 social-emotional universal interventions to foster social-emotion well-being are crucial in that ensuring school districts have the tools to better support high school aged students and their social-emotional needs. The Learning to BREATHE (L2B) program is a preventative Tier 1 program that has been proven to promote social-emotional well-being in students at the secondary level (Broderick, 2014). However, it is not known if the program is effective when administered through remote learning. The aim of this study was to examine whether the L2B program administered as a Tier 1 intervention at the high school age-level through remote learning was effective in (1) fostering emotion regulation and (2) increasing mindfulness skills. Additionally, the researcher gathered treatment acceptability data to determine whether participants viewed the L2B program as a helpful social-emotional intervention when delivered through remote learning. Thirty-six high school student participants received the L2B program through remote learning. Participants completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ-15) at pre-intervention and post-intervention. Paired t-tests found that participants reported a statistically significant mean difference in (ERQ) cognitive reappraisal (p <= .001) and expressive suppression (p < .002) skills with a small effect size (d = .25, d = .24). A second paired t-test also found that participants reported a statistically significant mean difference in (FFMQ-15) mindfulness (p < .001) skills with a large effect size (d = 1.05). Eighty-eight percent of participants reported that the L2B program was beneficial to their social-emotional well-being through remote learning. Eleven percent of participants reported that the L2B program was not beneficial to their social/emotional well-being through remote learning. These results suggest that the L2B program fosters both emotion regulation and mindfulness skills through remote learning. L2B also had a very high satisfaction rate amongst participants with implementation through remote learning. Implications of the study and suggestions for further research are offered. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)