Associations between Mindfulness, Executive Function, Social-Emotional Skills, and Quality of Life among Hispanic Children.

Hispanic children constitute the largest ethnic minority in the United States of America, and yet few studies examine the relationship between mindfulness and Hispanic children's quality of life. This 2018 study seeks to gain insight into how mindfulness is associated with Hispanic children's quality of life. We surveyed 96 children in 5th- and 6th-grade classes in three Northern New Jersey elementary schools in 2018. Structure Equation Modeling was used to examine the associations between mindfulness, executive function, social-emotional skills, and quality of life. The results indicate that mindfulness is significantly and directly associated with executive function (ß = 0.53), and that executive function is positively associated with social-emotional skills (ß = 0.54) and quality of life (ß = 0.51) of the sampled Hispanic children. The total effects on quality of life are significant for mindfulness (ß = 0.33), executive function (ß = 0.62), and social-emotional skills (ß = 0.20). The findings shed light upon factors that can affect Hispanic children's quality of life and call for interventions related to these factors in order to improve their well-being.

Mindfulness, Life Skills, Resilience, and Emotional and Behavioral Problems for Gifted Low-Income Adolescents in China.

In contrast to emotional and behavioral problems (EBPs), which can disrupt normal adolescent development, resilience can buffer the effects of stress and adverse childhood experiences and can help youth overcome adversity. While research has looked at the relationship between adolescent resilience and EBPs, current literature relatively lack a discussion of a strengths-based approach of resilience framework, nor discuss non-western sociocultural contexts. In this study, we utilized the resilience theory to examine the effects of individual mindfulness and life skills on resilience and consequently on EBPs in a group of low-income and gifted adolescents in China. A secondary data of 152 adolescents from a specialized school for low-income and gifted students in Guangzhou, China was used for the analysis. The findings from structural equation modeling indicated that mindfulness and life skills were associated with heightened resilience and reduced EBPs. In addition, resilience reduced EBPs for this group of adolescents. These findings underscore the promise of mindfulness and life skills training on increasing resilience and reducing EBPs in gifted adolescents.