Transcendental Meditation: an Effective Antidote to Rising Stress Levels in Schools

Journal of Instructional Psychology

With record high stress levels among A-level students reported by both the UK's Family Doctor Association and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, can a simple stress-reducing meditation technique be a viable solution?

A new study published in the Journal of Instructional Psychology found the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique significantly decreased psychological distress in state school students in the USA by 36 percent over four months compared to controls.

The study also found significant decreases in trait anxiety and depressive symptoms.

A total of 106 students, aged 16 to 18, from four state secondary schools took part in the study, with 87 percent from ethnic minority backgrounds. Transcendental Meditation was practised in class twice a day by study participants as part of the schools' Quiet Time programme for four months. Other students had other options of how to spend the Quiet Time period.

The study focused on racial and ethnic minority groups as they are particularly subject to additional high levels of stress due to exposure to violence, pressures due to acculturation and the schooling process.

Rising Stress Levels Affect Emotional and Physical Health

In the UK high youth unemployment and the rising costs of university education are making 16- to 18-year-olds in the UK more anxious than ever, doctors, psychotherapists and headteachers say. A record number have sought medical and psychological help in the last year, with a significant rise in those on medication, according to reports by the Family Doctor Association and the BACP earlier this year.

Dr Charles Elder, MD, lead author of the Journal of Instructional Psychology study on Transcendental Meditation, and investigator at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (USA) emphasised how vital it was to start addressing the high levels of emotional stress being reported by high school and college students.

"Because of the association between psychological distress and both adverse school performance and poor physical and mental health outcomes, it is important for school administrators to implement programmes of stress reduction.

“The findings suggest that Transcendental Meditation instruction for adolescent students may potentially improve not only educational outcomes, but also long-term physical and mental health outcomes,” Dr Elder said, citing reduced obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease risk as examples.

Promising Findings for State Education

These new findings, along with recent research on TM and academic achievement gains, hold tremendous promise for state education, according to James Dierke, the National Association of Secondary School Principals’ "National Middle School Principal of the Year" (2008).

"Stress is the number one enemy of public education, especially in inner-city schools. It creates tension, violence, and compromises the cognitive and psychological capacity of students to learn and grow.

"The TM/Quiet Time programme is the most powerful, effective programme I have come across in my 39 years as a public school educator for addressing this problem. It is nourishing children and providing them an immensely valuable tool for life. It is saving lives."

In-school TM programmes are underway throughout the UK, and the Maharishi School in Lancashire, which offers consciousness-based education, the main foundation of which is daily practice of Transcendental Meditation for all students, was awarded Free School status by the UK government this year. Two similar schools are planned for London and Suffolk.