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“And I’ll be honest with you—this is the best thing I’ve done in my life. You can’t do anything bigger or more impactful than this. We’re having an effect on kids’ health, and that’s exciting.”
Research | Penn State 2013
reported lower levels of emotional arousal, intrusive thought patterns, and rumination (thinking about the same thing over and over). Currently, a second, larger study is under way to expand the project and measure more factors, including improvement in overall health and well-being.
Caring for teachers Another program that falls under the center’s PEACE initiative focuses on teachers. Prevention scientist Patricia Jennings and her colleagues Christa Turksma and Richard Brown created a professional development program for teachers in collaboration with the Garrison Institute, a not-for-profit organization that explores the intersection of contemplation and engaged action in the world. CARE for Teachers (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education—shows teachers how they can use mindfulness techniques to slow things down in the midst of a hectic classroom. “Being a teacher is challenging,” Jennings says. “Teachers are under a lot of pressure to fulfill curriculum and testing requirements. They have to deal with their stress in a classroom in front of twenty or thirty kids, and they are not supposed to get angry. It’s like having your brake and accelerator going at the same time, and it wears you out. In my own teaching days I remember being all too aware of how stress interfered with my ability to be present and teach in a way that allowed minds to open.” Combining mindfulness practices and emotional skills training, CARE has been demonstrated to work. A two-year pilot project shows that the program helps reduce various kinds of stress.
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“I was particularly excited to see that teachers reported a sense of reduced time urgency,” Jennings says. “We hear all the time that teachers feel they don’t have enough time to get things done. But after participating in our pilot project, teachers told us—and they were actually amazed by this—that they felt a sort of psychological space. I think what happens when you’re under time pressure is that you spend so much time thinking about what you have to do that you’re not doing it. By deliberately slowing down, teachers perceived they had more time and were accomplishing more.”
Fighting boredom “I’m bored.” It’s a common refrain among kids, and apparently it’s not just an American thing. Prevention scientist Ed Smith and his wife, Linda Caldwell, professor of recreation, park, and tourism management, are conducting a long-term study in South Africa, using school-based prevention techniques to reduce substance abuse and sexual risk among eighth and ninth graders. The study focuses on getting kids to make smart choices when it comes to their free time. “South Africa has the highest rate of HIV/ AIDS in the world and we’re working with very high-risk, low-income populations,” Smith says. “We think it’s critical to reach teens with the message that they do have choices. When we started talking to these kids it became clear that teen boredom is a universal phenomenon. That sense of ‘whatever’ resonated so well with the South African kids.” Through role play and other activities, teachers delivering the program help kids recognize risky situations and come up
with alternative things to do that are exciting but don’t get them into trouble. “These kids don’t have the option of learning how to scuba dive or skateboard,” Smith says. “But we want them to realize they do have options. We’ve heard some kids say, ‘Well, I never thought about hiking up Table Mountain.’” Smith and Caldwell are in the eleventh year of their study. They work with two South African universities to run the program in 48 high schools in former apartheid-era townships. Clinical trials show the program works as a school curriculum—teens that were followed through eleventh grade reported less risky behavior. The next step is to adapt the program so that teachers can deliver it even more efficiently, and researchers are tweaking delivery variables such as training and support. Some teachers are simply handed the program, others get an afternoon training, and still others get a two-day, in-depth training. Similarly, some teachers receive support via text message or personal visit, while others are on their own. This research design, developed in conjunction with Linda Collins (Methodology Center) and John Graham (Biobehavioral Health), employs cutting edge methods to solve real life problems. “It’s complicated because we end up with this huge matrix of who is getting what,” Smith says. “But our purpose is relatively simple: We want to take this program, which we now know is effective, and maximize its efficiency and cost/benefit ratio. Is the enhanced training and support worth the cost? Will we see more changes in kids’ behavior as a result? We’ll find out. “And I’ll be honest with you—this is the best thing I’ve done in my life. You can’t