MINDFULNESS EDUCATION AND EMOTIONAL SELF-REGULATION AMONG VIETNAMESE ADOLESCENTS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Abstract

Mindfulness initiatives in-school have been created in response to increasing focus on humanistic education, student mental health, and the rise in the prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression, and violence within and around schools in Vietnam. This study adopted a mixed-methods approach involving quantitative and qualitative techniques, which included a survey, and qualitative data based on expert interviews and a focused literature review regarding 312 students, 56 teachers, and 120 parents from the metropolitan and capital cities of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. This research addresses the focus of the impact mindfulness exercises and practices have on the mental health, emotional regulation, self-regulation, and the prosocial and antisocial behavior dimensions of the Vietnamese adolescent population. Among the population of students who reported practicing mindfulness, the exercises were noted to help manage anxiety, stress, and negative emotions, and to assist in concentration. Decreases in school violence and other constructive behavior acts to school were reported alongside mindfulness practice. Organizational constraints in the promotion and development of mindfulness education include lack of emotional preparedness of teachers, and poor infrastructure and training in their profession. Even if only few students practiced mindfulness, it was with the expectation of the perceived benefits mindfulness practice would provide. This highlights the need for adding components of mindfulness education within the Vietnamese secondary and higher education contexts. In the subsequent phase of this project, the emphasis will shift to building a unified Vietnamese curriculum along with its training components for educators which will include culturally appropriate mindfulness practice for adolescents. In future studies, the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and longitudinal designs will be necessary in order to ascertain the potential long-term effects on students’ well-being, emotional regulation, and behavioral balance.