THE EFFECTS OF A HEALTH MIND PROMOTING WITH MINDFULNESS PROGRAM ON PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PSYCHOLLOGICAL WELL-BEING

Abstract

               Objective: This quasi-experimental study with two group comparison aims at examining the effectiveness of a healthy mind promotion with mindfulness program on primary school students’ psychological well-being.

               Methods: Participants were primary school students from two schools in Amphoe Phutthamonthon, Nakhon Pathom Province. Students were selected according to inclusion criteria: randomly selected 42 students from two classrooms in one school as an experimental group, and 42 students from two classrooms in another school as a control group. The control group was provided with mental health promotion activities by its own school, while the experimental group received a healthy mind promotion with mindfulness program for 7 weeks. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, t-test, and ANCOVA.

               Results: The finding shows that the experimental group had a small increase in psychological well-being, but it was not statistically different between the two groups. When analyzed based on a classroom, the results showed that the classroom 1 had the difference in psychological well-being between groups (F (1,35) = 8.901, p = .003) and the mean of mindfulness of the experimental group was significantly correlated with psychological well-being (r = .410, p = .007).

               Conclusion: The result shows that the program can change psychological well-being. Mindfulness is a factor associated with the psychological well-being of primary school students. However, to promote psychological well-being effectively, further studies should be conducted to examine the difference between duration of practices and characteristics of students.