Publication: Chanting and meditation: an 8-week intervention to promote executive functions in school-age children
4
0
Issued Date
2024-01-01
Resource Type
ISSN
21622965
eISSN
21622973
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85209382973
Journal Title
Applied Neuropsychology: Child
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Applied Neuropsychology: Child (2024)
Suggested Citation
Krisdathiwadh P., Chaithirayanon S., Kotchabhakdi N., Siripornpanich V. Chanting and meditation: an 8-week intervention to promote executive functions in school-age children. Applied Neuropsychology: Child (2024). doi:10.1080/21622965.2024.2424215 Retrieved from: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14740/20470
Corresponding Author(s)
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
The present study investigated the effectiveness of a newly developed 8-week meditation program, which included chanting and meditation, on executive functions (EFs) in school-age children. Twenty-five students assigned to an experimental group participated in the meditation program, engaging in daily and weekly activities for 8 weeks. Another 25 students served as a control group and participated in regular school activities. Pretest and posttest assessments included the n-back task for working memory, the go/no-go task for inhibition, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) for cognitive flexibility. A mixed repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to analyze interaction effects, within-group differences, and between-group differences. The experimental group demonstrated greater improvement compared to the control group across several measures: (1) reaction time in the 1-back task, (2) correct responses in the no-go condition of the go/no-go task, and (3) percentage of correct responses, errors, perseverative errors, non-perseverative errors, perseverative responses, and conceptual level responses in the WCST (p < 0.001). These findings underscore the potential benefits of an 8-week school-based meditation program incorporating chanting and meditation for enhancing EFs in school-age children.