The psychological and physiological effects of yoga on children

The rise in popularity of health practices such as yoga coincides with a period of growing publicity about the benefits of promoting positive health from an early age. Despite this, empirical research in the field is limited. Thus, the aim of the current study was to assess the psychological and physiological impact of a brief yoga program for children using a randomised placebo-control design. Twenty-two school-girls aged 8-10 were recruited to take part in a 6-session after-school program. Participants were randomly allocated to either yoga classes or recreation classes. Heart rate change and respiration rate were measured pre-post program as physiological indicators of relaxation. For mental wellbeing, pre- and post-session mood and pre- and post-program self-esteem and physical self-worth variables were assessed. Later, a replication study was conducted where yoga was offered to the former recreation group. Contrary to expectations, no significant changes were found on the physiological indicators of relaxation. Global self-esteem and physical self-worth variables also remained constant in both the yoga and recreation groups. As hypothesised, significant reductions in anxious mood were consistently reported from the second session onwards following yoga classes. Contrary to expectations however, depressed mood remained unchanged in either group. Results of the follow-up study confirmed most of the findings of the main study, except for a small improvement on the physical self-worth variable of self-perceived sports competency, and no significant post-session mood changes. Nonetheless qualitative data suggested that this group also experienced anxiety reduction following yoga practice. The results of the project remain speculative because of the small sample size and generous criteria used to determine statistical significance. Despite this, it was concluded that while brief yoga programs might have little impact on children's overall self-esteem or physical self- perceptions, especially where children are physically active and already enjoy moderate to high levels of self-esteem, yoga classes may contribute to reductions in immediate anxiety levels. While the ability to relax voluntarily was not demonstrated by the end of program, it was suggested that a longer yoga program which incorporated more overt teaching of relaxation skills might produce such a result. This and other recommendations for future research are presented and the implications for the understanding of positive health are discussed.