Supporting disaster impacted youth : evaluation of a universally delivered online mindfulness intervention

There is an increase in youth-reported traumatic stress, youth behavioral health problems, and an upward trend in the prevalence and severity of large-scale disasters within the US. Youth are especially vulnerable to adverse behavioral health problems following a disaster. Many young people do not seek treatment for their behavioral health problems and this discrepancy is magnified by various obstacles to successfully implementing school-based behavioral health interventions to youth impacted by disasters. Youth experiencing internalizing symptoms and youth of color are disproportionately impacted by disaster-related stress and are less likely to receive behavioral health interventions after a disaster. As such, researching the impact of universally delivered programs for this population is warranted. The current study seeks to examine the feasibility and initial efficacy of an online adaptation of the Dynamic Mindfulness program in a quasi-experimental, within-group/ pretest-posttest design, with 44 youth, ages 11-17. The evidence demonstrates that the online adaptation of the selected youth mindfulness program was feasible, acceptable, and related to significant, short-term, pretest to posttest improvements in several of the targeted outcomes and reveals a significant relationship between youth-reported mindfulness and various social and emotional outcomes within study participants, warranting continued inquiry within this scope of research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Social work (MU)

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Missouri--Columbia

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Mills, Toby M.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thompson, Aaron M.

Language dc:language.iso

eng, English

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/88134

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/88134