Online Mindfulness-Based Group Intervention for Young Chinese Children: Effectiveness of the OKmind Program in Attention and Emotion Regulation

Early childhood is a critical developmental period of cognitive and emotional abilities. The feasibility of mindfulness-based interventions in young children and non-Western cultures is unclear. We examined the feasibility of a culturally adapted Online Mindfulness-Based Group Intervention for Kids (OKmind), specifically tailored to integrate the collectivist values and emotional elements of Chinese culture. We evaluated its effectiveness in attention and emotion regulation using a randomized controlled trial.

Fifty-nine children (M_age = 5.85; 44.1% females) from China who had no prior experience with mindfulness practices. They were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 29) or the waitlist control group (n = 30). OKmind is a 6-week intervention program. Participants completed baseline and post-intervention assessments, including self-reported emotion regulation and computerized attention tasks.

An interaction of Group × Time was observed, indicating improvement in anger dysregulated expression and attention. Attention reaction become faster and accuracy increased significantly in the intervention group compared to the waitlist control group. Dysregulation in anger expression increased in the intervention group but remained stable in the waitlist control group.

Our findings suggest that a brief online mindfulness intervention shows promise in promoting cognitive and emotional development in young children. The implementation of OKmind highlights the importance of contextual adaptation in non-Western settings. However, the unexpected increase in anger dysregulated expression following the intervention warrants careful consideration and further research.

This study is not pre-registered.