Abstract

Adults and children around the world are experiencing unhealthy levels of stress. More specifically, the stress levels that children report can have detrimental effects on their social-emotional, physical and academic well-being. Schools are in a unique position to not only address the causes of stress in children's lives, but to also provide strategies to reduce stress. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is one approach that schools can use to teach children how to acknowledge and deal with everyday stressors. This article aims to provide a definition of stress, describe MBSR, and provide a review of the current literature on MBSR studies with children. Additionally, the authors suggest implications for school-based mindfulness approaches to reduce the stress of children with disabilities, and recommendations for future research.