How We Teach Mindfulness Matters: Adolescent development and the importance of informal mindfulness. Journal of School Psychology, 105 101323. Mettler, J. , Zito, S., Gastien, L., Bloom, E. & Heath, N. (2024).

We might all agree that teaching mindfulness to students in schools is beneficial as a life skill but the type or length of curriculum that is most effective in adopting this practice is an open question. Moreover, we cannot assume that students who  participate in mindfulness training will continue practicing once the training is completed. The authors in this study set out to determine if a formal versus informal mindfulness practice instructional approach affected dispositional  mindfulness and other mental health measures among high school students and its use.

Three groups of students  (N=142) in grades 9, 10, 11 from two different high schools in
Montreal, Canada were randomized to one of two 4-week mindfulness training approaches or a
comparison group that did not receive any training. Both mindfulness training student groups 
were  taught similar didactic MBSR content and held discussions about what mindfulness was
and was not, how it cultivated nonjudgmental and nonreactive qualities of attention, and how it
affected their stress response and emotional regulation. Students in the formal group were
taught to use a series of  guided mindfulness practices while students  in the informal group
were taught to use informal mindfulness strategies throughout the day.

Both  groups of students  showed equally high acceptability of the mindfulness practices in the
post survey. However, when asked if they would continue with the learned practices, those
students who indicated that they planned to continue with its use were more likely to be
students from the informal practice group. Surprisingly, only the informal practice group
increased it is dispositional mindfulness and mediated the impact on mental health measures
over from pre-test to post-program assessment.
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The authors suggest that educators directly and explicitly teach students how to integrate
brief, informal mindfulness strategies into their daily lives to maximize establishing a life-long
practice.