Original article
The influence of mindfulness meditation on angry emotions and violent behavior on Thai technical college students

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2014.10.007Get rights and content

Abstract

Introduction

Violence among technical college students is a significant issue in Thailand, South East Asia, and yet few interventions are available for use with this group. In this study the outcomes of a culturally appropriate intervention, mindfulness meditation (MM), on anger and violent behavior are reported. The MM intervention was delivered over three consecutive weeks to technical college students (n = 40) and the effects compared to a comparison group (n = 56) who attend classes as usual.

Methods

Both the intervention and comparison group completed a series of validated self-report measures on aggressive and violent behavior perpetration and victimization on three occasions (pre-intervention, 1 month and 3 month post-intervention).

Results

Program participants reported lower levels of anger expression at one month follow-up, but there were no observed group × time interactions for self-reported violent behavior. Rates of victimization changed over time, with one interaction effect observed for reports of being threatened.

Conclusions

MM may have the potential to improve emotional self-control, but is likely to only impact on violent behavior when this is anger mediated.

Introduction

Youth violence is a major public health issue in Thailand, a low-middle income country in South-East Asia [1], where particular concerns have been expressed about violence in students who attend vocational training institutes, particularly technical colleges [2]. In response, the Minister of Education has announced plans to send delinquent students to boot camps, a proposal which has triggered public debate about the effectiveness of this, and other, interventions for youth. The Secretary General Office of the Vocational Educational Commission has also proposed a number of new regulations to control violence in vocational colleges. These include increased policing of the streets adjacent to colleges, the use of surveillance cameras in public locations, prohibiting students leaving the colleges during school hours, and improving student enrolment screening processes [3]. These initiatives, however, focus on the monitoring of student behavior rather than implementing interventions that have the potential to address the causes of violence in this population. The aim of this study, then, is to investigate the effect of one particular type of intervention, mindfulness meditation (MM), on aggressive and violent behavior in Thai technical college students. While a number of alternative interventions are potentially available, the evidence base to support their effectiveness outside of the United States is somewhat limited [4], and many employ methods that cannot be assumed to be culturally appropriate. MM, on the other hand is increasingly being incorporated into a range of different health care treatments [11] and particularly valued in a country in which more than 90% of the population are Buddhist.

The rationale to support the use of MM as a means to reduce aggressive and violent behavior has been articulated by both Baer in 2003 and Wright, Howells and Day in 2009. They identify a number of different mechanisms by which mindfulness-based interventions might improve emotional control [5], [6], suggesting, for example, that mindfulness improves an individual's ability to tolerate negative emotional states and the ability to cope with them effectively. Related to this is the idea that mindfulness training interferes with those ruminative patterns that are believed to be characteristic of negative emotional arousal [7]. Applying mindfulness skills permits the individual to step back from the emotional disturbance, and to see it clearly as an emotional state that will, in time, pass. Improved self-noticing may thus allow the individual to make more informed, wiser, behavioral choices as he or she develops a higher level of tolerance for unpleasant internal states. Finally, the ability of various meditation strategies to induce physiological relaxation has been well-documented. Gillespie et al. have further discussed the neurobiological and cardiorespiratory mechanisms associated with controlled breathing, which is thought to be conducive to a state of mindfulness [8]. They argue that these techniques, considered key components of many meditational practices, have been shown to affect the functioning of those neural circuits involved in the regulation of emotional states, including the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. The aim of this exploratory study, then, is to investigate the effects of MM in a high-risk cohort of Thai technical college students.

Section snippets

Participants

Ninety six students from seven departments, across various year levels (shown in Table 1) volunteered to participate in the study, from the 600 students at the college. Forty of these were invited to participate in the MM intervention, with 56 acting as a non-intervention comparison group. These students attended normal classes throughout the study.

Self-reported data were collected from both groups on three occasions (pre-intervention, and at 1 month and 3 month post-intervention). There was

Results

Two-way repeated-measured ANOVAs1 were used to examine whether average levels of behaviors as offenders, direct and indirect victims, and witnesses differed for the comparison and intervention groups over time (pre- and post-intervention).

Offender behaviors. At baseline (pre-intervention), the mean scores for

Discussion

The harmful effects of aggressive and violent behavior on young people have been well documented [17], highlighting the need to identify and deliver effective prevention programs. These not only include the psychological harm associated with victimization, such as high levels insecurity, low-self-esteem, anxiety, and depression, but also academic difficulties, school failure, and school drop-out [18], [19].

College-based Mindfulness Meditation (MM) training is one intervention which may be

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests of this article.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank a director and teachers at a technical college in Bangkok for supporting the study and providing facilities for the research, and all participants in the college for their willing participation over three weeks.

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