Perceived Benefits of Mindfulness and Health Education Programs for Minoritized Adolescents: A Qualitative Analysis.

Objectives: In the context of adverse social conditions, adolescents may not progress to adulthood with the emotional and behavioral skills needed to effectively navigate inevitable life challenges. Appropriately timed, evidence-based interventions have the potential to improve youth developmental trajectories. This qualitative study explored adolescents' perceptions of two different types of school-based programs designed to promote healthy development and decision-making: mindfulness and health education. Method: Focus group data were analyzed to explore adolescent perceptions of how the programs impacted them. Ninth grade students ( Results: Four themes were identified through analysis of the focus group data: (1) enhanced emotional intelligence-emotion recognition, perspective taking, and empathy (mindfulness only); (2) a mindset shift toward cognitive control through greater focus, awareness, and intentionality; (3) utilizing program skills in other contexts to manage stress or make healthy choices; and (4) reinforced and transferred program learning through sharing. Conclusions: Students perceived benefits of program participation, many of which overlapped between programs. Enhanced emotional intelligence was unique to the mindfulness-based intervention. These findings have implications for the development and adaptation of school-based programs and selection of comparison or active control conditions in intervention trials. Preregistration: This study is registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03989934).