A Comparative Study of Health, School Performance and Wellbeing in Perúvian School Children and Adolescents Who Meditate

Abstract

Our prior research with indigenous school children and adolescents in Perú, often in remote high-altitude Andean locations, mostly centres on an exploration of health and school performance and their relation to the practice of Transcendental Meditation, an easy-to-learn technique for mental and physiological rest and stress reduction. We have established that higher levels of health and school performance are associated with regularity of meditation practice, but most attempts to identify a causal link between the two have been deferred until more reliable data were available.

The present cross-sectional study of 248 students seeks to build on these earlier findings in three ways: first, we have expanded the variable range from health and school performance to now include personal wellbeing as a measure of student development; second, we compare present educational outcomes at three new schools in Cusco, Huancayo, and Acomayo with normative data from five other schools located throughout Perú and with international settings; and third, using multiple linear regression, we endeavour to establish preliminary evidence for a possible causal link between the regularity with which students practice Transcendental Meditation (y) and physical health, cognitive health, emotional health, school performance, and personal wellbeing (x).

The preliminary results mostly support, and in some cases strengthen, our earlier findings about the relationship of Transcendental Meditation to health and school performance, and now includes personal wellbeing. We conclude that controlled, longitudinal research of meditation, health and wellbeing may be warranted in primary and secondary school settings in Perú.