Pilot Study Shows Evidence that YOGA Benefits Teens

Today, as I continue my work on building the curriculum of YOGA-GIRL, I resumed my quest for scientific articles to support the benefits of a yoga practice in the lives of adolescents.  My efforts were rewarded this afternoon, and I was delighted to read a report by Beets & Mitchell (2010).  Findings from their pilot study with teenagers, who had never practiced yoga before, showed significant positive effects of yoga on stress, depression and health-related quality of life.

In their experiment, Beets & Mitchell (2010) tested 55 adolescents (50% female and 49% Hispanic) for health-related quality of life, depression levels, and perceived stress prior to the yoga treatment.  Students were divided into treatment and non-treatment groups. Following four to five yoga classes over a period two weeks, Beets & Mitchell reported statistical evidence showing that yoga is beneficial in reducing adolescents’ acute perceptions of stress, and that yoga promotes positive feelings of physical health and self-esteem.   Even more significant is that carryover effects were observed.  In other words, the practice of yoga had lingering positive benefits, which the researchers could conclude from comparing post-treatment tests against the initial stress and depression scores.

Although Beets & Mitchell’s study had a small number of participants, it still shows that participating in yoga has the potential to address important issues in the lives of teenagers.  Because both Caucasians and Hispanics participated, the study also shows that yoga is cross-cultural in its effectiveness as a treatment for depression and alleviation of stress.

Reference
Beets, M., & Mitchell, E. (2010). Effects of yoga on stress, depression, and health-related quality of life in a nonclinical, bi-ethnic sample of adolescents: a pilot study. Hispanic Health Care International, 8(1), 47-53. doi:http://dx.doi.org.library.capella.edu/10.1891/1540-4153.8.1.47