Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training on EMotional Dysfunction and Academic Achievement of Junior Middle School Students

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the effect of mindfulness on the alexithymia and academic achievement of male middle school students in Ilam, Iran.   Materials & Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted based on a pretest-posttest design using experimental and control groups. The study population included all junior male students of middle school (n=3750) in Ilam (the academic year 2018-19). Accordingly, five schools were selected from the districts in Ilam. In the next stage, some classes were selected and investigated randomly. According to the Cochran formula, 348 students were selected as samples using the cluster random sampling method. Of these, 60 students had high levels of alexithymia and were selected as the main sample. After the identification of the population and sample, the researcher referred to the schools and commenced the treatment sessions following the obtainment of the required permission. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Pekrun Academic Achievement Questionnaire were used in this study. The experimental group received eight 60-min training sessions using the mindfulness method. On the other hand, the control group received no training. The content of the intervention was designed by Kabat-Zayn et al., and Narimani et al. used and approved the designed content.   Findings: Based on the findings, the calculated F values for academic achievement and alexithymia were obtained at 114.511 and 143.511, respectively. Moreover, the covariance analysis showed a significant difference between experimental and control groups regarding the dependent variables (P<0001) after the posttest.   Discussions & Conclusions: Generally, based on the findings, it was shown that mindfulness has a positive effect on the academic achievement and alexithymia of the students. This leads to an increase in academic achievement and a decrease in alexithymia levels in students.