Regular breathing exercises help children thrive in their social lives.
- Practicing regular breathing exercises improves the social life of little girls, according to a new study.
- This effect disappeared after five months.
- It has not been observed in young boys.
A new search has demonstrated that practicing breathing exercises improves the social life of little girls.
The study involved 146 children and teachers from five primary schools in Lower Saxony, Germany. Schools were randomly assigned to an intervention group and a control group.
Participating teachers, whose students were assigned to the intervention group, were introduced to the Breathing Break program and completed a short mindfulness training. This training, in which six teachers participated, included three sessions and a day dedicated to mindfulness.
Social life and breathing: a 10-week experience
The Breathing Break practice lasted 10 weeks. Teachers in the intervention group were instructed to hold breathing breaks with their classes up to three times a day, each school day. For their part, teachers in the control group incorporated coloring exercises into their lessons three times a day.
The children then completed online surveys to assess the quality and richness of their social life (before and after the experience, then five months later). Teachers rated the behavior of each child in their class at the same times.
The results showed that older children generally perceived the classroom climate as less pleasant. After the breathing breaks, the perception of the classroom climate by the intervention group remained unchanged, while it deteriorated in the control group.
Further analysis revealed that after the breathing exercises, girls in the intervention group were more often referred to as “sociable” by their peers than the girls in the control group. However, these differences disappeared after five months.
This association was not seen in boys.
“Breathing exercises can improve girls’ social lives”
“This study demonstrated that implementing regular breathing exercises can improve the social lives of primary school girls and has the potential to improve classroom climate”summarize the researchers.
The article titled “A Daily Breathing Practice Bolsters Girls’ Prosocial Behavior and Third and Fourth Graders Supportive Peer Relationships: A Randomized Controlled Trial”, was written by Maria von Salisch and Katharina Voltmer.
