Introduction to MBA Research
The goal of this section of the MBA website is two-fold. The first goal is to share information about the research that MBA is undertaking on our programs as we seek to deepen the evidence-base for mindfulness-based interventions with at-risk and adjudicated youth. MBA is unique for an organization of its size with respect to the sophistication of its research efforts.
The second and broader goal is to share resources with the larger community about research done on mindfulness and emotional literacy programs – particularly research done on attempts to adapt adult interventions to the needs of youth populations. Because we serve youth in detention environments (as well as in educational and community-based settings), we also have an interest in many of the mindfulness studies that have been conducted with adult incarcerated communities.
As mindfulness-based programs are increasingly being perceived as promising interventions for a wide variety of challenges faced by youth (e.g.; depression, substance abuse, violence), MBA joins with other organizations and academics in the mindfulness field in calling for more resources to conduct better and more specific research. We have no doubt that mindfulness is destined to be an important strategy for working with young people in a variety of contexts. However, the speed at which diverse and underserved communities have access to mindfulness interventions will be in part determined by our ability, as a field, to show it’s benefits to policy makers via well executed research.
Image: Poster summarizing MBA’s three pilot studies, presented by Research Advisory Council member Angela West at the 2010 MBSR conference: Investigating and Integrating Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society. Click here to download.
