This study will evaluate how a comprehensive meditation-based program, Inner Engineering, supports teens ages 15-18 in becoming more joyful, focused, resilient, and better equipped to manage stress and thrive. Through this study, researchers will examine whether practices like meditation, yoga, and cognitive reframing can help adolescents view and respond to challenges with greater clarity and balance. The study will assess mental and physical impacts through self-report, physiological, and neuroimaging methods.
Adolescence is a critical developmental period marked by heightened vulnerability to mental health challenges and increased neuroplasticity, making it an ideal window for preventive interventions. This mixed-method randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluates the efficacy of a secular, multimodal contemplative program-Inner Engineering-in enhancing psychological wellbeing, cognitive flexibility, and physiological balance among adolescents aged 15-18. Participants (N=96) will be randomized to either the intervention or a meditation-naïve control group. The intervention training integrates cognitive reappraisal, breath-based meditation, and yoga-based postures, followed by daily practice. Assessments will occur at baseline, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks, and will include self-report questionnaires, behavioral tasks, EEG, fMRI, wearable physiological monitoring (including heartrate, sleep, respiration), and blood-based biomarkers of inflammation and neuroplasticity. Qualitative interviews will provide additional insight into the lived experiences of intervention participants. The intervention aims to enabling more adaptive, inclusive, and empowered ways of perceiving external situations and internal states. This is the first comprehensive RCT to investigate the multidimensional impact of an integrated contemplative program on the developing adolescent mental health, physiological and neural outcomes and perception . Findings may support scalable, evidence-based contemplative education tools to promote clarity, resilience, and expanded perception in youth.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
96
The intervention is a comprehensive secular training called Inner Engineering (IE), offered by the international non-profit Isha Foundation. This program combines cognitive reappraisal and emotion regulation strategies, breath-based meditation and simple yoga practices. The training provides precise, step by step and easy to follow instructions on how to perform the practices. No previous experience of yoga and meditation is required. By fostering health, exuberance and awareness, one can "engineer their inner climate the way they want it" to lead a joyful, fulfilling life. Previous research shows improved wellbeing, mindfulness, joy, sleep, relationships, psychological capital, and work engagement, compassion, and parent-child relationships. Evidence suggest it may promote enhanced Heart Rate Variability and Sympathovagal balance.
Emotional Wellbeing
the PERMA profiler, (15 items) designed to measure Seligman's five pillars of wellbeing (PERMA is the acronym developed from the first letter of these five pillars): Positive emotions, Relationships, Engagement, Meaning, and Accomplishment. It shows good reliability among adolescents and good construct validity. The total PERMA-Profiler score is the average of all the factor scores, which can range from 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating greater mental wellbeing.
Time frame: Measured at Baseline, 6 weeks and 3 months
Depression, Anxiety and Stress
The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales - Youth version (DASS-Y) (21-items) is designed to measure general psychological distress and negative emotional states. The scale shows good construct validity as it has strong associations with physiological hyperarousal and excessive worrying. The total score can range from 0 to 63, with higher scores indicating a greater presence of psychological distress and negative emotional states.
Time frame: Measured at Baseline, 6 weeks and 3 months
Cognitive Flexibility
Cognitive Flexibility assessed via the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI) (20 items) to monitor how individuals challenge maladaptive thoughts. CFI has excellent internal consistency, and high 7-week test- retest reliability. The total score can range between 20 and 140, where higher scores indicate more cognitive flexibility.
Time frame: Measured at Baseline, 6 weeks and 3 months
Cognitive Emotion Regulation
Regulation strategies assessed via Cognitive Emotion Regulation questionnaire -short 18-item version (CERQ-short) with nine subscales (Self-blame, Other-blame, Rumination, Catastrophizing, Positive refocusing, Planning, Positive reappraisal, Putting into perspective and Acceptance). The reliability of the scales was found to be acceptably high among adolescents. The total possible score can range between 18 and 90, with higher scores indicating a greater use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies.
Time frame: Measured at Baseline, 6 weeks and 3 months
Personality Trait
Openness assessed via The Big Five Personality Trait Short Questionnaire (BFPTSQ) (10 item) assessing Openness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability. It has good reliability and convergent validity. Each personality type will get a score range of 1 to 7, with higher scores indicating the presence of that personality type.
Time frame: Will be measured at Baseline, 6 weeks and 3 months
Mindfulness
Mindful awareness is assessed via the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) with 5 subscales: Observing, Describing, Acting with Awareness, Nonjudgement and Non-reactivity. FFMQ-A-SF consists of 25 items (5 per facet) especially developed for adolescents. It shows good internal consistency and high construct validity. The total FFMQ score ranges from 39 to 195, with higher scores indicating greater mindfulness.
Time frame: Will be measured at Baseline, 6 weeks and 3 months
Sleep Quality
Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is a widely used, validated self-report questionnaire that assesses sleep quality and disturbances over a 1-month interval. It consists of 19 items that generate seven component scores: subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleep medication, and daytime dysfunction. These components are summed to produce a global score ranging from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating poorer sleep quality.
Time frame: Will be measured at Baseline, 6 weeks and 3 months
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