Mindfulness for Resilience in Early Life

Summary

Early life stress (ELS) is associated with a number of psychiatric and medical conditions later in life, thought to be caused by subsequent disruptions in biological processes involved in regulation of stress responses. Given that these alterations have long-lasting effects, there is a great need for effective preventative interventions. The long-term goal of this project is to identify early interventions that may most powerfully mitigate risk for psychiatric illness among adolescents with exposure to early life stress (ELS), with a focus on interventions that can be widely and effectively implemented, have the potential for long-lasting benefits, and can effectively engage targeted neurobiological processes and networks. The specific aims of the present study are to 1) examine how ELS impacts biological processes associated with regulation of stress, and 2) identify how MBI impacts affective symptoms and biological processes dysregulated by ELS.

This study supports the efforts to reduce the effects of early adversity in children by testing an impact of an effective psychological intervention on disrupted biological processes caused by early adversity. Successful achievement of the proposed aims will contribute to a) the knowledge base needed to reduce the effects of trauma and stress in children and families and b) the development of easily implemented and disseminated preventative interventions.

The proposed study will utilize a multi-method design to examine the effect of mindfulness on biological processes (i.e., stress responses) disrupted by exposure to ELS among adolescents age 13 to 15. Adolescents will first complete self-report measures of childhood adverse experiences, trauma, and neglect. Forty eligible adolescents will be next randomly assigned to either an eight session mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention for teens or no treatment. Pre- and post-intervention assessment will include (a) self-report measures of symptoms and emotion regulation, (b) a blood draw for assessment of inflammatory markers and gene expression, and (c) a stress task with saliva cortisol collected before and after this task.

Conditions

• Adolescent With Early Life Stress
• Resilience

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Mindfulness

Mindfulness based stress reduction adapted for teens is a mindfulness intervention designed to aid adolescents in understanding stress, better coping with stress, and promoting resilience

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Oklahoma State University

  collaborator OTHER

• Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Inc.

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Namik Kirlic, PhD · Laureate Institute for Brain Research

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

13 Years

Max Age

15 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-07-12

Primary Completion

2019-03-07

Completion

2019-03-07

Countries

• United States

Study Locations