Effect of Surya Namaskara on Mental Health, Self-control and Mindfulness of Adolescent School Children.

Background: A big portion of adolescent school children suffers from mental health problems. Low self-control and mindfulness are positively associated with poor mental health. Therefore, the present study was designed to assess the effect of Surya Namaskara (SN) on mental health, self-control, and mindfulness among school children. Method: 63(39 female and 24 male) students (mean age = 14.24 years and SD = 0.42 years) studying at 9 th grade in a private school in Karnataka, India were recruited as participants of the study. The design of the present study was a non-randomized two arms design. Students in grade 9 section ‘A’ (N= 33) were selected as the intervention group. Whereas, students in grade 9 section ‘B’ (N = 30) were considered as a control group. Students in the intervention group were given SN for 15 days. The participants were administrated the Brief Self-control Scale (BSCS), Mindfulness, Attention and Awareness Scale for Adolescents (MAAS-A), and General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) questionnaires on the baseline and after 15 days of intervention . Results: Findings of the present study showed a significant difference in MAAS-A scores [F (1, 54) = 18.47, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.26] in within group comparison. There was also a significant interaction (Times*Groups) for BSCS [F (1, 54) = 4.89, p = 0.031, η p 2 = 0.08] and MAAS-A [F (1, 54) = 6.63, p = 0.013, η p 2 = 0.12] scores. Post-hoc analysis showed SN group has significantly high post BSCS score (p = 0.005) and MAAS-A score (p = 0.005) compared to control group. Similarly, there was a significant high BSCS score ( p = 0.003) and MAAS-A score (p < 0.001) after SN intervention compare to their respective pre scores. There was no significant change in the GHQ-12 scores in both groups in pre-post comparison. Conclusion: The finding of the present study showed that SN improves self-control and mindfulness in adolescent school children. However, the results of the current study should be confirmed by future studies with robust research design, a large sample size, and advanced tools.