The effects of mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation on teachers’ emotional abilities, compassion, and prosocial classroom engagement

This Varela research examined the differential effects of mindfulness and kindness meditation on teachers’ emotional abilities, compassion, and prosocial behavior. The purpose of the 8-week randomized controlled trial was to empirically probe the prosocial mechanisms of meditation, which are now actively debated in contemplative science and psychology but remain poorly understood. In addition, this research investigated the efficacy and scalability-potential of online meditation trainings for applied social contexts vis-à-vis school teachers. Many human service professionals labor under heavy social-emotional demands, and yet rarely receive emotion and prosocial skills training that may offset a range of deleterious outcomes. Findings from this project are forthcoming.