Lace Up and Mindfulness: A Randomized Controlled Trial Intervention to Reduce Emotional Eating, Anxiety, and Sleep Disturbances in Latinx and Black Youth.
Children (Basel, Switzerland) March 10, 2023 Norma Olvera, Sascha Hein, Molly Matthews-Ewald et al. 1 citation
A 12-week afterschool mindfulness-based diet and exercise intervention improved emotional eating, anxiety, and sleep latency in Latinx and Black youth. One hundred forty-eight boys and girls (average age 10.1 years; 52% girls; 72.3% Latinx) were randomly assigned to either an experimental group that engaged twice weekly in fitness yoga, kickboxing, spinning, and mindfulness practices, or a control group that had weekly recreational play. Post-intervention, the experimental group reported lower scores in emotional eating, anxiety, and sleep latency than the control group, but no significant difference in physical activity was found between groups. The findings suggest such interventions can benefit mental health in youth of color.