Impacto da meditação na atenção e na autorregulação em jovens

: revisão sistemática da literatura

Abstract

Introduction: The cognitive self-regulating skill, responsible for verbal and motorfunctions, is primordial for the individual's psycho-social wellbeing. Being related with attention development, there is growing interest into the maturing process that occurs in youth. Meditation, a strategy associated with promoting these cognitive skills, stimulates the discussion about which techniques could be effective to help teenagers better prepare for adulthood. This paper had the goal of analysing the application of meditation practices about self-regulation and attention on young people from 10 to 24 years old with typical development. Methodology: A research has been performed, following the standards for systematic review of qualitative literature, using B-On, PubMed and Science Direct databases, through peer reviewed empirical studies, published over the last 10 years in English, Spanish and Portuguese. It was defined as the combination of descriptors the terms “meditation, self-regulation, attention” and “adolescent/adolescence/youth/teenager”. Results: From 430 results, seven semi experimental studies published between 2011 and 2019 were selected, written in English. Meditation forms varied according to technique, duration, frequency and instructors' backgrounds, having in common the training with deep breath and straight posture. The vigilant and selective attention strands showed improvements soon after the intervention in the majority of the analysed studies, but there was no statistically significant change in spatial attention. After meditation, self-regulation suffered a short and long term positive impact, although impulsiveness indicators only showed reduction in the short term. Conclusion: This review has allowed to as certain the evidence on improving attention and self-regulation through the practice of meditation by the young population, concluding that the number of studies is still scarce. Future studies should explore specific contingencies present in the practice of meditation that stimulate major neural mechanisms involved and promote the development of these cognitive functions.

Date of Award	20 Apr 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Joana Rodrigues Rato (Supervisor)