Effects of a Relaxation and Guided Imagery Intervention in School Context

Background: Mental imagery has long been used in psychological therapies, but only recently has research started to provide a relevant scientific basis. Imagery interventions are inexpensive and have a body of research supporting their effectiveness on behavior change, the promotion of adaptive health outcomes, the reduction of anxiety and adherence to medical interventions in adults and children. However, literature on the relaxation and guided imagery interventions benefits for children in elementary school context is very scarce. This Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) aims to contribute to the body of research by implementing and testing the benefits of an intervention program "MindRegulation" composed of relaxation, instructions for body posture, and guided imagery with socioemotional learning (SEL), conveying adaptive beliefs about oneself, the relationships with others and the environment. Method: The MindRegulation intervention will be developed in the classroom for 15 minutes before learning activities, three times per week, for five months, and its effects will be measured on a range of emotional, physiologic, and cognitive outcomes. Twelve classes will be randomly distributed into three conditions: (a) relaxation and guided imagery, (b) just relaxation, and (c) waitlist control. The RCT includes four data collection times: pretest, intermediate, posttest, and a six-month follow-up. The sample comprises 240 students, third and fourth graders from elementary school, between 8 and 11 years old. The variables measured in the study are: well-being, affect, anxiety, emotional regulation, socioemotional competencies, attention and processing speed, physiologic responses of arousal, stress, and well-being, and perceived benefits of the intervention. The psychometric properties of the subjective measures show they are adequate for the study population and language, except for the self-esteem scale that will be validated to the study target population. Discussion: Improvements on the children's well-being, socioemotional regulation, cognitive function, physiologic activity and academic performance are expected after five months of MindRegulation intervention and changes on physiologic activity are expected during each MindRegulation session. Mediation effects are expected for emotional regulation, well-being and anxiety variables, from participating in the intervention in the outcome variables such as socioemotional competence, cognitive function and academic performance. Additionally, well-being and anxiety levels at pretest are expected to moderate the intervention effects.