Both Mindful Yoga and Meditation (MYM) and Common Yoga Protocol (CYP) interventions significantly improved adolescent mental health outcomes compared to a waitlist control, but MYM produced greater and more sustained gains in mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal, well-being, and reductions in distress and expressive suppression.
The MYM group demonstrated significantly greater improvements in mindfulness compared to both the CYP and control groups.
MYM participants showed significantly greater improvements in cognitive reappraisal compared to the CYP and control groups.
MYM participants showed significantly larger reductions in expressive suppression compared to the CYP and control groups.
The MYM group demonstrated significantly greater reductions in psychological distress compared to the CYP and control groups.
MYM participants showed significantly greater and more sustained improvements in well-being compared to the CYP and control groups.
Both yoga interventions were feasible and effective when delivered as brief school-based programs over 21 days.
Integrating mindfulness into yoga practice yielded superior mental health outcomes compared to conventional yoga alone.
This research suggests that school-based yoga programs can meaningfully improve the mental health of adolescents, and that the type of yoga program matters. In a study of 147 secondary school students in India, two different 21-day yoga programs—one that combined yoga with mindfulness and meditation (MYM) and one that followed a standard yoga protocol (CYP)—were compared to a group that received no intervention. Both yoga programs led to improvements in students' emotional well-being, ability to manage emotions, mindfulness, and psychological distress, while the control group showed no meaningful change. However, the mindfulness-integrated yoga program (MYM) consistently outperformed the standard yoga program across all mental health measures. Students in the MYM group showed greater reductions in psychological distress and emotional suppression, as well as larger gains in mindfulness, the ability to reframe negative thoughts (cognitive reappraisal), and overall well-being. Crucially, these benefits were also more durable, persisting at a three-month follow-up assessment, whereas the benefits from the standard yoga program were smaller and less long-lasting. This research suggests that brief yoga programs are a practical and effective tool for supporting adolescent mental health in school settings, and that adding mindfulness components to yoga practice provides meaningful additional benefits beyond yoga alone. The findings are relevant for schools and educators looking for evidence-based approaches to student well-being, though the nonrandomized design of the study means results should be interpreted with some caution regarding cause and effect.
K J, Ashok L, Manjula M, J J T, R V, John S. (2026). The effectiveness of a Mindful Yoga and Common Yoga intervention on emotion regulation and well-being of adolescents; A nonrandomized quasi-experimental study.. PloS one. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0355375