Yoga (no program name listed) comprises 42 standard yoga sessions delivered to school students in a school setting.
The overarching goals of the program are to explore and build:
Each class includes postures, breathing, relaxation and guided meditation techniques.
It is designed and delivered by Bent on Learning (BOL), which is a not-for-profit organization that provides free yoga instruction in New York City classrooms.
The yoga program was designed for students aged 15-17. This program has only been evaluated in the USA. A randomised control trial (Daly et al. 2015) was conducted with 37 students (19 in the intervention group, 18 in the control group). On average, students were 16 years old. Most of the students were black (86%) and male (62%).
The program has not been evaluated in Australia or with Aboriginal Australians.
Overall, the program had a mixed effect on client outcomes.
Mixed research evidence (with no adverse effects):
The program is held three times per week during school hours over a period of 16 weeks.
The classes follow a structured routine that transitions students from yoga to a rigorous 15-30 minute sequence of postures, relaxation, and then a closing ritual that emphasizes carrying the principles of yoga practice into the rest of the day.
Program costs were not reported in the study.
Students in good general health assessed on the basis of their capacity to attend physical education (PE) classes are able to partake in this program.
Yoga sessions are delivered by Bent on Learning (BOL) yoga instructors who are required to have a 200-hour yoga certification and two years of teaching experience.
1 RCT conducted in the USA with a sample of 37 students (Daly et al. 2015).
Daly, LA, Haden, SC, Hagins, M, Papouchis, N, & Ramirez, PM 2015, ‘Yoga and emotion regulation in high school students: A randomized controlled trial’, Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2015, article number 794928, DOI 10.1155/2015/79492.
09 Dec 2022
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