Mindfulness Training as an Intervention for Substance User Incarcerated Adolescents: A Pilot Grounded Theory Study

Teaching mindfulness to incarcerated adolescent substance users requires adapting instruction to their developmental stage, trauma histories, and restricted environment. Over one year, interviews with ten adolescents in an urban California detention facility revealed that effective teaching involves building trust, using concrete language, keeping sessions short, and integrating movement. The initial grounded theory emphasizes relationship, relevance, and repetition as core components. The findings suggest that standard mindfulness curricula need modification for this population, and that even within constraints, adolescents can engage with mindfulness practices.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mindfulness-based treatment for adolescents is a clinical and research field still in its infancy. Literature is needed to address specific subcultural populations to expand this growing field. Further, minimal literature addresses the process of teaching mindfulness to adolescents. The current study investigated how to effectively teach mindfulness to 10 incarcerated adolescent substance users (N = 10) in an urban California detention setting. A grounded theory approach was used to collect and analyze interview data over a 1-year period during 2011 and 2012 in order to develop an initial theory for teaching mindfulness to incarcerated adolescent substance users. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.