Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Group Training on Aggression and Risky Behavior in Male Orphan Adolescents

This research examined efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction group training on aggression and risky behavior in orphan male adolescents. This semi-experimental study was conducted with a pre-test and post-test design with control group. Two centers were randomly selected among the orphan care centers for adolescent boys in Mashhad. Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire and Adolescent Risk-taking Questionnaire were collected from the members of these two centers. Those with a higher score on aggression and risk-taking behavior were studied. 16 person were selected as the experimental and control groups and randomly assigned to two groups. The experimental group received mindfulness-based stress reduction for eight 90-minute sessions and the control group was placed on the waiting list. Both groups received post-test and a Multivariate Analysis of Covariance applied on the collected dataset. Results of a MANCOVA analysis indicated that a group training mindfulness-based stress reduction significantly reduced average scores of adolescent’s aggression and risky behaviors. This study showed that mindfulness-based stress reduction group training as an effective treatment could be useful for orphan adolescents who are suffering from high risky behaviors such as delinquency and physical and verbal aggression due to lack of family support network.