The Effect of Mindfulness Training on Increasing Attention and Controlling Aggression in Music Students Aged 7 to 12

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of mindfulness training on increasing attention and controlling aggression in music students aged 7 to 12 years in music schools. The method of the present study was a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest design and control group. The statistical population of the study included children of music students in the music school of Tehran Art House in the winter of 2020 and the spring of 2021. From this community, 30 children were selected by available sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The research instruments included the aggression questionnaire of Vahedi et al. (2008) and Manley et al. (1999) attention test. The experimental group received eight sessions of mindfulness intervention according to the protocol provided by Bayer (2006) but the control group did not receive any psychological intervention. In addition to descriptive indicators, multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data. The results showed that mindfulness training has a significant effect on improving attention (sustained attention, selective attention and attention control) and reducing aggression (verbal-aggressive, physical-aggressive, relational and impulsive anger) in children of music students (P<0/05). The results showed that the use of mindfulness as a psychological treatment to improve attention and reduce aggression in children of music students should be considered and used.