CHILDREN’S AND YOUTHS’ EXPERIENCES OF MEDITATION PRACTICE: REFLECTIONS FROM ESSAYS IN THE WONDERS OF MEDITATION

Abstract

This study aimed to examine children’s and youths’ experiences of meditation practice as reflected in four dimensions: 1) Emotional and psychological well-being, 2) Learning and self-development, 3) Attitudes and relationships with others, and 4) The extension of meditation practice. This qualitative study used secondary data and document analysis of 25 personal reflective essays published in two volumes of The Wonders of Meditation. The essay writers comprised 12 primary school students, four secondary school students, and nine university students. The research instruments were a document-analysis form and a coding matrix. The data were examined through thematic analysis informed by Creswell, J. W. & Poth, C. N. and by Braun, V. & Clarke, V. The analytic procedure involved repeated reading, initial coding, code grouping, theme development, review, and interpretive synthesis. The findings comprised four major themes and twelve subthemes: 1) Emotional and psychological transformation, 2) Benefits for learning and self-development, 3) Changes in attitudes and relationships with others, and 4) The extension of meditation practice. The findings suggest that the participants perceived meditation as an inside-out process of human development, beginning with inner calm, emotional regulation, and self-awareness and extending to learning, discipline, relationships, and social consciousness. Because the dataset consisted of self-reflective essays selected for publication, the findings represent practitioners’ perceptions and meaning making rather than generalizable causal evidence. The study indicates that age-appropriate meditation activities grounded in direct practice and reflection may support life skills and learning among children and youth. Its interpretive framework can inform educational practice while providing a basis for further interdisciplinary research using more diverse samples and complementary methods. In practical terms, the results support age-appropriate opportunities for meditation practice followed by guided reflection, while cautioning educators and policymakers against treating participants’ accounts as proof of universal effectiveness or applying one standardized program across all learners, settings, developmental stages, and educational needs.