Preschool Yoga: An Evaluation of Two Delivery Methods and the Role of Interoception

Abstract

The preschool stage represents a critical period for developing foundational self-regulatory skills that guide children in managing their thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. Interoception is the ability to sense, interpret, and integrate body and emotional states and is a key contributor to self-regulating behaviors. Self-regulation strongly predicts academic performance, social interactions, and long-term health outcomes. There is a need for feasible and effective school-based health promotion programs that foster children’s development of interoception and self-regulation. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to explore the feasibility and effects of yoga in preschool classrooms using two delivery methods and whether interoceptive awareness is a meaningful predictor of outcomes. The secondary purpose was to examine interoception’s role in children’s physical activity (PA) behaviors. Study 1 examined the feasibility and effects of a preschool yoga program on postural control and classroom behavior. Nine preschool classrooms participated in a cluster-randomized waitlist-controlled study (N=136). The yoga intervention was eight weeks (2, 30-minute lessons per week) for the Yoga group and four weeks (4, 40-minute lessons per week) for the Waitlist group. Intervention fidelity and on-task behavior were both high. Children in the yoga group demonstrated significant improvement in functional balance and interpersonal skills compared to the control group, but not for postural stability and classroom-related behavioral regulation. Variability among scores for certain measures may have contributed to the mixed results. Identifying appropriate measures that are reliable and sensitive to change will be key to further investigating the effects of yoga in young children. Study 2 explored the relations among parent-reported PA and several interoceptive domains in children aged 3- to 10-years old. Baseline data were analyzed from a cluster-randomized controlled study examining a yoga intervention (N=122). Children with higher PA levels were perceived to have better interoceptive sensibility of emotion and physical energy. Better perception of body signals may contribute to more effective emotional regulation and the prevention of physical injury. Study 3 examined the feasibility and preliminary effects of a livestreamed, preschool-based yoga program on self-regulation and PA in children. Five preschool classrooms participated in a cluster-randomized controlled study (N=68). The yoga program was eight weeks (3, 30-minute lessons per week) and was synchronously delivered while the control group followed their typical classroom routine. The results indicated a livestreamed, yoga program was safe and feasible for preschoolers. Interoceptive awareness was a significant moderator of children’s flexibility behavior outcomes. Children with low interoceptive awareness demonstrated significantly greater improvements in self-regulatory behaviors compared to the control group. The improvement in children’s PA was not significantly different than the control classrooms. Overall, the results of this dissertation study support yoga as a feasible and safe physical activity to foster young children’s classroom behaviors and functional balance. In-person instruction and online instruction were both acceptable forms of delivery. However, child participation and instruction fidelity were both higher for in-person instruction. Interoceptive sensibility contributes to children’s self-regulation of healthy lifestyle behaviors such as PA and this dissertation provided evidence that it significantly predicts an individual’s response to yoga. This dissertation expands the knowledge on yoga research and will guide the design of more effective interventions for health behavior development. Future studies should administer direct measures of outcomes and include an active control which will clarify whether yoga has different benefits to regular exercise.