The influences of mindfulness on high-stakes mathematics test achievement of middle school students

Research has shown that mindfulness can reduce students’ negative emotions associated with high-stakes tests and thereby improve test performance. This study explored the association between mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) and high-risk math test scores of middle school students, which is noticeably slim in the domain of mathematics education, through a mediating process involving math-specific test anxiety and math self-efficacy. Using data from a sample of 45 students, age 12–13, we found empirical support for a significant positive correlation between mindfulness and middle school students’ math achievement. Participants listened to a mindfulness audio every other week before a mathematics test. Weekly mathematics test scores, student group discussion data, and in-depth interview data were analyzed to explore how mindfulness affected students’ mathematics test performance, which showed a statistically significant improvement after mindfulness compared to mathematics achievement without the intervention. Our results indicate that mindfulness can relieve mathematics anxiety symptoms, including physiological manifestations, test-unrelated thinking and worries, and problem-solving obstacles caused by mathematics anxiety. Also, mindfulness, especially its non-judgmental attitude, positively affects students’ mathematical self-efficacy. The current research provides evidence of the mindfulness intervention’s efficacy for improving middle school mathematics test performance but also identifies the complexities of implementing it with large numbers of students.

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How Prozac Increases Brain Plasticity

Fluoxetine (Prozac), a common antidepressant, was found to enhance the erasure of learned fear responses and facilitate spatial pattern learning in mice. The study also found the TrkB receptor in PV+ interneurons plays a crucial role in these effects, which may offer new possibilities for the development of psychiatric treatments targeting brain plasticity.

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Exposure therapy to feared foods may help kids with eating disorders

Whether you’re afraid of dogs, needles or enclosed spaces, one of the most effective interventions for this type of anxiety disorder is exposure therapy in which you confront your fear in a safe environment. A new study finds that exposure therapy is also a promising treatment for adolescents with eating disorders. They found that exposure to feared foods — such as candy bars and pizza — helped kids who were in a partial hospitalization program for eating disorders experience decreased anxiety toward food.

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OCD and Its Cross-Generational Familial Association With Anxiety Disorders

This population register–based study examines data for offspring born in Sweden from 1960 to 1995 to evaluate the sources of parent-offspring transmission of OCD and its familial cross-generational association with more typical anxiety disorders.

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