Transformative Life Skills (TLS) is a manualized program which provides students with sequenced instruction and applied experience in using yoga postures, breathing techniques, and centring meditation to reduce stress and promote social-emotional health and physical wellness.
TLS can be used with students from a range of age groups. TLS has only been evaluated in the USA. One randomized control trial (Frank et al., 2017) was conducted with 159 participants. One quasi-experimental design study (Frank et al., 2014) was conducted with 49 participants. In the Frank et al. (2014) study, students ranged from ages 13-17 years old and in the Frank et al. (2017) study, participants were either between 10-11 years old (6th graders) or 13-14 years old (9th graders).
Participants in the 2014 study were recruited from an alternative education school (alternative schools in the USA serve students who have been suspended or expelled for disruptive classroom behaviour). In the 2014 study, one third of participants were black, one third were Hispanic and the remaining participants comprised a range of different races and ethnicities. Just over half of the sample were female (54%). Most participants in the 2014 study reported living in a two-parent household (45%).
Participants in the 2017 study were recruited from a diverse middle school in a high-poverty neighbourhood. Most of these students were Latino (54%) and just under half (46%) were female. The majority of students in the study lived in a two-parent household (64%).
TLS has not been evaluated in Australia or with Aboriginal Australians.
Overall, TLS had a mixed effect on client outcomes.
Mixed research evidence (with no adverse effects):
TLS is usually delivered in 30-minute sessions 3-4 days per week; however sessions can be delivered in 15, 30, or 60-min segments. There are 4 units in the TLS program, each with 12 associated lessons (total 48 lessons) which have scripted, manualized instructions. The 4 units are:
Each lesson is designed to teach specific skills connected to the overarching unit theme. Before beginning each lesson, behavioural expectations are reviewed and the agenda for the day’s lesson is reviewed. Then, instructors attempt to activate student background related to the topic in question and may engage in brief conversation with the group to stimulate interest. Subsequently, students engage in the Action-Breathing-Centering Activities (referred to as the ABCs) which provides students experience in engaging in yoga postures, focused breathing, and centring meditation. Across sessions, ABC sequences become progressively more challenging. At the end of each lesson, instructors are asked to complete a fidelity checklist documenting that each lesson component was implemented, rate the overall level of student engagement, and reflect on the quality of lesson implementation. At the end of each unit, instructors are asked to review their implementation data to plan a reteaching lesson during which they repeat coverage of content within the last content unit that was poorly covered or had limited student engagement.
The costs for TLS were not reported in the study.
TLS is delivered in classroom settings across 1 semester of the school year. The program is delivered by professional yoga instructors with at least 2-years of experience and training in providing TLS.
1 RCT and 1 QED both conducted in different states in the USA. The QED by Frank et al., (2014) had 43 participants and the RCT by Frank et al., (2017) had 149 participants.
Frank, JL, Bose, B, & Schrobenhauser-Clonan, A 2014, ‘Effectiveness of a school-based yoga program on adolescent mental health, stress coping strategies, and attitudes toward violence: Findings from a high-risk sample’, Journal of Applied School Psychology, vol. 30, no. 1, 29-49, DOI 10.1080/15377903.2013.863259.
Frank, JL, Kohler, K, Peal, A, & Bose, B 2017, ‘Effectiveness of a school-based yoga program on adolescent mental health and school performance: Findings from a randomized controlled trial’, Mindfulness, vol. 8, 544-553, DOI 10.1007/s12671-016-0628-3.
09 Dec 2022
We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future.
Informed by lessons of the past, Department of Communities and Justice is improving how we work with Aboriginal people and communities. We listen and learn from the knowledge, strength and resilience of Stolen Generations Survivors, Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal communities.
You can access our apology to the Stolen Generations.