AUTHOR=Das Madhusudan , Deepeshwar Singh , Subramanya Pailoor , Manjunath Nandi Krishnamurthy 

TITLE=Influence of Yoga-Based Personality Development Program on Psychomotor Performance and Self-efficacy in School Children

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pediatrics

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pediatrics/articles/10.3389/fped.2016.00062

DOI=10.3389/fped.2016.00062

ISSN=2296-2360

ABSTRACT=<p>Selective attention and efficacy are important components of scholastic performance in school children. While attempts are being made to introduce new methods to improve academic performance either as part of curricular or extracurricular activities in schools, the success rates are minimal. Hence, this study assessed the effect of <italic>yoga</italic>-based intervention on psychomotor performance and self-efficacy in school children. Two hundred ten school children with ages ranging from 11 to 16 years (mean age ± SD; 13.7 ± 0.8 years) satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited for the 10-day <italic>yogä</italic> program. An equal number of age-matched participants (<italic>n</italic> = 210; mean ± SD; 13.1 ± 0.8 years) were selected for the control group. Participants were assessed for attention and performance at the beginning and end of 10 days using trail making task (TMT) A and B, and self-efficacy questionnaire. The <italic>yoga</italic> group showed higher self-efficacy and improved performance after 10 days of <italic>yoga</italic> intervention. The performance in TMT-A and -B of the <italic>yoga</italic> group showed a significantly higher number of attempts with a reduction in time taken to complete the task and a number of wrong attempts compared with control group. Results suggest that <italic>yoga</italic> practice enhances self-efficacy and processing speed with fine motor coordination, visual–motor integration, visual perception, planning ability, and cognitive performance.</p>