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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1405676
This article is part of the Research Topic Students' Social and Emotional Skills in Educational Settings View all 17 articles

Enhancing Well-being among Pre-service Teachers through a Mindfulness-based Social and Emotional Learning Curriculum: a Quasi-Experimental Study in China

Provisionally accepted
Yunpeng Wu Yunpeng Wu *Liping Qin Liping Qin
  • Dezhou University, Dezhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Integrating mindfulness practices and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) into teacher education can significantly enhance educators' well-being, resilience, and effectiveness. However, the cultural specificity of such interventions, particularly in the Chinese educational context, requires careful adaptation and examination.Objective: This study aims to design, implement, and evaluate a culturally adapted MBSEL curriculum for Chinese pre-service teachers. It investigates the program's effectiveness in improving mindfulness, self-compassion, and life satisfaction, contributing to the literature on integrating mindfulness and SEL in teacher education within a specific cultural setting. Methods: Employing a quasi-experimental design, the study involved a sample of 41 Chinese preservice teachers divided into an experimental group (n=22) and a control group (n=19). The MBSEL program's impact on participants' mindfulness, self-compassion, and life satisfaction was assessed using pre-and post-intervention measures.The results of repeated measures analyses of variance indicated significant improvements in mindfulness, self-compassion, and life satisfaction among participants in the experimental group compared to the control group. These outcomes underscore the effectiveness of the culturally adapted MBSEL program in enhancing key aspects of pre-service teachers' well-being and professional readiness. Discussion: The study demonstrates that a culturally adapted MBSEL curriculum effectively enhances mindfulness, self-compassion, and life satisfaction among Chinese pre-service teachers. This emphasizes the necessity of cultural sensitivity in developing mindfulness and SEL interventions for teacher education. Moreover, the success of the MBSEL program suggests its potential for global integration, urging policymakers and educators to prioritize culturally tailored approaches to enhance teacher well-being and educational outcomes.

    Keywords: cultural adaptation, mindfulness, pre-service teacher, social and emotional learning, Teacher Education, Well-being

    Received: 23 Mar 2024; Accepted: 03 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wu and Qin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yunpeng Wu, Dezhou University, Dezhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.