Overall, MBIs show benefits across studies for Mindfulness, Executive Functioning, Attention, Depression, Anxiety/Stress and Negative Behaviors in youth with small to moderate effect sizes. We are still not completely clear about what the key elements of MBIs are for youth and what the best ages are for introducing mindfulness. Most likely, the practices and programs need to be developmentally appropriate and need to be a good fit for the school or other context. Some research has shown slight increases in depressive symptoms for younger adolescents, e.g. grades (6-8) compared to older groups.

Certain developmental brain changes in early adolescence and increased meta-cognitive abilities of older students might explain some of the effects.

So, program components should be adapted for younger groups, which is why there is an 18 session version for younger adolescents with shorter sessions and some simpler activities in L2B. The student workbooks differ slightly in student images, too, with images of younger adolescents in the eighteen-session workbook and images of older students in the 6-session workbook. Teachers may use appropriate pages from either workbook to meet their students’ needs. Workbook pages are include in the manual but are also available separately. It’s important to restate that the six basic themes, their essential messages, and the key objectives are the same for all L2B versions, as are most of the activities.