Kapālabhāti as a panacea to control aggressive behavior in adolescents

Abstract

Background: Aggression in adolescence is a key point of focus for psychologists, educationists, parents, and teachers. On the other hand, interdisciplinary researches with special reference to yoga and psychology are growing rapidly in this era of applied science. Despite rapidly growing scientific literature on yoga and its application, there has been no study conducted to determine whether Kapālabhāti (a yogic practice) affects the aggression level in adolescents. Aims: The current study aimed at exploring the effect of Kapālabhāti on the aggression level of adolescents. Methods: A sample consisting of 40 intermediate and undergraduate students from Gayatri Vidyapeeth and Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar, Uttarakhand, respectively, was taken. The entire sample belonged to the age group of 15-20 years. Kapālabhāti practice was given to each and every subject of the group for a period of 30 days regularly. In this research, pre-post single-group design has been applied. Participants were given a questionnaire named as "aggression scale" (A-scale) which was developed by Pal and Naqvi (1983) for measurement of aggression score. Statistical Analysis Used: Paired sample t-test and eta-squared statistics have been used for comparing pre- and post-mean scores and computing the magnitude of the effect of intervention, respectively. Results: There was a statistically significant decrease in the aggression score from pre-test (M = 63.85, SD = 21.75) to post-test (M = 49.95, SD = 14.53), t (39) = 8.42, P < 0.01 (two-tailed). The mean decrease in aggression score was 13.9 with a 99% confidence interval. The eta-squared statistics was 0.64, which indicates large effect of the intervention on aggression. Conclusions: The findings revealed that the practice of Kapālabhāti is highly effective in reducing the aggression level in participants, which was significant at 0.01 level of significance.