School Contextual Factors Research Articles

Principals as instructional leaders: an exploration of school context factors that affect principals’ competence at primary schools in Tarcha town, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate school context-related factors that affect principals’ instructional leadership competence in primary schools in Tarcha Town, Ethiopia. A qualitative case-study research design was used. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Twelve senior principals were included in the study through purposive sampling. Interviews were used to collect in-depth data. The data was analyzed thematically. The findings of the study indicated that primary school principals face both internal and external challenges. Internally, they face limited knowledge and skills, a lack of courage and commitment, and administrative work overload. Their external challenges included negative attitudes from parents and teachers, a lack of instructional materials, and little support from local education authorities. Consequently, they can’t serve effectively as instructional leaders or resource people. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education, South West Regional Education Bureau, Dawuro Zone Education Department, and Tarcha Town Administration Education Officers and Cluster Supervisors regularly monitor and support school leaders and prepare and provide pertinent teaching materials and training so that the principals can lead in the capacity that is appropriate for the position.

Long-term effects of the school context on depressive symptoms among Asian Americans.

Despite the importance of the school environment for mental health outcomes, there is little research on how the school context during adolescence may impact depressive symptoms among Asian Americans (AAs) over time. The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) the long-term effects of perceived prejudice from peers and teachers on school belonging and depressive symptoms in adolescence, early young adulthood, and young adulthood among AAs and (b) the mediating effects of school belonging and two early depressive symptoms on the associations between perceived prejudice from peers and teachers and young adulthood depressive symptoms. The data came from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. The present study used a subsample of 689 AAs who completed interviews during adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood. The major data analysis strategy was structural equation modeling. The structural equation modeling results indicated that the major path coefficients from school context to depressive symptoms at the three time points for AAs were statistically significant, except for the path from adolescent depressive symptoms to young adulthood depressive symptoms. There were three significant mediating effects of school belonging and two early depressive symptoms on the association between perceived prejudice from teachers and young adulthood depressive symptoms in AAs. The results emphasize the importance of identifying school contextual risk factors leading to mental health disparities and developing culturally appropriate intervention strategies for AAs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Teacher Views of Relationships between their Teaching Practices and Beliefs, the School Context, and Student Achievement

Teachers hold many beliefs, shaped by their educational knowledge, experiences, and cultural, social, historical, and political environments. These teacher beliefs, together with teacher characteristics and school context factors can influence cognitive processes, expectations, instructional decisions, and practices which could affect learning experiences, student engagement, and achievement. Numerous studies have explored these factors, however, often separately or with only one or two others. This paper explores primary school teachers’ self-reported perceptions on the relationships between teacher beliefs (including teacher class level expectations, self-efficacy, motivation, goal orientation, work engagement, passion for teaching, relatedness to students), teacher characteristics (including gender, ethnicity, teacher experience), and school context factors (including decile and year level taught), and the impact of these on student achievement and teachers’ instructional practices.Associations were found between teaching self-efficacy and all the other factors explored; work engagement and teachers’ years of teaching experience, gender, and school decile; and years of teaching experience and student achievement. Further, relatedness to students, passion for teaching, and teaching self-efficacy was found to be associated with teachers’ instructional practices.

Inter-organizational alignment and implementation outcomes in integrated mental healthcare for children and adolescents: a cross-sectional observational study.

Integrated care involves care provided by a team of professionals, often in non-traditional settings. A common example worldwide is integrated school-based mental health (SBMH), which involves externally employed clinicians providing care at schools. Integrated mental healthcare can improve the accessibility and efficiency of evidence-based practices (EBPs) for vulnerable populations suffering from fragmented traditional care. However, integration can complicate EBP implementation due to overlapping organizational contexts, diminishing the public health impact. Emerging literature suggests that EBP implementation may benefit from the similarities in the implementation context factors between the different organizations in integrated care, which we termed inter-organizational alignment (IOA). This study quantitatively explored whether and how IOA in general and implementation context factors are associated with implementation outcomes in integrated SBMH. SBMH clinicians from community-based organizations (CBOs; nclinician = 27) and their proximal student-support school staff (nschool = 99) rated their schools and CBOs (clinician only) regarding general (organizational culture and molar climate) and implementation context factors (Implementation Climate and Leadership), and nine common implementation outcomes (e.g., treatment integrity, service access, acceptability). The levels of IOA were estimated by intra-class correlations (ICCs). We fitted multilevel models to estimate the standalone effects of context factors from CBOs and schools on implementation outcomes. We also estimated the 2-way interaction effects between CBO and school context factors (i.e., between-setting interdependence) on implementation outcomes. The IOA in general context factors exceeded those of implementation context factors. The standalone effects of implementation context factors on most implementation outcomes were larger than those of general context factors. Similarly, implementation context factors between CBOs and schools showed larger 2-way interaction effects on implementation outcomes than general context factors. This study preliminarily supported the importance of IOA in context factors for integrated SBMH. The findings shed light on how IOA in implementation and general context factors may be differentially associated with implementation outcomes across a broad array of integrated mental healthcare settings.

What Environments Support Reading Growth Among Current Compared With Former Reading Intervention Recipients? A Multilevel Analysis of Students and Their Schools.

School context can shape relative intervention response in myriad ways due to factors, such as instructional quality, resource allocation, peer effects, and correlations between the school context and characteristics of enrolled students (e.g., higher-poverty students attending higher-poverty schools). In the current study, we used data from 16,000 Grade 3 students in a community-based supplemental reading intervention program to investigate the degree to which school context factors (percentage eligible for free/reduced-price lunch [FRPL], school-level achievement) relate to the differences in triannual reading fluency growth rates between students actively receiving supplemental intervention (active recipients) and those that formerly received intervention (and therefore only received general class instruction at this time; former recipients). Using Bayesian multilevel modeling, our findings indicate that school-level FRPL eligibility played a more prominent factor in growth rate differences between these two groups than school-level reading achievement. However, school-level reading achievement was much more strongly related to reading fluency differences between active and former intervention recipients at the beginning of the school year (when controlling for FRPL). Implications for investigating school-level heterogeneity in intervention response and sustainability are discussed.

Examine the Impact of Contextual, Personal, and Behavioral Factors on High School Teachers’ Engagement in Teaching Science Using an Integrated STEM Approach

Teachers’ self-efficacy, attitude, and engagement are influenced by various factors, encompassing personal, school contextual, and behavioral aspects. Nevertheless, prior studies have not thoroughly explored the intricate relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy, attitudes, and engagement, particularly in the context of teaching science through an integrated STEM approach (ISTEMA). Drawing upon the Social Cognitive Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study proposes a structural equation model that incorporates school contextual factors: school administrative support and peer or collegial support, along with the personal factor—teachers’ STEM discipline knowledge to predict teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching science through ISTEMA. It also considers school administrative support and teachers’ self-efficacy to teach science through an ISTEMA as predictors for teachers’ attitudes and engagement in the implementation of ISTEMA. Additionally, school administrative support, teachers’ self-efficacy to teach science through ISTEMA, and teachers’ attitude to teach science through ISTEMA are regarded as behavioral factors that predict engagement in the implementation of ISTEMA. The survey was administered to 452 high school teachers hailing from four distinct regions and Phnom Penh City, Cambodia. The results of the full structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that changes in teachers’ STEM discipline knowledge and peer or collegial support may correspondingly lead to changes in teachers’ self-efficacy to teach science through an ISTEMA (SE), with an indirect effect of school administrative support (AD) on SE via teachers’ STEM discipline knowledge. The enhancement of SE and teachers’ attitude to teach science through an ISTEMA (ATT) significantly influences teachers’ engagement to teach science through an ISTEMA (EGG), whereas AD has a direct impact on engagement and an indirect one via teachers’ self-efficacy and attitude. Furthermore, SE directly and indirectly affects engagement through teachers’ attitude. These findings hold profound significance in shaping policies related to teacher training in integrated STEM education and theoretical foundation for future studies.

Traditional and Race-based Bullying in Racial-Minority Majority and Racially Diverse Schools.

Few studies in the U.S. have simultaneously examined general and race-based bullying with consideration of school-level racial composition. The current study examined victimization as a function of school racial composition, in minority-majority and diverse schools (N = 1911, Mage = 13.7 years) enrolled in 7th grade in 24 public schools (42.3% Hispanics, 9.0% non-Hispanic White, 28.9% non-Hispanic Black, and 19.7% non-Hispanic Asian). Multilevel regression analyses suggest student-level protective factors related to both forms of victimization, but, school racial composition was only significant in explaining race-based bullying. Specifically, minority-majority schools had lower levels of race-based victimization compared to racially diverse schools. Findings suggest that consideration of school contextual factors offers a more nuanced understanding of the relation between race and victimization.

Protocol for a hybrid type 3 effectiveness-implementation trial of a pragmatic individual-level implementation strategy for supporting school-based prevention programming

BackgroundFor approximately one in five children who have social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) challenges, accessible evidence-based prevention practices (EBPPs) are critical. In the USA, schools are the primary setting for children’s SEB service delivery. Still, EBPPs are rarely adopted and implemented by front-line educators (e.g., teachers) with sufficient fidelity to see effects. Given that individual behavior change is ultimately required for successful implementation, focusing on individual-level processes holds promise as a parsimonious approach to enhance impact. Beliefs and Attitudes for Successful Implementation in Schools for Teachers (BASIS-T) is a pragmatic, multifaceted pre-implementation strategy targeting volitional and motivational mechanisms of educators’ behavior change to enhance implementation and student SEB outcomes. This study protocol describes a hybrid type 3 effectiveness-implementation trial designed to evaluate the main effects, mediators, and moderators of the BASIS-T implementation strategy as applied to Positive Greetings at the Door, a universal school-based EBPP previously demonstrated to reduce student disruptive behavior and increase academic engagement.MethodsThis project uses a blocked randomized cohort design with an active comparison control (ACC) condition. We will recruit and include approximately 276 teachers from 46 schools randomly assigned to BASIS-T or ACC conditions. Aim 1 will evaluate the main effects of BASIS-T on proximal implementation mechanisms (attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, intentions to implement, and maintenance self-efficacy), implementation outcomes (adoption, reach, fidelity, and sustainment), and child outcomes (SEB, attendance, discipline, achievement). Aim 2 will examine how, for whom, under what conditions, and how efficiently BASIS-T works, specifically by testing whether the effects of BASIS-T on child outcomes are (a) mediated via its putative mechanisms of behavior change, (b) moderated by teacher factors or school contextual factors, and (c) cost-effective.DiscussionThis study will provide a rigorous test of BASIS-T—a pragmatic, theory-driven, and generalizable implementation strategy designed to target theoretically-derived motivational mechanisms—to increase the yield of standard EBPP training and support strategies.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05989568. Registered on May 30, 2023.

School context matters? Faculty trust and academic emphasis moderating the effects of principals' distributed leadership on teacher leadership

PurposeThe importance of teacher leadership in enhancing school outcomes is recognized, but there remains a scarcity of research addressing the conditions for principals to nurture such leadership. This study examined how school contextual factors, i.e. faculty trust and academic emphasis, moderate the impact of principals' distributed leadership lon teacher leadership.Design/methodology/approachA nationwide survey was conducted among junior high school teachers in Taiwan. The sample encompassed schools from different geographical regions and sizes, yielding a total of 1,340 valid responses. Hierarchical regression analyses were employed to analyze the potential moderating effects of interest.FindingsThere were interactive effects of principals' distributed leadership and school contextual factors on teachers' adoption of leadership roles. The impact of principals' distributed leadership on teacher leadership was amplified in environments marked by elevated levels of trust relations and reduced academic emphasis.Practical implicationsThis study uncovers the critical prerequisites principals must address to cultivate teacher leadership. To effectively encourage heightened teacher engagement in leadership, principals must place a premium on nurturing trusting relations with their teaching staff and acknowledge that the influence of their leadership might be lessened in an environment where credentialism holds sway.Originality/valueThe exploration into faculty trust and academic emphasis yields insights into the conducive conditions for principals to foster teacher leadership. The identified attenuating impact of academic emphasis on principal effect within an Asian societal context highlights its significance not only as an organizational property but also as a manifestation of national cultural values.

The Role of School Context Factors for Gender Role Attitudes: General and Differential Associations Between Female and Male Adolescents

During adolescence, socialization of gender role attitudes (GRA) shifts from parents to peers, friends, and classmates; thus, it takes place primarily in the school context. Accordingly, previous studies identified school-related factors associated to adolescents’ GRA. However, little is known about the relative importance of these factors as well as about the factors’ differences between females’ and males’ GRA. This study investigates the relevance of several school factors on adolescents’ GRA and gender differences. Using data from the German National Educational Panel Study ( N = 10,866), the results show that attending a higher educational school type, higher classmates’ socio-economic background, lower proportion of female classmates, and more egalitarian classmates’ GRA are related to more individual egalitarian GRA. Furthermore, the relation between classmates’ GRA and individual GRA is more pronounced for males than females. The study further discusses starting points for possible interventions.

School type and oral conditions associated with school performance and absenteeism in adolescents: A multilevel analysis.

Investigations assessing how oral health status affects school performance and attendance considering individual and community variables are lacking. To analyze the association of school contextual factors and oral conditions with school performance and absenteeism in early adolescence. This cross-sectional study was carried out with 593 12-year-old students from 20 schools in Passo Fundo, a southern city in Brazil. The caregivers provided sociodemographic information by means of a questionnaire. Oral health status was clinically examined for dental caries and gingival bleeding. Students answered the CPQ11-14 questionnaire to assess the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). Information on contextual factors was obtained from the schools' administrators. "School performance" was measured by Portuguese and Mathematic tests' scores, and "school absenteeism" by the number of school days missed. Descriptive statistics was conducted, followed by unadjusted and adjusted multilevel linear regression. At the individual level, low OHRQoL was associated with lower school performance and higher absenteeism. At the contextual level, students from private schools had higher school performance and lower mean of school days missed. The type of school and OHRQoL were associated with school performance and attendance of adolescents.

Factors influencing students' attitudes toward bullying: A multilevel analysis from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taipei

AbstractThe present study investigated how students' attitudes toward bullying were influenced simultaneously by personal and contextual factors in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Participants included 25,338 students (15‐year‐olds, from grade 7 to 12) and 663 schools from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taipei drawn from the Program for International Student Assessment 2018. Multilevel structural equation modeling with Bayesian estimation was conducted for data analysis. The results showed that, for personal factors, girls had stronger anti‐bullying attitudes than boys in each sample. Resilience and self‐efficacy predicted students' anti‐bullying attitudes positively and significantly in all three regions. For family contextual factors, parents' emotional support had positive effects on students' attitudes toward bullying in three regions. For school contextual factors, there was no consistent result among the three regions. School location and school belonging were positive predictors of students' anti‐bullying attitudes in Mainland China. By contrast, class size and student behavior hindering learning negatively correlated with students' anti‐bullying attitudes in Hong Kong. In Taipei, students in public schools were more likely to form anti‐bullying attitudes, and a positive association was found between the student–teacher ratio and students' attitudes toward bullying. Distinguishing the commonalities and differences in the factors influencing students' attitudes toward bullying in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taipei provides empirical evidence to understand school bullying prevention and control mechanism.

How School and Home Contexts Impact the School Adjustment of Adolescents from Different Ethnic and SES Backgrounds During COVID-19 School Closures

Many schools worldwide closed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, the consequences of school closures for the school adjustment of adolescents from different ethnic and SES backgrounds remain unclear. This study examined how school adjustment changed before, during, and after school closure across adolescents from different ethnic and SES backgrounds; and which factors in home and school contexts served as resources. Early adolescents (N = 124, Mage = 12.86, 58.8% boys) from different ethnic and SES backgrounds were repeatedly assessed 1 week before (March 2020), during (June 2020), and 1 year after (February 2021) the first school closure in Belgium. The results revealed that school closure augmented ethnicity- and SES-based inequalities in school adjustment. Moreover, factors in the school context—and not the home context—served as resources. Specifically, the quality of online instruction and teacher-pupil relationships buffered against reduced school adjustment during school closure, particularly among youth from ethnic minority and lower SES backgrounds. The findings corroborate unequal school adjustment consequences of school closures, but also highlight the role of teachers to buffer against them. The study design, hypotheses, and analyses were preregistered in the following link: https://osf.io/6ygcu/?view_only=c77cfb46028447bdb7844cd2c76237aa.

In Which Schools Does Police Presence Most Exacerbate Racial Differentials in Arrest?

This study looks at racial disproportionalities in student arrests, particularly with school police presence. This study extends Homer and Fisher’s (2020) work, which finds higher arrest rates and stronger effects of police presence for Black than White students across schools, by investigating school racial compositions and context factors that are associated with the strongest relationships between police presence and higher arrest rates of Black than White students. Results show the largest within-school arrest rate differences between Black and White students in high schools with officers and that schools with lower Black student enrollment percentages show larger Black-White student arrest gaps.

Longitudinal association of homonegative school climate with body dysmorphic disorder among cisgender sexual minority adolescents: Testing mediation through proximal minority stressors

In a US national cohort study of cisgender sexual minority adolescents (SMAs), we prospectively (1) assessed whether within-person changes in homonegative school climate (i.e., school contextual factors that lead SMAs to feel unsafe or threatened) were associated with risk of probable body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and (2) tested whether internalized homonegativity and negative expectancies mediated this association. Data came from consecutive time points (18-month, 24-month, 30-month) of the Adolescent Stress Experiences over Time Study (ASETS; N = 758). The Body Dysmorphic Disorder Questionnaire measured probable BDD. Sexual Minority Adolescent Stress Inventory subscales measured past 30-day minority stress experiences. Multilevel models were specified with person mean-centered predictor variables to capture within-person effects. Across one year of follow-up, 26.86% screened positive for probable BDD at least once. Model results indicated significant total (risk ratio [RR]=1.43, 95% credible interval [CI]=1.35–1.52) and direct effects (RR=1.18, 95% CI=1.05–1.34) of homonegative school climate. Internalized homonegativity was independently associated with probable BDD (RR=1.28, 95% CI=1.12–1.46) and mediated 49.7% (95% CI=12.4–82.0) of the total effect. There was limited evidence of mediation via negative expectancies. Implementing SMA-protective school policies and targeting internalized homonegativity in clinical practice may reduce the prevalence and incidence of probable BDD among cisgender SMAs.

중학생의 수학 학업 저성취 영향요인 분석

Objectives The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting the low mathematical achievement of middle school students and to derive effective implications for the basic academic achievement guarantee policy.
 Methods This study used the 4th to 6th data of the 4th-grade panel of the Gyeonggi Education Longitudinal Study (GEPS). For 5,376 middle school students, we specified a hybrid model that combines both fixed and random effect. The low achievement level represents the lowest 20% in the group. Since this is a binary variable, the panel logit model was applied. Based on previous research, personal characteristics, family background, and school context factors were put as independent variables.
 Results Among the intra-individual effects, the changes in academic amotivation and math class attitude showed significant influence on the possibility of low achievement in math. Among the inter-individual effects, variables such as expected level of education, the degree of smart devices usage for learning and non-learning, family income level and parents' educational background, private tutoring in mathematics, attitude in mathematics class had a significant effect on the possibility of low performance in mathematics. In addition, discriminatory atmosphere based on school achievement, participation in after-school classes, and location of school are identified as significant influencing factors.
 Conclusions Focusing on the variables that had a significant influence on the possibility of low achievement in mathematics, suggestions were made on the effective educational intervention, and on the policy such as the 『Comprehensive Plan for Guaranteeing Basic Academic Achievement』.

Association between School Contexts and the Development of Subjective Well-Being during Adolescence: A Context-Sensitive Longitudinal Study of Life Satisfaction and School Satisfaction

The transition to secondary school may negatively impact adolescents’ psychosocial and subjective well-being development. However, how subjective well-being develops during secondary school and how school contextual factors, including aspects of ability grouping and achievement composition, are associated with the development of subjective well-being still require clarification. This study examined two measures of subjective well-being, life satisfaction and school satisfaction, to investigate the development of subjective well-being during secondary school. Moreover, school context variations in the form of school tracks and school-level achievement were analyzed to examine the extent to which ability grouping and achievement composition were associated with the development of subjective well-being. A large-scale longitudinal German dataset with four measurement points from grades 6 to 10 was analyzed (Time 1: N = 1,841; Mage = 12.20, SD = 0.81; 48.4% female; 45.3% immigrant students). The latent growth model revealed that life satisfaction and school satisfaction decreased statistically significantly during secondary school, yet school satisfaction showed a temporary increase between the end of primary school and right after the transition to secondary school. School tracks did not statistically significantly predict the magnitude of the decline in life satisfaction or school satisfaction. Only school-level achievement composition significantly negatively predicted the decline in life satisfaction, suggesting that students in schools with higher levels of achievement composition had a greater decrease in life satisfaction than their counterparts in schools with lower levels of achievement composition. Taken together, these findings contribute to the knowledge of how life and school satisfaction develop during secondary school and the long-term associations between subjective well-being and school context factors.

‘Between think big and hit hard’ exploring the role of teacher agency in becoming action researchers: the Egyptian context

ABSTRACT The study examined how teacher agency is manifested in Egyptian schools, how action research is perceived, and to what extent school contextual factors support or restrict teachers’ agency to become action researchers. Interviews with 40 teachers from schools in northern and southern Egypt were conducted and analysed using the thematic analysis approach. Data were coded to build theoretical themes that describe Egyptian teachers’ agency for action research. The study uses the ecological framework for teacher agency and the context of professional learning as conceptual tools to gain insight into teacher agency for action research. Results showed that teacher agency is defined in terms of teacher activeness rather than teacher critical discourse; teachers exercise agency as either internalizing or externalizing; teachers have a restricted agency for action research, action research is dependent on the teacher’s identity commitment; teachers exercise adaptive agency in a dispirited school context; and, finally, that schools lack the collective agency for action research.

Predicting the Presence of Active Schools: A National Survey of School Principals in the United States.

Principals are key to the promotion of physical activity (PA) in schools. The purpose of this study was to understand how school principals' PA values, behaviors, and individual and school characteristics were associated with the presence of an active school. A representative sample of 1019 school principals in the United States was surveyed. Survey items addressed principals' values and behaviors associated with PA, individual and school demographic factors, such as years of experience and school level, and a single item asking whether principals perceived their school to be an active school (ie,provides students with opportunities to be physically active before, during, and after the school day). Significant variables from a cross-tabulation and chi-square analysis were added to a hierarchical logistic regression model to assess the predictive properties of principal values and behaviors as they relate to the presence of an active school. Approximately half of principals (47%) reported having an active school. The model significantly predicted the presence of an active school but accounted for only 6.6% of the total variance. Although values toward PA and more frequent personal PA behaviors were associated with the presence of an active school within the cross-tabulation and chi-square analysis, neither variable emerged as a significant predictor in the regression model. Principals' personal PA values and behaviors contribute to the presence of an active school, but other variables, including years of experience and school contextual factors, are more powerful predictors.

Implementation Reporting Recommendations for School-Based Mindfulness Programs

ObjectivesResearch on school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) indicates promising, albeit mixed, effects. However, there has been a lack of consistency and completeness in implementation reporting, frustrating efforts to draw causal inferences about the implementation elements that influence program outcomes. To address these issues, we crafted a conceptual framework with an accompanying set of key terms for SBMP implementation elements to guide the development of flexible and practical implementation reporting recommendations for studies of SBMPs.MethodsTo develop the framework and recommendations, we drew insights from the implementation science and school-based prevention literature, explored reporting standards across behavioral science fields, and examined reviews and studies of SBMPs that had an implementation focus.ResultsThe SBMP Implementation Framework (SBMP-IF) is organized by four broad categories (i.e., the program, participants, context, and implementation), which inform the reporting recommendations. The recommendations nudge researchers toward more complete and consistent reporting of school contextual factors, participant characteristics and responsiveness, and teacher training/competence. They also encourage researchers to explicitly identify and incorporate into their theories of change and measurement strategies the Hypothesized and/or Validated Core Components of the program, as well as the key elements of the Implementation Support System. Finally, the recommendations urge researchers to define and operationalize mindfulness in their theories of change and consider child development when implementing and studying SBMPs.ConclusionsThe recommendations offered are novel for the field of SBMPs and represent a bold effort to strengthen the evidence base and help discern for whom SBMPs work best and under which conditions.