Effectiveness of Universal Self-regulation-Based Interventions in Children and Adolescents

49 studies covering 50 interventions (17 cluster randomised trials, 32 randomised trials), 23,098 participants aged 2-17 (median age 6.0)

Children and adolescents aged 2-17, international.

The most favourable synthesis of self-regulation interventions and therefore the steelman for the whole subject. Its critical limitation for this archive is that it does NOT separate active from passive controls, which the mindfulness literature shows is the single most important moderator - so its estimate should be read as an upper bound rather than a best estimate.

Pooled effect on self-regulation task performance d = 0.42 (95% CI 0.32 to 0.53). By intervention type, 16 of 21 curriculum-based interventions were positive (76%), 4 of 8 mindfulness or yoga (50%), 5 of 9 family-based (56%), 4 of 6 exercise (67%) and 4 of 6 social or personal skills (67%). Distal outcomes were reported by only 24 of the 49 studies, of which 11 of 13 were positive on academic achievement.

Low - randomised trials only.

Unreplicated as a synthesis. Its headline of 0.42 is roughly what the mindfulness literature reports against PASSIVE controls (0.35) and roughly ten times what it reports against active ones (0.04), which is the most likely explanation of the gap.