A pilot randomized trial teaching mindfulness-based stress reduction to traumatized youth in foster care

•Pilot RCT of youth in foster and kinship care in a mindfulness intervention.•Youth suffered early trauma and social-emotional problems.•Preliminary data suggests this exploratory work may benefit a younger subset of high-risk youth.•This challenging work requires close supervision by trained professionals when conducting groups of both males and females.

This article presents a pilot project implementing a mindfulness–based stress reduction program among traumatized youth in foster and kinship care over 10 weeks. Forty-two youth participated in this randomized controlled trial that used a mixed-methods (quantitative, qualitative, and physiologic) evaluation. Youth self-report measuring mental health problems, mindfulness, and stress were lower than anticipated, and the relatively short time-frame to teach these skills to traumatized youth may not have been sufficient to capture significant changes in stress as measured by electrocardiograms. Main themes from qualitative data included expressed competence in managing ongoing stress, enhanced self-awareness, and new strategies to manage stress. We share our experiences and recommendations for future research and practice, including focusing efforts on younger youth, and using community-based participatory research principles to promote engagement and co-learning.Clinicaltrials.govProtocol Registration System ID NCT01708291.