Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Program Name/Specialization

Developmental Psychology

Faculty/School

Faculty of Arts

First Advisor

Dr. Sybil Geldart

Advisor Role

Supervisor

Abstract

Grief and loss can significantly affect children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development, yet many existing interventions remain difficult to access due to stigma, cost, and limited cultural fit. Meditation has shown promise as a low-cost and adaptable strategy for supporting emotional regulation, but little is known about how children themselves perceive its usefulness in grief-related contexts. The present study explored children’s beliefs about the usefulness of spiritual meditation as a coping strategy across grief, interpersonal conflict, and positive emotional vignettes. Fourteen children between the ages of 8 and 13 participated in individual Zoom sessions in which they listened to three fictional vignettes and completed a brief SOS/Jyoti meditation practice. After each vignette, children rated how helpful meditation would be using a 3-point face expression scale and responded to structured open-ended questions. Open-ended responses were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify patterns in children’s beliefs about meditation’s emotional, cognitive, physical, social, and spiritual effects. Findings suggested that children viewed meditation as a flexible and context-sensitive coping strategy whose perceived purpose shifted depending on situational demands. In grief contexts, children most often described meditation as reducing sadness, supporting peaceful thinking, and maintaining symbolic connections with deceased loved ones. In conflict situations, meditation was commonly perceived as helping organize thoughts, calm emotions, and support relationship repair, while in positive contexts it was seen as regulating excitement and maintaining positive feelings. Children also described broader flexible coping repertoires beyond meditation, including social support, memory-based reflection, activity-based coping, and self-regulatory breaks. They also recognized perceived limits, barriers, and conditions about meditation’s usefulness. These findings suggested that children held nuanced beliefs about meditation as a multifunctional coping strategy and highlighted its potential developmental and cultural relevance for future grief-sensitive child interventions.

Convocation Year

2027

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