ATTENTION TO THE BODY AND MOVEMENT IN TRAINING OF EDUCATORS 0-6: FIRST RESULTS OF AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Abstract

This paper shows the first results of an experimental study on a sample of 57 students of the Course in Education and Training Sciences (L-19) – Early Childhood Educator curriculum. After having detected an important training need regarding emotional skills (recognition and management of emotions), stress management (generalized anxiety) and psycho-physical awareness (of one's body and physiological responses), it was decided to include in teaching activities workshops (by Ministerial Decree 378 of 9.5.2018) an integrative path consisting of mind-body meditative practices, in particular meditation and yoga, which affect the structure of our brain and bring benefits to different functions, including the emotion management, as stated by the scientific literature. The protocol was structured in 9 meetings of 1.5 hours each, including the practice of mindful meditation on the breath, the practice of body scan and some standing yoga positions (asanas). Between one session and the next, exercises of conscious attention to breathing and daily actions were assigned. The variables detected to measure the effectiveness of the intervention were: social anxiety in the last 7 days (Fossati et al., 2015; items 1, 2, 4, 5, closely related to the somatic aspects of anxiety), perceived self-efficacy (Farnese et al., 2007), Self-Compassion (Veneziani et al., 2017). The first results show that the practices of attention to the breath and to one's body seem to have positive effects on the physiological somatization of anxiety and on some aspects of the perceived level of self-efficacy.