We are delighted to share with you the publication of our research paper on MARS-A, Mindful Awareness and Resilience Skills for Adolescents. MARS-A is an 8-session training program for adolescents with psychological distress, with or without co-occurring chronic health conditions and/or chronic pain. MARS-A was developed by Dr. Dzung Vo and Dr. Jake Lock at BC Children’s Hospital in the early 2010’s, as a youth appropriate adaptation of adult mindfulness interventions such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. The research project involved many authors and collaborators from BC Children’s Hospital Adolescent Medicine, Psychiatry, Centre for Mindfulness, Research Institute, and University of British Columbia School of Social Work. 

The resultant paper, entitled “Mindful Awareness and Resilience Skills for Adolescents (MARS-A): A Mixed-Methods Study of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention for a Heterogeneous Adolescent Clinical Population,” was published in the International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health. It analyzes a sample of 45 adolescent participants in MARS-A. Outcomes were measured using quantitative measures and qualitative interviews. Participants in the group reported reduction in functional disability, psychological distress, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms, and increases in positive emotions. Some participants noted they were better able to cope with pain, for example one participant reported, that their “pain is always there but able to manage it a bit more,” while another reported that mindfulness helped them to “focus on different parts of the body and by the end [they] are not as worried about [their] pain even when it’s still there.” One participant said that learning mindfulness was like “another new brain was put into [their] mind – this practice had a huge impact on [their] life.”

Thanks to support from the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the Centre for Mindfulness, we are delighted to share that the paper is available open access (free of charge for readers) at: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ijamh-2023-0112/html

Vo DX, Tabi K, Bhullar M, Johnson A, Locke J, Wang S, Stewart SE, Marshall S. (2024). Mindful Awareness and Resilience Skills for Adolescents (MARS-A): A Mixed-Methods Study of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention for a Heterogeneous Adolescent Clinical Population. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health, 36(1), 25-35.