Making Mindfulness Matter with Arabic Speaking Families: A Process Evaluation Study
Abstract
Arabic-speaking refugees experience a significant amount of trauma in their pre-and post-migration journey in Canada, which can negatively impact their well-being. Mindfulness programs have demonstrated wide-ranging benefits for children and youth, but there is a gap in the literature on providing culturally based mindfulness programs to refugee families. The present study conducted a process evaluation for the culturally adapted version of the Making Mindfulness Matter (M3) program (an 8-week concurrent parent and children mindfulness intervention), to assess program successes and challenges with families. Three groups were run, and a total of nine families recruited from the Muslim Resources Centre for Social Support and Integration participated. Parents (n=8) and children (n=9) completed the weekly feedback survey on program activities and completed a mindfulness knowledge questionnaire at the beginning and end of the program. Researchers documented curriculum activities completed each week, and a focus group was conducted with mindfulness program facilitators (n=4) to understand barriers to delivering the M3 program. A thematic analysis was conducted for parents’ and facilitators’ feedback. Children (n=9) had a significant increase in their awareness of mindfulness concepts. The parents’ mean comparison score on the mindfulness survey between before and after the program showed no significant difference; however, scores were moving in the right direction. Preliminary results indicated that the implementation of the M3 program was a success with notable challenges in the practicality of online programming.