Our Research Initiatives

MA Dissertations

We work with a range of universities and research organisations to support Masters students working on dissertations related to yoga for young people such as the the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families which works with UCL in a series of psychology and mental health related postgraduate study programmes

Hippocampus

This EU funded project developed a programme for disadvantaged youth and piloted it in 5 countries with 750 people. We researched the degree to which the programme improved well-being among the participants

Ready

The READY project brings together our experience in yoga-based practices, and experiences with restorative practice in Dublin to design a new programme for youth workers that helps them make young people “ready ” for youth work sessions, through calming and grounding, thus making the session itself more effective

Yoga Girls Can

This was a Sport England innovation programme which aimed to bring yoga to young women not involved in physical activity. We explored the success of the programme and brought more than 700 young women into the practice of yoga over 6 months.

Yoga4Schools

This was a collaboration with Westminster University, a PhD student explored the relative success of yoga and mindfulness in a faith school in West London. We helped to develop the programme she used

Project: Ready

Name of Project: Ready

Date Project Started: 2023

Project Status: Ongoing

Collaborations: NEXUS Research (IE), Belvedere Youth Club (IE), Tornstromska School (SE), Young Souls (SE), Ad Astra (SI)

Funding: EU Erasmus

Short Summary: The READY project brings together our experience in yoga-based practices, and experiences with restorative practice in Dublin to design a new programme for youth workers that helps them make young people “ready ” for youth work sessions, through calming and grounding, thus making the session itself more effective. Teen Yoga staff are working with Nexus and Young Souls in this project, which finalises at the end of 2025.

Aims / Goals: To contribute to the body of evidence around yoga for young people and provide a new programme for youth workers using yoga-based technqiues

Outcomes / Results / Downloads / Relevant Links: Pending

Project: MA dissertation

Name of Project: MA dissertations

Date Project Started: 2017

Project Status: Ongoing

Collaborations: Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, University College London, Leeds University

Funding: MA dissertations

Short Summary: The Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families works with UCL in a series of psychology and mental health related postgraduate study programmes, in which students have to complete a dissertation. Researching yoga for young people is one of the options in their catalogue of suggestions and Teen Yoga supports the students who choose this option, advising them on the nature of the study and helping them to find an appropriate context such as a school in which to carry out the research. Previously we supported a Leeds University student in a similar way.

Aims / Goals: To contribute to the body of evidence around yoga for young people

Outcomes / Results / Downloads / Relevant Links: Links to each paper: Pippa Jackson, Abigail Foster, Amy Morgan

Project: Hippocampus

Dates: Dec 2017 – Finalised Nov 2019
Collaborations: University of Salamanca (ES), Oxfam (IT), Youth for Exchange and Understanding (BE), Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Funding: Erasmus Plus

Summary

The HIPPOCAMPUS Programme was developed in a 26 month project funded by the EU Erasmus + programme, involving 5 countries (Norway, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the UK). It introduces yoga-based practices in youth contexts such as schools and youth associations. The programme focuses on improving the well-being of young people, especially disadvantaged young people, through the practice of yoga-based techniques.

It consists of:

A 5 day training course for yoga teachers to learn to deliver the programme
A comprehensive manual with resources for teachers and students
A programme focused on school teachers or youth workers
A programme focused on young people This programme was implemented in pilots across the five participating countries in a variety of contexts reaching over more than 750 young people and staff and evaluated to assess its success.

Aims / Goals

The aim of the HIPPOCAMPUS project was to develop and implement an appropriate yoga-based approach to bring the benefits of yoga to young people in situations of disadvantage.

Outcomes / Results

Quantitative results

The numbers of respondents to the questionnaires were 72 staff and 260 young people. Though there was substantial attrition, these numbers are still well above previous sample sizes in most Europe/US yoga research. For both staff and young people there was a statistically significant • improvement in wellbeing • reduction in perceived stress • reduction in sleep related problems. Effect sizes were moderate. As regards salient items, clarity of thinking, optimism, confidence, calmness and energy all increased, while nervousness and stress, anger and a sense of overload due to lack of control were all reduced. There was improvement in sleep quality and reduced sleep related problems.

Social impact

Using recent work by Fujiwara et al. (not peer-reviewed) the value of the yoga intervention was calculated to be £476 (staff) and £899 (young person) per annum respectively. This means that a conservative estimate of total social impact would be £34k for staff and £234k for young people which is higher than the total funding for the project.

Qualitative results

The shared themes that emerged in the interviews were that participants felt more calm and relaxed due to the yoga, had increased focus and concentration, increased awareness of body breath and self, they also felt more flexible and noted other physical benefits. There were indications of better emotional self-regulation and a general sense of positivity about the programme and a desire to integrate the benefits more into their lives.

Conclusions

The results of this research show the benefits of this yoga-based programme for young people and staff in youth contexts such as schools. These solid results achieved in diverse contexts point to the relevance of yoga as a tool for mental wellbeing. This work provides evidence that can be taken into consideration by teachers, school managers, policy makers and the research community to justify further work and wider adoption of yoga.

Downloads

Executive Summary available

Links

hippocampusproject.eu

Project: Teen Yoga Ambassadors

Name of Project: Teen Yoga Ambassadors

Date Project Started: 2020

Project Status: Ongoing

Collaborations: College of Medicine

Funding:

Short Summary: Teen Yoga Ambassadors is a training program for young people who are especially committed to yoga. It develops their capacity to bring their peers into yoga effectively. The program has three levels and focuses on a range of aspects such as teaching yoga, understanding yoga and self-care.

Aims / Goals: The aim of the Teen Yoga Ambassadors programme is to leverage the value of peer recommendations and influence in attracting young people to yoga, providing opportunities for young people to teach each other yoga

Outcomes / Results / Downloads / Relevant Links: After three courses results are positive. More details to follow. Link to Ambassadors page

Project: Yoga Girls Can

Name of Project: Yoga Girls Can

Date Project Started: 2015

Project Status: Finished 2016

Collaborations: WESPORT

Funding: Sport for England Innovation Fund

Short Summary: The project took a large pink yurt to a number of university campuses in the West of England for a week/two weeks at a time to give young women the chance to try out yoga. The idea was that bringing the yoga to them rather than waiting for them to visit a yoga centre could increase their participation.

Aims / Goals: Aligned with the This Girl Can campaign which aimed to bring more young women into physical activity, the aim was to introduce young women to yoga. The criterion used was for each participant to have completed six sessions, at which point Sport England considers them to have been introduced to the activity, given their voluntary repetition of the activity over a number of sessions.

Outcomes / Results: Downloads / Relevant Links: Over the course of the project 750 young women completed more than six sessions