Do brief mindfulness training and attention training games improve self control in 6-10 year-old children adopted internationally?

INTERVENTION: A two‐wave stratified random sampling technique is used to assign participants into the mindfulness training group, executive function training group, or control group in a 1:1:1 multi‐arm parallel design. Mindfulness training (MT) group: Participants attend two hour‐long training sessions per week for six weeks in groups of seven to nine children with 2‐3 instructors, on a Midwest university campus, in addition to completing training‐related activities with their parents at home. The curriculum for this training involves learning mindfulness and relaxation practices adapted for children. These include brief, concrete exercises such as breathing activities, sensory awareness exercises, brief guided meditation sessions (1‐5 minutes, increasing in length over the course of the intervention), arousal modulation practice, and compassion activities. To maintain young children’s interest while building a foundation of skills in mindful awareness, the training curriculum includes both variety and repetition. The "homework" activities completed at home with parents mirror the progression of the training curriculum by beginning with reinforcing basic skills and ending with scaffolded use of those skills as regulation strategies. Executive function training (EF) group: Participants attend two hour‐long training sessions per week for six weeks in groups of seven to nine children with 2‐3 instructors, on a Midwest university campus, in addition to completing training‐related activities with their parents at home. The curriculum for this training involves child‐friendly attention, inhibitory control, and mental flexibility/imagination games. The small‐group, non‐computerized games involved paying attention, following instructions, inhibiting behaviors, and using the imagination (cognitive flexibility). The curriculum also includes “homework” activities and games that parents were instructed to complete with their children that offer additional practice on these skills, and met CONDITION: Self‐regulation ; Mental and Behavioural Disorders ; Self‐regulation PRIMARY OUTCOME: 1. Inhibitory control is measured using the Dinky Toys task at baseline and 1‐2 weeks post intervention; 2. Delay of gratification is measured using the Star Game at baseline and 1‐2 weeks post intervention; 3. Selective attention is measured using the Color Flanker Task at baseline and 1‐2 weeks post intervention; 4. Emotion regulation is measured by experimenter (blind to condition) rating of participant behavior over the course of the testing session at baseline and 1‐2 weeks post intervention; 5. Event‐related potentials measured by EEG during Color Flanker Task at baseline and 1‐2 weeks post intervention; 6. Child internalizing and externalizing symptoms measured using the MacArthur Health and Behavior Questionnaire at baseline and 1‐2 weeks post intervention; SECONDARY OUTCOME: 1. Emotional regulation and emotion lability are measured using the Emotion‐regulation Checklist (ERC) 4 months post intervention (rated by classroom teachers) ; 2. Emotional problems and hyperactivity/inattention problems are measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: (SDQ) 4 months post intervention (rated by classroom teachers) INCLUSION CRITERIA: 1. Internationally adopted 2. Aged between 6 and 10 years old at the start of the intervention 3. The family lives within a 50‐mile radius of the university campus where the study takes place