Effects of yoga practices on adolescents' mental health: an integrative review

Objective: To analyze the effects of yoga practices on the mental health of adolescents. Methods: An integrative review was carried out in January 2022 based on the research question: What are the effects of yoga practices and programs in improving adolescents' mental health indicators? Searches were carried out on OneFile, Scopus, MEDLINE/PubMed, Science Citation Index Expanded, PubMed Central, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Sage Journals databases using the descriptors yoga or ioga in the title and adolescent or teenager as an extended term. This process yielded 183 articles, with 34 of them being eligible for full text reading and 11 meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: All articles were published in English, conducted in the United States of America or India, including three randomized clinical trials and three quasi-experimental studies, and published between 2012 and 2021. Hatha Yoga was the main modality applied and the synthesis of evidence showed that yoga can reduce anxiety traits and attitudes of aggression in adolescents, act on the control of anger and violence, favor emotional states and feelings, such as happiness, humor, self-esteem, self-control, well-being, and dimensions of quality of life. Conclusions: The effects of yoga on the mental and emotional health of adolescents were related to the reduction of anxiety and attitudes of aggression or violence and improvements in the development of emotional competences with feelings of happiness, humor, selfesteem, self-control, well-being, quality of life, and control of emotions and behaviors.