An evaluation of a meditation based curriculum developed to reduce anger, hostility, and egoism was be performed using incarcerated adults as participants. Previously, Vannoy and Hoyt (2004), pilot tested a new intervention delivered to incarcerated adult males. In the current study, the goal was three fold:
a) to replicate the previous findings, while improving the experiment; b) expand the focus to investigate the impact of the intervention on the anti-social construct of hostility and the pro-social construct of social-connectedness; and c) include female participants.
Results of this study indicate the intervention was effective at reducing anger in female participants.
Changes on other variables failed to reach statistical significance. We hypothesized that meditation participants would voluntarily continue to meditate, while participants in treatment as usual would not opt to voluntarily continue studying course material. Male participants in MBESH participated in after-care at a high rate (89%), and female participants in MBESH participated at a moderate rate (45%). The participation rate in after-care for both male and female treatment-as-usual participants was 0%.