Effectiveness of mindfulness therapy among adolescent with conduct disorder in Jakarta, Indonesia

Background and objectives: The prevalence of adolescent conduct disorder (CD) among school in Jakarta is 26,1% leading to high incidence of student brawls. Up until now, there is no structured module for CD intervention that can be done by teacher, thus mindfulness therapy is used in scholl to reduce such incidence. The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness Learning of self-regulation in mindfulness therapy conducted by school counselor in mitigating their involvement in brawls and other forms of violence. Changes in behavior and cortisol level are used as indicators of success.

Method: subject was randomly assigned into treatment as usual (with school counselors) and into Mindfulness training by counselors supervised by a psychiatrist. Cortisol level was checked before and after treatment. Behavioral changes were reported trough a conduct disorder instrument developed for the study. Outcome data was analyzed using Chi-square, Odd Risk Ratio calculation, and the General Linear Model Repeated Measures.

Results and conclusion: 103 students completed the study (intervention n=53 control n=50) after 8 weeks, showing the effectiveness of Mindfulness therapy by NNT=2, RR=3,40 (2,04-5,65. The secondary results showed a decrease of anti-social behavior measured by TCD-AM and a significant decrease of serum cortisol level (p0,00) compared to the control group. Mindfulness therapy recommended to manage anti-social behavior in school. Learning of self-regulation in mindfulness therapy resulted in improvement of emotional and behavioral control among adolescent with conduct disorder. Mindfulness therapy can be conducted by school counselors after appropriate training. This study is limited among male adolescents with mild and moderate history of conduct disorder. Girls and the experienced severe conduct disorders were not included in study.