It is becoming increasingly common for frontline clinicians to see children and teenagers
struggle with their mental health. Since mental health issues have increased over the past
ten years in the UK, they are now the leading cause of disability and cost the British
economy £105 billion annually. The review discusses the evidence base underpinning the
effect of yoga on children’s mental health and summarises the results of 21 research
papers. The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsycINFO, ERIC, Web
of Science, PubMed, Medline and Cochrane Library were searched through Ovid from January
2008 until May 2022. The keywords 'yoga OR mindfulness – AND school AND children OR child
OR youth OR adolescent' were used. The search was limited to studies in the English
language. The quality of each study was rated against Version 2 of the Cochrane
risk-of-bias tool for randomised control trials and a set of inclusion and exclusion
criteria. The evidence for yoga therapies in children is encouraging, although studies
include methodological flaws such as small sample sizes and sparse information on
interventions. This review has highlighted that yoga interventions may be implemented in
schools as a preventative and therapeutic measure for mental health issues.