Mindfulness Research – From KPU to Uganda

Kyle Matsuba joined KPU’s Psychology Department in 2009 where he teaches courses in the areas of Developmental Psychology and Applied Research. Kyle’s own research touches on diverse topics: the lives of at-risk children and the impact of intervention programs, the lives of environmental activists, and personality traits and how these intersect with the call to community service and volunteer work.  

In 2016, Kyle’s research in northern Uganda was recognized internationally when he received the Good Work Award by the Association for Moral Education. Kyle is currently the Principal Investigator of the Matsuba Applied Development (MAD) Lab, which creates opportunities for KPU Psychology students to engage directly with research.

You’ve pursued a number of multi-year research initiatives, including collaborations with KPU students. Could you reflect on what it has meant to work so closely with students in pursuing and publishing your research?  

I have been exceedingly fortunate to work with some amazing students in my career. Students ask great questions and push me to think more critically about what I study and how I study it. It’s gratifying to see former students in my lab move on to graduate school and then establish their own careers in and outside academia. 

For the past nine years, you have researched the therapeutic benefits of trauma-sensitive yoga for teachers in northern Uganda in the context of that country’s civil war.  You have also explored that war’s many impacts on Ugandan school children. How did you first become interested in Uganda and could you share more about these projects?

In 2012, my colleagues and I began exploring the benefits of mindfulness on children living in post-conflict northern Uganda. At the time, my colleague Dr. Theresa McElroy was completing her PhD at UBC studying children’s health and development in northern Uganda. After I visited her in Uganda in 2010, we decided to team up to see if there were intervention-type programs that we could implement in that country for children to help with their development. We consulted my friend and former UBC colleague Dr. Kim Schonert-Reichl, and she suggested that a mindfulness and social-emotional learning program called MindUP may be helpful. After reading the research on the program, I was sold. However, at the time, the program was focused primarily on kids, not teachers. So, in 2016 we extended our project to include teachers, this time using yoga as a way to help them deal with stress in their lives.

What have been some of the unexpected challenges or rewards of undertaking this international research in Uganda?

There were many challenges. Where do I begin? Corporeal punishment is common in schools. It was hard to watch teachers beat and shame students when our project began. However, with the implementation of the programs, the culture of the schools began to change.  There was a girl who would store a set of clothing outside the school grounds, and every day, she would put on these extra clothes under her school uniform before entering the school grounds. The clothes were to soften the blows she may receive that day. Keep in mind, sometimes the temperatures would climb to 40 degrees Celsius. It was a big relief to her when she no longer had to worry about getting beaten at school.

Finding external sources of funding can be a challenge, especially when applying to the highly competitive tri-council grants. You have been very successful in garnering a variety of supports, both internal and external.  Could you tell us more about the Goldie Hawn Foundation and the Mind & Life Institute – two organizations that have helped to facilitate your research?

Developing a program of research at KPU is hard work! I have been very fortunate in receiving a lot of support. Initially funding came from the former Office of Research and Scholarship at KPU, followed by the Office of the Provost. This seed money was sufficient to sustain the project until I could secure external funding.

The Goldie Hawn Foundation has been an important partner, particularly working with Dr. Molly Lawlor. The MindUP program we adapted and implemented was initially developed by the foundation. People associated with the foundation helped us to get trained in the original program.

The Mind & Life Institute was founded by the Dalai Lama and others. The Institute is interested in research that studies both the processes and benefits of contemplative practices. In addition to funding my work, this organization has been important in deepening my understanding of contemplative practices as well as connecting me to fellow researchers in the field.

“We are trying to provide kids with additional tools that they can add to their toolbox to help them better cope with our current uncertain times.”

Kyle Matsuba, Psychology Department

What advice would you offer to faculty who may be looking for ways of funding and supporting their research, scholarship, and creative initiatives?

I suggest people collaborate. Having partners helped with all aspects of the research process. The continual feedback on grants, research designs, study implementation, publications, etc., is enormously helpful. Working with partners also helps in finding more funding opportunities through our respective institutions and academic networks.  However, pick your partners wisely! On a few occasions, I’ve been stuck with the vast majority of work wondering what happened to my partners. Those partners are no longer partners!

Over this past year, has Covid negatively impacted your research or sparked new research questions?  Your research into mental health and meditative practices is likely needed now more than ever in the wake in the pandemic?

COVID has made my work more challenging. I continue to work with the Goldie Hawn Foundation in program development for kids in a school context. However, accessing kids in schools is challenging, and so we are biding our time until we return to the new normal.

COVID has seemed to underscore the need for people to develop skills to better manage stress and anxiety. Contemplative practices are one set of practices that may help. We are trying to provide kids with additional tools that they can add to their toolbox to help them better cope with our current uncertain times. 

A colleague of mine, Pam King, at the Thrive Center for Human Development based at Fuller School of Psychology has a great resource page, which includes a mindful breathing exercise for parents and children.

Resources

What ideas have you filed in your “Research Dreams for the Future” folder when you contemplate the months or years ahead?

One research project that we are developing involves working with cultural communities to co-create a mindfulness program for kids. Rather than culturally adapt an existing program as we have done in the past, we are interested in co-creating mindfulness programs with other communities that meet the needs of those specific communities.

On your website, you mention that you have been studying the “life stories of adults.”  If you had to describe the overarching narrative of your own research, what would that story impart?

My work focuses on mindfulness and kids, and there are research streams I continue to follow including narrative psychology and how life meaning is captured in the stories we tell. As for my own overarching research narrative, I don’t have one… at least not that I am aware of! There is a prosocial, communal theme to my work. I care about others and our world, and I hope my work increases the positivity in the world.  

To learn more about Kyle Matsuba’s research, please visit the Matsuba Applied Development (MAD) Lab. Over the years, Kyle has supervised and mentored numerous KPU undergraduate students majoring in Psychology. These collaborations have resulted in journal publications, such as the environmental psychology article that he co-authored with KPU alumna and former Honour’s thesis supervisee Andrea Mah, who is now pursuing graduate work in the United States.