Can Breathwork Help Young People Feel More Connected?

Belonging is more than something that is simply nice to have. During adolescence, feeling accepted and connected can shape how a young person experiences school, friendship, identity and the difficult work of becoming themselves.

As a parent, I find myself returning to a simple question: what helps a young person feel that they are not carrying life alone?

For teenagers who have lived through significant adversity, connection may be especially important—and especially difficult to experience. A 2026 study asked a hopeful question: could learning about emotions, together with regular breathing practices, help adolescent girls who had experienced higher levels of childhood adversity feel a stronger sense of belonging?

The study offers an encouraging finding. It also calls for care in how that finding is understood.

A few terms in everyday language

Social connectedness means feeling close to, accepted by and supported by other people.

Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are difficult or potentially traumatic experiences during childhood that may affect later wellbeing.

Social-emotional learning helps young people develop awareness of emotions, relationships and constructive ways of responding.

Autonomic regulation is the body’s ongoing way of responding and adjusting to what is happening around us. We may feel activated, alert, settled or somewhere in between. Breathing practices may support some of these shifts, but breath is only one part of what helps a person feel safe, steady or connected.

Who took part?

The researchers followed 174 Latina adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age. All attended one of two high schools in Southern California.

The participants reported on difficult experiences they had faced during childhood. For the analysis, the researchers looked separately at those reporting fewer than four ACEs and those reporting four or more.

That context matters. These students’ experiences may teach us something meaningful without allowing us to assume that every young person would experience the program in the same way.

What did the students do?

Some students took part in the four-week SKY Schools program, which combined social-emotional learning with breathing practices. They then continued daily breathwork for another eight weeks.

The comparison students continued their usual physical-education classes. Everyone completed a questionnaire about social connectedness before the program, after the four-week program and again following the eight weeks of daily practice.

Because the program combined emotional learning and breathwork, the study cannot tell us what breathwork would have done on its own.

What changed?

The clearest improvement appeared among the participants who had reported four or more adverse childhood experiences. After the program and daily-breathwork period, their average social-connectedness score was 7% higher than it had been at the beginning.

Across the four groups, the reported changes from baseline were:

• 7% increase: four or more ACEs and the SKY Schools program
• 3% decrease: four or more ACEs and usual classes
• 3% decrease: fewer than four ACEs and the SKY Schools program
• 3% increase: fewer than four ACEs and usual classes

The researchers reported that the overall pattern of differences across the groups was statistically significant. In everyday language, the pattern was strong enough to deserve attention within this study. It still does not tell us that the effect was large, that the program caused the change or that another group of students would experience the same result.

Still, the pattern is worth noticing. The participants reporting the greatest childhood adversity were the group for whom taking part in the combined program was associated with feeling more socially connected over time.

Why this finding is interesting

We often talk about belonging as though it depends entirely on finding the right friends or joining the right group. But connection is more than being surrounded by people. It also involves feeling safe enough to be present, accepted and known. This study invites us to consider what may be happening within a young person when a social situation feels uncertain, stressful or unsafe.

Young people may need both opportunities to connect and enough inner steadiness to remain present for those opportunities.

The program did not use breathwork by itself. It paired breathing practices with learning about emotions and relationships. That combination may matter. Sometimes a young person needs language for what they are experiencing. Sometimes they need a practical way to pause, breathe and notice what is happening within them. Often, they may need both.

At the same time, regulation should never become another demand placed on a young person—as though they must simply learn to remain calm within an environment that is excluding, overwhelming or unsafe. A breathing practice cannot replace trustworthy adults, inclusive communities, appropriate care or meaningful changes to harmful circumstances.

What do we still not know?

What is encouraging

• The researchers checked in with the students at several points rather than only once.
• The study paid particular attention to girls who had experienced higher levels of childhood adversity.
• It measured something meaningful: whether the students themselves felt connected.

What remains uncertain

• All participants were Latina adolescents from only two schools, so the result may not apply in the same way to other young people.
• Because the program combined social-emotional learning and breathwork, we cannot tell which element—or combination of elements—contributed to the change.
• A questionnaire can tell us how connected someone feels, but it cannot capture everything about the quality, safety or reciprocity of their relationships.
• The study shows a promising association over time; it does not establish that breathwork alone caused the improvement.

One study can open a worthwhile question. It cannot close it.

Reading this through a parent’s lens

As a parent, I find the study hopeful not because it offers a quick solution, but because it broadens the kinds of support we might imagine for young people.

Adolescents do not always need more advice. Sometimes they need a little breathing room. They need safe, welcoming environments where they can take part without having to perform, begin to understand what they are feeling and discover practical ways to return to themselves when connection feels difficult.

This perspective also protects us from placing the entire responsibility for belonging on the child. Connection is shaped by the young person, their body and nervous system, their relationships and the environments adults help create around them.

Breathwork may be one supportive element within a larger approach that includes emotional literacy, trustworthy relationships, inclusive school environments and appropriate mental-health care when needed.

Questions worth carrying forward

How might schools make emotional regulation and belonging part of everyday education rather than waiting until a young person is already struggling?

How can adults offer regulation practices without implying that children must calmly adapt to unsafe or exclusionary environments?

And how might we evaluate not only whether young people are coping, but whether they genuinely feel seen, included and connected?

Perhaps the question is not only, “How do we help young people manage difficult feelings?”

It is also, “How do we help them experience that they do not have to carry those feelings alone?”

This educational reflection summarizes one study. It is not clinical advice, an assessment of any young person or a recommendation of a particular intervention. Young people experiencing significant distress should receive individualized support from an appropriately qualified professional.

Transparency note: Diljeet K. Jandu is an Art of Living breathwork and meditation instructor. This reflection is offered as an educational review of the published study, not as an independent clinical recommendation.

Written and reflected upon by Diljeet K. Jandu