There have been numerous scientific studies with Yoga and students of all ages, lifestyles, genders! and of course physical and mental stages. One of the more profound studies conducted by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, was a study on the impact of Yoga on junior and senior high school students. Half of the students attended a non intensive 10 week Yoga course while the second half attended standard exercise classes. The Yoga classes included physical yoga postures, breathing and relaxation exercises.
At the start of the course the students took a series of psychological tests which included analysis of anger, expression, anxiety, resilience, mindfulness and mood. The researchers repeated the psych tests at the conclusion of the course and found that the teens who attended the Yoga course had an improved scoring on most areas and reported much fewer negative thoughts or emotions and an improved ability to cope with stress. This contrasted with the control group who showed no improvement or a slight negative scoring.
A further study published in the Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research, showed when investigators examined the benefits of a Yoga program on adolescent mental health and performance, that the intervention significantly improved resilience, fatigue/inertia, anger control and positively impacted scoring.