Table 1 Study measures

Socio-demographic information

Educator: age, number of years as an early childhood educator

Parent: family composition, parental education and age, language spoken at home, child age

 User experience

Study-designed questions assessing use of the program, best and worst aspects of the program, continued use of the program, recommendation of the program to others

 Evaluation of implementation

Study-designed questions assessing usefulness of the program, implementation of the program, barriers to using the program, fidelity to the program, quality of training in the program, comments about the program

 Fidelity

Study-designed questions assessing daily implementation of activities undertaken by educators

 Knowledge and use of mindfulness theory and techniques

Study-designed questions assessing previous/current training in and use of mindfulness, techniques, length of time, and frequency that they have used mindfulness techniques

 Class climate/teacher-student relationships

Adapted version of the Student–Teacher Relationship Scale short (STRS) [38, 39]: 15-item validated scale designed to assess the individual teacher-student relationship, but adapted for use with whole class (α > .80).

 Dispositional mindfulness

Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-revised (CAM-R) [40]: 12-item validated scale measuring the tendency for the respondent to be mindful in daily life, including four components of mindfulness (attention, present-focus, awareness, and acceptance). Higher scores indicate a more mindful disposition.

 Subjective wellbeing

3 items used by Smiling Mind to assess self-reported wellbeing of adults using the SM app/website [41]: Please indicate how each of the following describes your feelings when you think about your life in general? (0 = not at all, 10 = extremely)

• How happy do you generally feel?

• How content do you generally feel?

• How alert do you generally feel?

 Child social/emotional behaviour

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [42]: 25-item validated measure assessing child’s socio-emotional behaviour, including 5 scales: hyperactivity/inattention, conduct problems, emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behaviour (α = .73).

 Child irritability

Affective Reactivity Index [43]: 6-item validated measure assessing child irritability behaviours (e.g. the child gets angry frequently), responses range from 0 (not true) to 2 (certainly true) (α > .80).

 Child sleepiness

Selected item from the Paediatric Sleep Questionnaire [44]: Does your/this child have a problem with sleepiness during the day? (yes/no/do not know)

 Child executive function

Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI) [45]: 24-item validated measure assessing executive functioning in 4–12-year-old children. It includes 4 subscales: working memory, planning; regulation, and inhibition. Factor analysis for children in kindergarten identifies two factors—working memory (working memory and planning subscales) and inhibition (regulation and inhibition subscales) (α > .74).

 Child academic/pre-academic approaches to learning

Approaches to learning questions—from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), adapted from kindergarten through first grade parent social rating scale [46, 47]: 6 items in which parents/educators indicate how frequently the child exhibited the behaviour or characteristic relating to learning experiences. Response scales range from ‘1 = never’ to ‘4 = very often.’

 Child temperament

Single item from LSAC [47]: Compared to others I think my child is… (much easier than average, average, more difficult than average, much more difficult than average, cannot say)

 Child sleep

Single item from the LSAC [47]: How much is your child’s sleeping pattern or habits a problem for you? (no/small/moderate/large)

 Parent mental health

Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21) [48]: 21-item validated self-report measure, with three scales for depression, anxiety, and stress. Each scale consisting of 7 items ranging from 1 to 4 rating the extent to which the respondent had experienced each state over the past week (α > .85).

 Parent sleep quality

2 items from Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Questionnaire, modified by LSAC [47]:

• During the past month, how would you rate your own sleep quantity overall?

• During the past month, how would you rate your own sleep quality overall?

 Impact of pre-schoolers behaviour on family relationships and activities

PEDS-QL Family Impact Module [49]: This measure includes 5 items assessing problems with family relationships, including communication, stress, conflicts between family members, and difficulty making decisions and solving problems as a family and 3 items assessing problems with daily activities (α > .90).