DISCUSSION  

Part 1 showed that the Community Home girls had significantly higher breath rates and lower skin resistance values than the girls of the same age and economic status, who were attending a regular school and living at home. Visual inspection of the records of the Community Home group also showed more irregular breath patterns. Fear and anxiety were likely bases for irregular breathing with a characteristic pattern, i.e., very rapid and jerky (Ax, 1953; Bloch, Lemeignan & Aguilera-T, 1991). Such signs of arousal are in keeping with the higher electromyography tone reported for boys in a community home in Finland (Rauhala, et al., 1990). Inspection of the data of the Community Home girls indicated no differences between girls who were from broken homes and whose families visited them in the home. Also, the polygraphic data of the girls who had been in the home for less than six months were not different from those of girls whose stay was longer, e.g., 36 months. A previous study (Garralda, Connel, & Taylor, 1991) showed differences in autonomic reactivity (based on skin conductance and heart rate) for children with emotional and conduct disorders. Children with emotional disorders were more reactive to aversive events, whereas conduct-disordered subjects showed increased reactivity to pleasant situations. It was also mentioned that the baseline heart rates were significantly higher in the more severely affected of the emotionally disordered group, compared with those with lower scores. 

The present Community Home girls did not have significantly higher heart rates than the other group. However, if the rapid and irregular breathing and lower skin resistance values are interpreted as signs of high psychophysiological arousal, the Community Home girls could be speculated to have emotional disturbances. 

After six months of practice of the yoga or games significantly reduced the Community Home girls' heart rates. The yoga group only showed a significant reduction in the rate of respiration after 6 mo. The spirogram also showed that breathing was more regular in this group after 6 mo. The skin resistance did not change significantly for either group, although the Yoga group showed a nonsignificant increase however, that of the Yoga group was lower initially. Most children of both groups reported subjective feelings of well being at the end of 6 mo. 

The heart-rate reduction for both groups could be anticipated from previous reports which indicated that a decrease in heart rate can occur with the practice of both yoga (Wallace, et al., 1971; Joseph, et al., 1981) and games (Williams & Sperryn, 1962). The effects of yoga and games in reducing the rate of breathing have also been reported. The practice of yoga reduced the breath rate, both as an immediate effect (Wallace, et al., 1971) and over 3 mo. (Joseph, et al., 1981). Similarly, athletes have lower breathing rates than those who do not have regular exercise (Shephard, 1966). In the present study six months of yoga practice reduced the breathing rate and irregularity of breathing, while increased physical activity for the same period did not have the same effect. In trying to explain this, two factors may be considered. The significantly more rapid (and more irregular) breathing of the Community Home group suggests that observations, e.g., increased physical activity reducing breath rate (Shephard, 1966) based on studies conducted on normal volunteers may not be applicable. Also, the two programs emphasized different factors (physical activity or relaxation). An earlier study (Rauhala, et al., 1990) had shown the efficacy of a carefully designed training program in reducing signs of stress in boys of a community home. This program consisted of increased physical activity through various aerobic exercises (jogging and swimming) as well as a form of relaxation which involved alternately contracting and relaxing different groups of muscles. Subjects were unable to relax with conventional relaxation exercises. 

In the present study, given the yoga program's emphasis on relaxation and awareness, the subjects reported being able to relax perhaps because the yogasanas did involve at least minimal physical activity with instructions to relax throughout. In this way, subjects may have been better prepared for the 10-min. relaxation ("shavasan" or corpse posture) at the end of each session. The duration for which subjects had to remain in a particular posture was gradually increased as relaxation was maintained. These results suggest that a program which includes relaxation, awareness, and graded physical activity may be a useful addition to the routine of children resident in a community home.