Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine these exercises have many health beneﬁts and as a result are becoming increasingly popular in the West. Based on the data obtained from National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), Barnes reported that in the United States alone an estimated 2,500,000 and 500,000 individuals use TC or qigong, to improved their overall health status [30]. Qigong is closely related to TC and is also a historical derivative of Chinese healing practices. Like TC, it is believed to manipulate Qi (vital energy) through mind-body exercises [31]. Generally speaking, Qigong is a meditative form of exercise that, like TC, requires coordinated, gentle movements with mental focus, breathing, and relaxation for physical, mental, and/or spiritual cultivation [32]. The primary diﬀerence between Qigong and TC is that Qigong manipulates Qi by mindfulness more than by movements, the opposite being true for TC. 4. Psychological Beneﬁts of TC As a form of exercise built upon the mind-body connection, TC combines physical movement, meditation, and breathing to induce relaxation and tranquility of the mind and improves balance, postural control, movement coordination, and muscle endurance, strength, and ﬂexibility. It can be practiced by people of all ages, physical statures, strength, and physical abilities because it relies more on technique than strength. TC as a mind-body movement program results in the integration of physiological and psychological beneﬁts, including improved conﬁdence, quality of life (QOL), moti- vation, self-eﬃcacy, and overall mood elevation. Signiﬁcant improvements have been detected for QOL dimensions such as general health perception, social functioning, vitality, and mental health or psychological well-being [33–35]. Kin et al. [36] used the subscores for physical functioning (PF), physical role (PR), bodily pain (BP), general health (GH), vitality (VT), social functioning (SF), role emotional (RE), and mental health (MH) as assessed by the SF-36, to evaluate the HLQOL (the health-related quality of life) of TC practitioners with those obtained from age-matched national standards for correlative age groups. The authors found that in the 60- to 69-year-old TC practitioners had signiﬁcantly higher PF, GH, and MH than the national averages and the 70- to 80-year-old subjects in this study had signiﬁcantly higher PF, PR, BP, GH, VT, RE, and MH than the national averages; additionally the duration and the frequency of practicing Tai Chi statistically signiﬁcantly correlated with MH and PF, and GH and PF, respectively. Other authors have reported that participating in TC led to signiﬁcant improve- ments in body care and health behaviors due to improved motivation [37, 38]. Signiﬁcant psychosocial beneﬁts have also been observed, such as better perceived social support, mood state, conﬁdence, self-eﬃcacy, and superior relaxation among TC practitioners [4, 39–41]. TC practice is also associated with signiﬁcant decreases in sadness, confusion, anger, tension, and fear as well as with increases in energy and happiness [42], self-esteem [43], and self-eﬃcacy [44]. Some practitioners of TC reported improved quality of sleep due to combined TC 3 and mindfulness-based stress reduction [45]. Furthermore, in a randomized controlled trial, TC was more eﬀective than neutral reading in reducing state of anxiety in TC practitioners; additionally the stress-reduction eﬀect of TC was similar to moderate physical exercise [12]. In summary, the literature supports the idea that prac- ticing TC has a multitude of positive psychological beneﬁts that promote overall psychological well-being including the reduction of mental health disorders, anxiety, depression, or phobias [46]. 5. TC’s Psychological Beneﬁts for Different Populations 5.1. Children and Teens. A randomized controlled trial conducted by Baron [47] examined the psychological eﬀect of a 12-week (1 h, 2 times/wk) TC program on 90 school children, grades 4 to 6 (52 boys, 38 girls), who were pretested on psychological measures including those of perceived self-competence, visual-motor integration, and anxiety. The author reported that the TC group signiﬁcantly improved their scores on the perceived self-competence and visual motor integration tests. However, the results of this study must be interpreted cautiously as no age-matched control group was included. Given the age of the study’s population, an age when children are undergoing rapid physical and psychological changes, it is diﬃcult to attribute the reported beneﬁts exclusively to the practice of TC. A nonrandomized controlled study of 22 young people (mean age 21 years) found that 20 days of TC practice signiﬁcantly decreased nightmares [48]. Baron and Faubert [49] reported the ﬁndings of a single-case research design which examined the eﬀects of 10-week TC sessions (1 hour per session, two sessions per week) on state anxiety and mood of children with severe learning disabilities. The participants were three upper elementary children (mean age is equal to 13.3 years). The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), a- state scale, a 28-item mood inventory, and Conners’ Teacher Rating Scale-39 (CTRS-39), a scale used to assess whether a child has attention deﬁcits and/or hyperactivity, were completed prior to, during, and after the TC intervention. Results suggested that the practice of TC had the strongest eﬀect on the child who presented with hyperactivity and heightened anxiety. The literature supports the psychological beneﬁts of TC exercise on young teenagers as if it may be both a noninvasive and cost-eﬀective alternative to the pharmacological therapies presently being prescribed in increasing numbers. Wall et al. [50] conducted a pilot project with middle school students from an urban environment characterized by abuse of power and high level of exposure to aggressive behaviors. TC and MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduc- tion) programs were employed to determine if these inter- ventions could improve a variety of psychological factors in these teenagers. Self-reports indicated that the participants experienced improved well-being, calmness, relaxation, sleep patterns, less reactivity, increased self-care, self-awareness, and a sense of interconnection with or interdependence on