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J Abnorm Child Psychol (2016) 44:191202 DOI 10.1007/s10802-015-9978-x
The Association of Parent Mindfulness with Parenting and Youth Psychopathology Across Three Developmental Stages
Justin Parent & Laura G. McKee & Jennifer N. Rough &
Rex Forehand
Published online: 30 January 2015# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract The primary purpose of the current study was to test a model examining the process by which parent dispositional mindfulness relates to youth psychopathology through mindful parenting and parenting practices. The universality of the model across youth at three developmental stages was examined: young childhood (37 years; n=210), middle childhood (812 years; n=200), and adolescence (1317 years; n=205). Overall, participants were 615 parents (55 % female) and one of their 3-to-17 year old children (45 % female). Parents reported on their dispositional mindfulness, mindful parenting, positive and negative parenting practices and their childs or adolescents internalizing and externalizing problems. Consistent findings across all three developmental stages indicated that higher levels of parent dispositional mindfulness were indirectly related to lower levels of youth internalizing and externalizing problems through higher levels of mindful parenting and lower levels of negative parenting practices. Replication of these findings across families with children at different developmental stages lends support to the generalizability of the model.
Keywords Mindfulness . Mindful parenting . Parenting . Child internalizing . Child externalizing
The role of parental characteristics in parenting and youth psychopathology has long been a topic of scholarly interest. In the vast majority of this research, the focus has been on negative parental characteristics (e.g., depression, anxiety) (for recent reviews, see Hammen et al. 2014; Higa-McMillan et al. 2014; Kimonis et al. 2014). Furthermore, parenting practices and problem behaviors of children have typically been examined within narrow child age ranges (e.g., 38 years) or across a wide age span (e.g., 317). The former approach limits generalization of findings while the latter approach fails to acknowledge developmental differences that may exist. In the current study we propose and test a model examining the role of a positive parental characteristic, mindfulness, in parenting and child internalizing and externalizing problems. Furthermore, we test the model with families of children in three developmental stages (young childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence) to examine its universality across age groups.
Substantial empirical research, including...