Evaluating Interactive Effects of the DERS Dimensions and Treatment on Mindfulness in Low-Income Mothers

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

In recent years interventions aimed at promoting mindfulness have been shown to affect a plethora of biopsychosocial outcomes such as reducing stress, preventing relapse of depression and enhancing relationship functioning and psychological well-being (Coatsworth et al., 2015). Although there are similarities between mindfulness and emotion regulation (ER) constructs, they remain differentiable (for a review, see: Chambers, Gullone, & Allen, 2009). As mindfulness has become popularized in psychology, there has been growing attention to mindful parenting and an emphasis on mindful parent and child relationships (Laurent, Wright, & Finnegan, 2018), yet there have been comparatively few studies on the possible moderating role of emotion regulation in predicting changes in mindfulness, especially in low-SES populations. We hypothesize that changes in mothers’ mindfulness from pre- to post-intervention will be moderated by mothers’ initial levels of self-reported ER, such that mothers with low ER will show a significant increase in mindfulness whereas mothers already high in ER will show no significant change.
The sample used for this current study was drawn from a larger study of low-income, primiparous mothers that examined the effects of three separate mindfulness-based interventions that varied in timing (pre- vs. post-natal) and target (stress-management, parenting). For the purpose of these analyses, we examined data from the 37 mothers (Mage = 25.71, SDage = 5.97) who participated in the prenatal, group-based intervention which provided mindfulness-based stress management and self-care practices aimed at promoting a positive child-birth experience. Most mothers in this subsample reported completing a high school education (46%), identifying as African American (43%), being never married or single (38%), and having an income of less than $29,600 (60%). Mothers completed self-reported pre- and post-intervention measures including the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS:Gratz & Roemer, 2004) and Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ: Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006). Pre-intervention measures of the clarity of emotions and awareness of emotions subscales of the DERS and pre- and post-measures of the FFMQ total scores were analyzed.
The results of the mixed ANOVA showed a main effect of clarity, F(2,34) =5.61; p<0.01, with bonferroni corrected significant differences between the low and high clarity difficulty groups (p < .01) and between the average and high clarity difficulty groups (p < .01). There were no main effects of time in either the clarity or awareness model and no interaction effect in either model. The awareness model also showed no main effect of awareness on mindfulness scores. These results suggest that clarity could become a key component of interventions focused on changing mindfulness. It could be worthwhile to further compare and contrast clarity with other emotion regulation skills amongst parents. Further research could continue looking into the specific role that clarity of emotions may have in interventions targeting mindfulness in parents and children and their dyadic relationships.

Authors

• Grace Stewart, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Lisa Shimomaeda, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephanie F Thompson, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Becca Calhoun, University Of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Liliana J Lengua, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author