Poster #132 - Affective Neurobiological Mechanisms of a Parenting-Focused Mindfulness Intervention

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

High levels of parent negative emotion can negatively affect positive parenting practices and youth outcomes (Crandall et al., 2015). A growing body of evidence suggests that mindfulness-based interventions may be effective in targeting the neurobiological processes supporting negative emotional functioning in adults (Hölzel et al. 2011; Tang et al. 2015), and thus parenting-focused mindfulness interventions may me ideally suited in targeting parent emotion in the family context. However, no controlled study to date has evaluated the affective mechanisms of parenting-focused mindfulness training, information that is key for understanding intervention effects. To this end, the present study examined the neurobiological mechanisms of an 8-week parenting-focused mindfulness intervention, the Parenting Mindfully (PM) intervention, versus a minimal-intervention parent education control.

Participants included twenty highly stressed mothers of adolescents drawn from a larger randomized controlled trial of the PM intervention. Ten mothers from each study condition were randomly selected to complete pre- and post-intervention fMRI sessions. Mothers completed an fMRI emotion task, in which mothers’ viewed 27 negative, 27 neutral, and 27 positive International Affective Picture System (IAPS) images (analyses focus on the negative-neutral contrast) and a 6-minute fMRI resting state scan. Mothers reported on their mindful parenting using the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale (Duncan, 2007) and completed a parent-adolescent interaction task (PAIT). Maternal emotional reactivity to the PAIT was assessed via observed emotion expression (PAIT Coding System; Chaplin, 2010), self-reported negative emotion (DES), and salivary cortisol reactivity.

Four a priori regions of interest (ROI) were chosen given prior evidence in mindfulness and parenting literatures: amygdala, dACC, posterior insula, anterior insula. Results of task-based ROI analysis indicated that the PM intervention increased left posterior insula BOLD response to negative emotional images (> neutral images) from pre to post-intervention compared to controls (F[1,15] = 5.76, p < .05). Seed-based resting state functional connectivity (rsfc) analyses revealed that the PM intervention increased rsfc among regions involved in self-reference (R posterior insula-precuneus, peak = -16, -48, 66, FDR-corrected p < .001), behavioral regulation (dorsal anterior cingulate-R middle frontal gyrus, peak = -40, -4, 52; size FDR-corrected p < .05), and social-emotional processing (R anterior insula-L superior temporal sulcus (STS), peak = -60, -60, 4; FDR-corrected p < .05). Increases in task-based posterior insula BOLD response were associated with reduced cortisol reactivity to the PAIT and greater shared parent-adolescent positive emotion. Results also indicated that decreased posterior insula-precuneus rsfc was associated with greater mindful parenting (β = -6.2, p < .05) and increased anterior insula-STS connectivity was associated with higher levels of self-reported sadness following the PAIT (β = 0.43, p < .05).

Together, findings from this investigation highlight that mindfulness interventions may affect maternal emotional awareness at a neurobiological level, which in turn may reduce emotion reactivity and allow for more mindful parenting behaviors. These findings provide important insight for future parenting interventions aimed to reduce parent emotional reactivity by suggesting that maternal emotional awareness rather than general emotional reactivity is a key treatment target for parent behavioral change.

Authors

• Caitlin Turpyn, George Mason University
  Presenting Author

• Tara Chaplin, George Mason University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Fischer, George Mason University
  Non-Presenting Author

• James Thompson, George Mason University
  Non-Presenting Author

• John Fedota, National Institute on Drug Abuse
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ruth Baer, University of Kentucky
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ali Martelli, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Non-Presenting Author