Mindful Parenting as a Longitudinal Predictor of Early Childhood Social-Emotional, Behavioral, and Cognitive Development

• In Event: Parenting and children's socioemotional wellbeing

Abstract

Introduction: Mindful parenting, defined as parents’ ability to “pay attention to their child in a way that is intentional, present-centered, and non-judgmental” (Coatsworth et al., 2018), has been linked to positive child outcomes via both theory (e.g., Duncan, 2009) and a small body of empirical research (e.g., Parent et al., 2016). However, almost all studies linking mindful parenting to child outcomes are cross-sectional (e.g., Turpyn & Chaplin, 2016), focus on the adolescent period, and—within the U.S.—have used samples comprised primarily of non-Hispanic white participants (see Rivera et al., 2022 for exception). The present study began to address these gaps in the literature by testing longitudinal associations between maternal mindful parenting and early child development among a racially and ethnically diverse sample of low-income mothers and their 18-24 month old children. To provide a more conservative estimate of the effects of caregiver-reported mindful parenting, maternal depressive symptoms were used as a covariate in all analyses. Additionally, to validate the parent-reported mindfulness measure, we tested concurrent associations between mindful parenting and observations of maternal parenting. Finally, to capture the contribution of the child, we tested whether child negative emotionality moderated associations between maternal mindful parenting and child outcomes.
Hypotheses: Guided by theory and limited empirical literature, we hypothesized that controlling for 18-month maternal depressive symptoms and demographic covariates, higher levels of mindful parenting at 18 months would predict more optimal 24-month child outcomes (lower internalizing and externalizing symptoms, higher social competence, and greater vocabulary) and that these associations would be stronger in the context of high child negative emotionality.
Population: Participants were drawn from the Smart Beginnings project, and included mothers and infants (N = 316 mothers) recruited at birth from Pittsburgh, PA and New York City who were low-income (M income ~$20,000) and racially/ethnically diverse (48.4% Black; 43.0% Latinx).
Methods: Data analysis included measures (see Table 1) drawn from home and lab assessments which took place when children were 18- and 24-months-old. Data were analyzed using path analysis in MPlus, with all paths of interest estimated simultaneously.
Results: Consistent with hypotheses, mindful parenting was a significant predictor of child internalizing symptoms (β (SE) = -.16 (.06), p = .01), externalizing symptoms (β (SE) = -.19 (.06), p = .002), social competence (β (SE) = .20 (.06), p = .001), and productive language (β (SE) = .18 (.06), p = .004) in expected directions, while maternal depression was a significant predictor of child internalizing (β (SE) = -.28 (.07), p < .001) and externalizing symptoms (β (SE) = .35(.06), p < .001). Mindful parenting was concurrently associated with observed maternal responsiveness toward the child (β = .22; SE = .06, p < .001). Child negative emotionality moderated the association between mindful parenting and two child outcomes (Figure 1), but contrary to hypotheses, at high levels of child negative emotionality the positive effects of mindful parenting were attenuated. Results provide preliminary evidence that mindful parenting is distinct from depressive symptoms and is meaningfully associated with early childhood developmental outcomes.

Authors

• Lindsay Taraban, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Julia Sarah Feldman, University of Pittsburgh

• Pamela Morris-Perez, New York University

• Alan L Mendelsohn, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

• Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh