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Understanding How Mindful Parenting May Be Linked to Mother–Adolescent Communication

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Abstract

Researchers have sought to understand the processes that may promote effective parent–adolescent communication because of the strong links to adolescent adjustment. Mindfulness, a relatively new construct in Western psychology that derives from ancient Eastern traditions, has been shown to facilitate communication and to be beneficial when applied in the parenting context. In this article, we tested if and how mindful parenting was linked to routine adolescent disclosure and parental solicitation within a longitudinal sample of rural and suburban, early adolescents and their mothers (n = 432; mean adolescent age = 12.14, 46 % male, 72 % Caucasian). We found that three factors—negative parental reactions to disclosure, adolescent feelings of parental over-control, and the affective quality of the parent–adolescent relationship—mediated the association between mindful parenting and adolescent disclosure and parental solicitation. Results suggest that mindful parenting may improve mother–adolescent communication by reducing parental negative reactions to information, adolescent perceptions of over-control, and by improving the affective quality of the parent–adolescent relationship. The discussion highlights intervention implications and future directions for research.

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Acknowledgments

Work on this article was supported by the National Institutes of Health through a research grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (1 R01 DA026217) and a career award to L. G. Duncan from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (1 K01 AT005270). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Author contributions

ML and LD conceived of the study and drafted the manuscript; ML conducted statistical analysis; JDC, LD, and MG designed and conducted the parent intervention study which provided the data for the study; RN provided statistical consultation; LD, JDC, MG, and RN participated in the interpretation of the data and reviewed all manuscript drafts. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The School of Social Work, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building, 325 Pittsboro St, CB#3550, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3550, USA

    Melissa A. Lippold

  2. Department of Family and Community Medicine, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, The University of California, San Francisco, Box 1726, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Larissa G. Duncan

  3. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Colorado State University, 439 Behavioral Sciences Building, 1570 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1570, USA

    J. Douglas Coatsworth

  4. Prevention Research Center, The Pennsylvania State University, 314 Biobehavioral Health Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Robert L. Nix

  5. The Prevention Research Center, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, Biobehavioral Health Bldg Room 306, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Mark T. Greenberg

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  1. Melissa A. Lippold
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  2. Larissa G. Duncan
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Correspondence to Melissa A. Lippold.

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Lippold, M.A., Duncan, L.G., Coatsworth, J.D. et al. Understanding How Mindful Parenting May Be Linked to Mother–Adolescent Communication. J Youth Adolescence 44, 1663–1673 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0325-x

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