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Parenting-Focused Mindfulness Intervention Reduces Stress and Improves Parenting in Highly Stressed Mothers of Adolescents

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Abstract

Parent stress has been associated with negative outcomes for youth and may be particularly high during adolescence. Mindfulness interventions have the potential to reduce parent stress and to improve parenting behavior and parent-child relationship quality. The present randomized controlled study examined effects of a parenting-focused mindfulness intervention, the Parenting Mindfully (PM) intervention, for highly stressed parents of adolescents. Eighty-three mothers of 12- to 17-year olds reporting high stress were randomly assigned to the PM intervention or to a minimal intervention Parent Education (PE) control group. At pre- and post-intervention, mothers reported on their mindfulness, stress, parenting stress, mindful parenting, and parent-adolescent relationship quality. At pre- and post-intervention, mothers’ observed parenting behaviors and reported negative emotional responses to a laboratory parent-adolescent interaction task (PAIT) were also collected. Findings indicated that the PM intervention, compared to PE, increased mothers’ mindfulness, reduced parenting stress in two domains, increased mindful parenting related to emotional awareness in parenting, and improved parent-adolescent relationship quality. For mothers of girls (but not mothers of boys), the PM intervention also decreased negative parenting behavior and decreased negative emotional responses in PAIT. Effects sizes were medium to large. In sum, findings support parenting-focused mindfulness training as a viable intervention strategy for highly stressed parents.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the study sponsor, the participating families, and the study research assistants, particularly Fran Faundez, Juliana Jacangelo, Corynne Ross, and Amysue Hansen.

Funding

Support for this project was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) through grants R34-DA-034823 (PI: Chaplin) and F31-DA-041790 (PI: Turpyn).

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Author notes

  1. Alexandra M. Martelli

    Present address: Psychology Department, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

  2. Corynne E. Ross

    Present address: Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education, Penn State University, State College, PA, USA

  3. Adam Bryant Miller

    Present address: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Tara M. Chaplin, Caitlin C. Turpyn, Sarah Fischer, Alexandra M. Martelli, Corynne E. Ross & Adam Bryant Miller

  2. Inova Kellar Center, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Richard N. Leichtweis

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

    Rajita Sinha

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  1. Tara M. Chaplin
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Contributions

TMC: Designed and executed the study, conducted the main data analyses, and wrote the first draft of the paper. CCT: Collaborated on study design and intervention content, conducted and wrote up the MI analyses, and collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript. SF: Collaborated on study design and intervention content and collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript. AMM: Collaborated on study design and execution of the study and in writing and editing the final manuscript. CER: Collaborated on the execution of the study and in writing and editing the final manuscript. RNL: Collaborated on study design and execution of the study and in writing and editing the final manuscript. ABM: Collaborated on study design and execution of the study and in writing and editing the final manuscript. RS: Collaborated on the design and execution of the study and in writing and editing the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tara M. Chaplin.

Ethics declarations

The present study was approved by the University’s Institutional Review Board and therefore was performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid of the institutional review board and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

Conflict of Interest

Author RS is on the scientific advisory board for Embera NeuroTherapeutics, Inc. There are no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained for all individual participants included in the study.

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Chaplin, T.M., Turpyn, C.C., Fischer, S. et al. Parenting-Focused Mindfulness Intervention Reduces Stress and Improves Parenting in Highly Stressed Mothers of Adolescents. Mindfulness 12, 450–462 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-1026-9

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