Abstract
Mindful parenting has been linked to maternal psychological adjustment in mothers of babies, preschoolers and adolescents, but research including mothers of school-aged children is lacking. Also, little is known about the mechanisms linking mindful parenting and maternal psychological adjustment (e.g., maternal depression and parenting stress). The aims of this study were: first, to explore differences in mindful parenting, self-expressiveness within the family (SEF), maternal depression, and parenting stress as a function of sociodemographic and health-related variables; second, to analyze the associations between mindful parenting, SEF, maternal depression, and parenting stress; and third, to examine the mediating role of positive and negative SEF on the links between mindful parenting and maternal psychological adjustment (i.e., maternal depression and parenting stress). A sample of 229 mothers of elementary school-aged children was collected through online resources. Path analysis was used to explore direct and indirect effects between variables. First, results revealed differences in mindful parenting, negative SEF, maternal depression and parenting stress, depending on number of children, and health status-related variables. Second, while positive SEF correlated positively with mindful parenting and negatively with maternal depression and parenting stress, negative SEF, on the other hand, correlated positively with maternal depression and parenting stress. And third, positive SEF mediated the association between mindful parenting and maternal depression, while both positive and negative SEF mediated the association between mindful parenting and parenting stress. Mindful parenting interventions are likely to improve the psychological adjustment of mothers of school-aged children through the promotion of adaptive communication skills, namely SEF.
Highlights
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Mindful parenting, negative SEF, maternal depression, and parenting stress appear to differ depending on the number of children, and mother’s health status.
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Positive and negative SEF are important correlates of mindful parenting, maternal depression and parenting stress.
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Positive and negative SEF differentially mediate the links between mindful parenting and maternal depression, and between mindful parenting and parenting stress.
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Mindful parenting interventions are likely to improve maternal psychological adjustment through the promotion of mothers’ adaptive SEF.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.
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Research supported by the Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention (CINEICC)—University of Coimbra (UIDB/PSI/00730/2020). A.C.A.-N. is supported with a PhD grant awarded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (2020.06779.BD).
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Conceptualization and supervision: C.C., A.F., H.M. and M.C.C. Material preparation, data collection and analysis: A.C.A.-N., C.C., A.F., H.M. and F.L. Writing—original draft preparation: A.C.A.-N., C.C. and F.L. All authors read, critically revised, and approved the final manuscript.
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Alves-Nogueira, A.C., Lopes, F., Moreira, H. et al. Mindful Parenting and Maternal Psychological Adjustment: The Mediating Role of Self-Expressiveness Within the Family. J Child Fam Stud 32, 1519–1531 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02549-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02549-5