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Mindfulness in Parenting and Coparenting

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Abstract

Mindfulness has been established as a critical psychosocial variable for the well-being of individuals; however, less is understood regarding the role of mindfulness within the family context of parents, coparents, and children. This study tested a model examining the process by which parent dispositional mindfulness relates to parenting and coparenting relationship quality through mindful parenting and coparenting. Participants were 485 parents (59.2 % mothers) from three community samples of families with youth across three developmental stages: young childhood (3–7 years; n = 164), middle childhood (8–12 years; n = 161), and adolescence (13–17 years; n = 160). Path analysis using maximum likelihood estimation was employed to test primary hypotheses. The proposed model demonstrated excellent fit. Findings across all three youth development stages indicated both direct effects of parent dispositional mindfulness as well as indirect effects through mindful parenting and mindful coparenting, with parenting and coparenting relationship quality. Implications for intervention and prevention efforts are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vermont, 2 Colchester Ave., Burlington, VT, 05405, USA

    Justin Parent & Rex Forehand

  2. University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Laura G. McKee

  3. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Margret Anton, Michelle Gonzalez & Deborah J. Jones

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  1. Justin Parent
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  2. Laura G. McKee
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  3. Margret Anton
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  4. Michelle Gonzalez
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  5. Deborah J. Jones
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  6. Rex Forehand
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Correspondence to Justin Parent.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Child and Adolescent Psychology Training and Research, Inc. (CAPTR). The first author is supported by the NICHD (F31HD082858). The fourth author is supported by the NIMH (R01MH100377-S1). The third, fifth, and sixth authors are supported by the NIMH (R01MH100377). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Table 3

Table 3 Interpersonal Mindfulness in Coparenting Scale (IMCS)
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Parent, J., McKee, L.G., Anton, M. et al. Mindfulness in Parenting and Coparenting. Mindfulness 7, 504–513 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-015-0485-5

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