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Handbook of Assessment in Mindfulness Research pp 1–9Cite as

Bangor Mindful Parenting Scale (BMPS)

Abstract

The Bangor Mindful Parenting Scale (BMPS) is intended for parents of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The 15-item BMPS was developed based upon the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (see Appendix for the original scale). An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted on the BMPS using a sample of over 500 parents of children with an ID and/ ASD. The BMPS demonstrates good internal reliability and construct validity, with a four-factor structure. However, this four-factor model had multiple cross-loading items. It is recommended that future researchers using the 15-item BMPS use EFA on their own data to extract factors for further analysis. There remain limitations in the literature surrounding the concept of mindful parenting for parents of children with ID, which parallel the difficulties that researchers working to develop and refine trait mindfulness scales have worked with for over a decade.

Keywords

  • Mindfulness
  • Parenting
  • Factor analysis
  • Intellectual disability
  • Rating scale: Autism spectrum disorder

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Human and Behavioural Sciences, Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice, Bangor University, Bangor, UK

    Gemma M. Griffith

  2. CEDAR, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Richard P. Hastings

Authors
  1. Gemma M. Griffith
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  2. Richard P. Hastings
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gemma M. Griffith .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Oleg N. Medvedev

  2. North Shore Campus, Auckland Univ of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Christian U. Krägeloh

  3. Dept of Psychology and Neuroscience, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Richard J. Siegert

  4. Augusta University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Nirbhay N. Singh

Appendix

Appendix

The Bangor Parenting Mindfulness Scale

The following statements describe different ways parents may interact with their children. Please circle the response that describes what is generally true for you when parenting your child with ID and/or ASD. Remember there are no right or wrong answers, and please answer according to what really reflects your experience, not what you think you should be experiencing.

Item Never true Sometimes true Often true Always true
1. I rush through activities with my child without being attentive to him/her.a 0 1 2 3
2. In difficult situations with my child, I can pause without reacting straight away. 0 1 2 3
3. I tend to make judgments about whether I am a good or bad parent.a 0 1 2 3
4. I pay attention to the way my emotions affect the way I act toward my child. 0 1 2 3
5. I have trouble thinking of the right words to express how I feel about my child.a 0 1 2 3
6. It seems I am “running on automatic” without really being aware of what I’m doing with my child.a 0 1 2 3
7. When I have upsetting thoughts about my child, I am able to just notice them and let them go. 0 1 2 3
8. I think some of the emotions I have toward my child are bad, and I shouldn’t be feeling them.a 0 1 2 3
9. I stay aware of my feelings toward my child. 0 1 2 3
10. Even when I’m feeling terribly upset with my child, I can find a way to put it into words. 0 1 2 3
11. I don’t pay attention to what I’m doing with my child because I’m daydreaming, worrying, or distracted.a 0 1 2 3
12. When I get upset with my child, I am able to keep calm. 0 1 2 3
13. Some of the thoughts I have about my child are negative, and I say to myself that I shouldn’t be thinking that way.a 0 1 2 3
14. I am aware of how my moods affect the way I treat my child. 0 1 2 3
15. I’m good at finding the words to describe my feelings about my child. 0 1 2 3
  1. Items in five domains as reflected in the FFMQ (not psychometrically established as subscales): Acting with awareness, items 1, 6, and 11; nonreactivity, items 2, 7, and 12; nonjudgment, items 3, 8, and 13; observing, items 4, 9, and 14; and describing, items 5, 10, and 15
  2. aIndicates reversed-scored items

Researchers wishing to use the 15-item BMPS are advised to cite this chapter and the research group who first developed and published the scale: Jones, L., Hastings, R. P., Totsika, V., Keane, L., and Rhule, N. (2014). Child behavior problems and parental well-being in families of children with autism: the mediating role of mindfulness and acceptance. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 119(2), 171–185.

The scale is freely available for research groups to use on condition it is cited correctly.

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Griffith, G.M., Hastings, R.P. (2022). Bangor Mindful Parenting Scale (BMPS). In: Medvedev, O.N., Krägeloh, C.U., Siegert, R.J., Singh, N.N. (eds) Handbook of Assessment in Mindfulness Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77644-2_31-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77644-2_31-1

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