Mindfulness and Parenting in Military Families

Abstract

With the growth of literature on mindfulness and more recently, mindful parenting, there is ample cause to suggest the importance of mindfulness in the context of parenting, along with an emerging body of evidence suggesting that mindfulness/mindful parenting may be related to parenting practices and children's functioning. However, a basic association between parent mindfulness and parenting practices has not yet been solidly established. The goal of this study was to examine the association between mindfulness and parenting practices, using a comprehensive measure of parents' mindfulness and observational measurement of parenting practices. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques were employed to address ambiguities related to conceptualization and measurement of mindfulness apparent in the field of mindfulness research, and structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques were used to assess the associations between parent mindfulness, parent internalizing psychopathology, parenting practices, and children's behavior problems. Results of this study support the hypothesis that mindfulness in parents is multidimensional and relates to certain parent and family characteristics. However, results did not support the expected associations of mindfulness in parents with parenting practices or child functioning. Nevertheless, though the current study did not reveal clear links between parents' mindfulness and parenting practices, it may serve as a useful step in refining methods for studying mindfulness in parents for future research.