Abstract
Despite findings demonstrating the importance of parental present-centered awareness, factors undermining mindful parenting have received less attention. Increasingly, evidence points to parental psychopathology as a salient risk factor for parenting difficulties. Thus, the goal of the present study was to investigate specific dimensions of parental trauma-related distress and general negative affectivity during pregnancy as predictors of mindful parenting during toddler age. Parental psychopathology, parent-infant bonding, and mindful parenting were assessed in a sample of heterosexual couples (N = 159) across four waves of data collection spanning pregnancy to child age two. Data were analyzed using path analysis within a dyadic framework. Results demonstrated the unique impact of maternal trauma-related distress during pregnancy (e.g., intrusions and avoidance) on facets of mindful parenting more than two years later. Further, among both mothers and fathers, general negative affectivity common across internalizing disorders undermined mindful parenting through impaired parent-infant bonding. Findings highlight the need for early intervention efforts that incorporate mindfulness strategies to reduce subthreshold symptoms of prenatal psychopathology, promote healthy bonding, and improve parental awareness and self-regulation, thereby enhancing the overall parent-child relationship.
Highlights
Mindfulness is defined as the ability to maintain nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness (Kabat-Zinn & Kabat-Zinn, 1997) and can be understood as both an intrapersonal and interpersonal process, affecting an individual’s physical and psychological wellbeing, and their ability to communicate effectively with others and navigate conflict and disagreement (Davis & Hayes, 2011)
An examination of tolerance statistics and variance inflation factors (VIF) confirmed there were no violations of multicollinearity, as tolerance values were above 0.20 and VIFs did not exceed 4.0
Hypothesis 1: Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no evidence of an indirect effect of maternal trauma-related distress on dimensions of mindful parenting through impaired mother-infant bonding when controlling for maternal negative affectivity
Summary
Mindfulness is defined as the ability to maintain nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness (Kabat-Zinn & Kabat-Zinn, 1997) and can be understood as both an intrapersonal and interpersonal process, affecting an individual’s physical and psychological wellbeing, and their ability to communicate effectively with others and navigate conflict and disagreement (Davis & Hayes, 2011). Cultivating present-centered awareness improves attention (Bögels et al, 2010), which plays an important role in regulating parenting behaviors (Crandall et al, 2015; Deater-Deckard et al, 2012) Such findings have helped stimulate an increase in efforts to understand the core components of mindful parenting and the role of mindful parenting in child development. Key facets of mindful parenting, contribute to the development of selfregulation among children (Bernier et al, 2010; Kochanska et al, 2000) Drawing on such findings, interventions aimed at increasing mindful parenting have been shown to reduce both parent and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors (Behbahani et al, 2018; Bögels et al, 2014; Coatsworth et al, 2010), as well as aggression and noncompliance among children with developmental disabilities or autism (Singh et al, 2007). Knowledge of prenatal risk factors can be used to tailor interventions to provide additional training and support to individuals who may experience particular difficulties in mindful parenting
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