Does Mothers' Self-Reported Mindful Parenting Relate to the Observed Quality of Parenting Behavior and Mother-Child Interaction?

Eva S Potharst; Anna Leyland; Cristina Colonnesi; Irena K Veringa; Eliala A Salvadori; Marta Jakschik; Susan M Bögels; Moniek A J Zeegers

doi:10.1007/s12671-020-01533-0

Does Mothers' Self-Reported Mindful Parenting Relate to the Observed Quality of Parenting Behavior and Mother-Child Interaction?

Mindfulness (N Y). 2021;12(2):344-356. doi: 10.1007/s12671-020-01533-0. Epub 2020 Nov 10.

Authors

Eva S Potharst^{1

2}, Anna Leyland³, Cristina Colonnesi², Irena K Veringa², Eliala A Salvadori², Marta Jakschik¹, Susan M Bögels^{2

4}, Moniek A J Zeegers²

Affiliations

¹ UvA minds, Academic Outpatient (Child and Adolescent) Treatment Center of the University of Amsterdan, Banstraat 29, 1071 JW Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
² Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
⁴ Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Objectives: Growing academic interest in mindful parenting (MP) requires a reliable and valid measure for use in research and clinical setting. Because MP concerns the way parents relate to, and nurture, their children, it is important to evaluate the associations between self-reported MP and observed parenting and parent-child interaction measures.

Methods: Seventy-three mothers who experience difficulties with their young children aged 0-48 months admitted for a Mindful with your baby/toddler training (63% in a mental health care and 27% in a preventative context) were included. Mothers completed the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting scale (IM-P) and video-observations of parent-child interactions were coded for maternal sensitivity, acceptance, mind-mindedness, and emotional communication (EC).

Results: The IM-P total score was positively associated only with mothers' gaze to the child (EC). IM-P subscale Listening with Full Attention negatively predicted non-attuned mind-mindedness, Compassion with the Child positively predicted maternal sensitivity and positive facial expression (EC), and Emotional Awareness of Self positively predicted mothers' gaze to the child (EC) and dyadic synchrony of positive affect (EC).

Conclusions: The current study provides support for the hypothesis that the IM-P total score is predictive of maternal actual attention for the child during a face-to-face interaction. When the IM-P is administered with the aim to gain understanding of different aspects of parenting behavior and the parent-child interaction, it is important not only to employ the IM-P total score but also to incorporate the individual IM-P subscales, as meaningful associations between IM-P subscales and observed parenting and parent-child interactions were found.

Keywords: Emotional communication; Infants; Maternal sensitivity; Mind-mindedness; Mindful parenting; Mothers; Observational measure; Parent-child interaction; Parenting; Self-report measure; Toddlers.