Specializing in Clinical Psychology

Parental depression can interfere with numerous aspects of parents ’ lives, including parenting behaviors. Previous research has explored the relationship between past parental depression or current depressive symptoms and negative parenting behaviors. The current study investigates two models of mediation to explain the relationship between parental depression and parenting. In the first, it explores whether mindfulness mediates the relationship between past depression severity and three parenting behaviors: withdrawn/disengaged parenting, low levels of positive parenting and poor monitoring/supervision. In the second, it explores whether mindfulness mediates the relationship between current depressive symptoms and four parenting behaviors: withdrawn/disengaged parenting, low levels of positive parenting, poor monitoring/supervision and inconsistent discipline. The sample draws from two researc