Positive parenting as a mediator of the association between mindful parenting and adolescent adjustment

2022 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Mindful parenting is characterized by parents paying intentional, present-centered, and nonjudgmental attention to their children and their own parenting. Empirical and theoretical support points to mindful parenting as a protective factor associated with lower incidence of adolescent behavioral problems and mental health issues such as externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Likewise, positive parenting behaviors that engender close and secure parent-child relationships have been shown to be a protective factor in reducing adolescent maladjustment. The current study was guided by three aims. The first aim was to examine whether adolescent reports of mindful parenting are negatively associated with adolescent reports of internalizing and externalizing behaviors, as has been found to be the case with parent reports. The associations between mindful parenting and adolescent adjustment were found to be negative and statistically significant across parent gender and adjustment outcome. The second aim was to examine whether adolescent reports of positive parenting practices mediate the association between mindful parenting and adolescent adjustment. The third aim was to examine whether mediation differs for reports of mothers' and fathers' mindful parenting. The interrelated positive parenting behaviors of parental autonomy granting, overcontrol, trust, and reaction to adolescent disclosure were analyzed as a factor variable and entered in the model as the mediator. Associations were examined at baseline without intervention and from an adolescent perspective rather than the more common parent perspective. Structural equation modeling was conducted using Mplus to test whether positive parenting practices mediate the association between parental mindfulness and adolescent adjustment. Adolescents' perception of mindful parenting on part of their mothers versus their fathers was found to make a larger perceived contribution to overall positive parenting in the household. Results of analyzing four separate models indicated that associations differed by parent gender and adolescent adjustment outcome, with significant mediation for all models with the exception of fathers' mindful parenting paired with the outcome of adolescent internalizing behavior. The finding of no significant direct pathways in the presence of significant indirect pathways of mediation models across outcomes and for either mothers or fathers is a consistent finding bolstering preliminary indications that the contribution of mindful parenting on adolescent adjustment may indeed be mediated. Overall, results provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that positive parenting mediates the association between mindful parenting and adolescent adjustment, while providing support for the notion that patterns may differ by parent gender. A better understanding of whether positive parenting practices might act as mediators of the benefits of mindful parenting has implications for parenting intervention work that could consider pairing mindfulness instruction with lessons on these specific positive parenting behaviors to optimize the buffer to adolescent maladjustment