Results provide some preliminary support for two of the six proposed pathways of change by mindful parenting in a mental health care context: reducing parental stress and the assumed effect on
parental reactivity and improving marital functioning and co-parenting.
The design and small power of this pilot study prohibits further analysis of mediation of change mechanisms, but one direction of research would be to investigate whether reduction of parental stress is the mechanism through which
parental reactivity towards the child is reduced.
There is preliminary evidence that mindful parenting programs reduce parental stress and resulting
parental reactivity (process 1), reduce aspects of child mental disorder (process 2), and improve marital functioning and co-parenting (process 6).
Roughly 1 h of each session focused on (1) understanding the role of
parental reactivity («the low road», Siegel and Hartzell 2004) and its relatedness to stress and fatigue, own upbringing patterns, personal or relational difficulties (e.g., lack of perceived partner support), child mental health problems (e.g., behavior problems), and historically grown parent — child interaction patterns, (2) taking care of yourself as a parent, (3) non-judgmental attention for the child, (4) acceptance of the child and its difficulties, and (5) rupture and repair in the context of parenting.
Not exact matches
Babies who had spent more weeks «rooming in» with their parents experienced less cortisol
reactivity, even after controlling for other factors, like
parental sensitivity and attachment security (Beijers et al 2013).
In support of this model, multiple studies have shown the association between infant negative
reactivity and later psychosocial outcomes such as problem behaviour and self - regulation to be moderated by
parental behaviour, so that highly reactive children fare better than others when they experience optimal parenting but worse than others when they experience negative parenting.41 - 46 Further support is found in studies indicating that interventions targeting
parental attitudes and / or behaviours are particularly effective for children with a history of negative reactive temperament.47, 49
Positive emotional
reactivity and self - regulation are important
parental factors in developing healthy children's temperament.
The psychosocial outcome receiving the most attention from researchers is problem behaviour, with most studies finding perceived negative
reactivity in infancy to predict problem behaviour in childhood33, 34 and adolescent.35 Specifically, infants prone to high levels of fear, frustration, and sadness, as well as difficulty recovering from such distress, were found to be at increased risk for internalizing and externalizing problem behaviours according to
parental and / or teacher report.
Finally, because of the persistence of negative
reactivity for some infants more adverse outcomes are likely, particularly if the
parental environment is non-supportive.
In humans,
parental social support has been shown to be inversely associated with asthma prevalence among children.55 Furthermore, maternal sensitivity has been shown to modify the effects of prenatal stress experiences on infant stress
reactivity.56
For example, child positive emotional
reactivity, fearfulness, and self - regulation elicit warmth from parents, whereas child negative emotional
reactivity results in more negative
parental control.
With contradictions possibly related to child age, some studies suggest that child negative emotionality elicits more
parental warmth, 10 whereas other studies suggest it has mixed associations with
parental warmth.11 However, there is more consistent evidence that high levels of
parental sensitivity / responsivity lead to less child negative
reactivity.8, 12 There is also some evidence that child negative emotionality predicts more negative
parental control, 7 and a little evidence that negative
parental control predicts more negative emotionality.13 In terms of more specific aspects of negative emotionality, child fearfulness predicts more
parental warmth and more positive control.14 Similarly, low levels of
parental warmth predict increases in fearfulness.12
Based on studies conducted so far, findings suggest that child positive emotional
reactivity, fearfulness, and self - regulation elicit warmth from parents, whereas child negative emotional
reactivity results in more negative
parental control.
Temperament — Parenting: There is some, but not much, evidence that child positive emotional
reactivity may elicit higher levels of
parental warmth.6, 7 There is also a little evidence of the opposite direction of effects, suggesting that
parental warmth gives rise to more child positive emotionality.8, 9 We do not yet have enough evidence to know whether child positivity and
parental control influence one another.
Studies demonstrating this greater susceptibility of neurobiologically responsive children to both positive and negative aspects of their environments have implicated a wide variety of stressors and adversities, including paternal depression (67), marital conflict (68, 69),
parental psychopathology (70), and overall family distress (71); of positive environmental features, including
parental warmth (72) and supportive interventions (73); and of defining biological parameters, including physiological
reactivity (e.g., 74, 75), differences in brain circuitry (76), and gene polymorphisms (77, 78).
We also examined the interplay between brain function, dispositional empathy, and cortisol
reactivity to negative child feedback among mothers participating in a
parental decision making task (Part 2).
Babies who had spent more weeks «rooming in» with their parents experienced less cortisol
reactivity, even after controlling for other factors, like
parental sensitivity and attachment security (Beijers et al 2013).
The anticipated outcome of these exercises is decreased
parental stress and negative
reactivity, which may lead to an increased aptitude for selecting more optimal parenting practices.
Using an intent - to - treat design, COPEing with Toddler Behaviour yielded significant effects on child behavior problems, positive parent — child interaction, and
parental over
reactivity and depression, but not observed negative child behavior or
parental laxness.
Whereas fearless temperament can impair conscience development through insufficient engagement with important socialization cues (i.e., reduced face preference during early development; see Bedford et al., 2015), high emotional
reactivity / dysregulation might make children overwhelmed in negatively charged situations, thus more prone to miss such cues in those particular contexts where they tend to be elicited (e.g.,
parental anger, peer distress; see Hoffman, 1982; Young et al., 1999; Frick and Morris, 2004).
Selective Impact of Early
Parental Responsivity on Adolescent Stress
Reactivity.
Parental Problem Drinking is Associated with Children's Adrenocortical
Reactivity to Stress.
Third, Burney and Leerkes (2010; see also above), who examined
parental factors and temperamental
reactivity in 6 - month - old infants, also found prenatal marital functioning to moderate the association between infant temperament and coparenting.
Negative
reactivity and
parental warmth in early adolescence and depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood.
Findings suggest that children's attributions may be a mechanism through which
parental conditional negative regard is related to children's depressive symptoms and emotion
reactivity during a performance challenge.