Robyn Farley, Natalja A Nabinger de Diaz, Lisa Marie Emerson, Gabrielle Simcock, Caroline Donovan, Lara J Farrell
{"title":"Mindful Parenting Group Intervention for Parents of Children with Anxiety Disorders.","authors":"Robyn Farley, Natalja A Nabinger de Diaz, Lisa Marie Emerson, Gabrielle Simcock, Caroline Donovan, Lara J Farrell","doi":"10.1007/s10578-023-01492-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Parenting behaviour and rearing style contribute to the intergenerational relationship between parental and child anxiety. Current psychological interventions for child anxiety typically do not adequately address parental mental health, parenting behaviours or the parent-child relationship. The current pilot study examines the effectiveness of a mindful parenting intervention (MPI) for parents of young children with clinical anxiety. It was hypothesised that the intervention would be associated with improvements in parental stress, mental health, and mindfulness, and a reduction in child clinical anxiety symptoms. Twenty-one parents of children aged 3-7 years diagnosed with anxiety disorders participated in an 8-week group MPI program that aimed to increase their intentional moment to moment awareness of the parent-child relationship. Parental (anxiety, depression, hostility, stress, burden, mindfulness, mindful parenting) and child (anxiety diagnoses, anxiety severity, comorbidities) outcomes were assessed at pre- and post-intervention, and at 3-month follow-up. Parents reported a significant increase in mindful parenting and a significant reduction in parent-child dysfunctional interaction, but no change in mental health symptoms. There was a significant reduction in parent-rated child anxiety symptoms, severity of child anxiety diagnosis and number of comorbid diagnoses at post and 3-month follow-up. Limitations include a lack of waitlist control, small sample size, and participants were largely mothers, from intact families and highly educated. There was attrition of 43% and outcomes were predominantly self-report. MPIs offer a novel and potentially effective method of increasing mindful parenting, decreasing dysfunctional parent-child interactions, reducing parenting stress and might also be an effective early intervention for indirectly decreasing young children's clinical anxiety symptoms. Larger-scale controlled trials of MPIs are needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":10024,"journal":{"name":"Child Psychiatry & Human Development","volume":" ","pages":"1342-1353"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9869845/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Child Psychiatry & Human Development","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-023-01492-2","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/1/23 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Parenting behaviour and rearing style contribute to the intergenerational relationship between parental and child anxiety. Current psychological interventions for child anxiety typically do not adequately address parental mental health, parenting behaviours or the parent-child relationship. The current pilot study examines the effectiveness of a mindful parenting intervention (MPI) for parents of young children with clinical anxiety. It was hypothesised that the intervention would be associated with improvements in parental stress, mental health, and mindfulness, and a reduction in child clinical anxiety symptoms. Twenty-one parents of children aged 3-7 years diagnosed with anxiety disorders participated in an 8-week group MPI program that aimed to increase their intentional moment to moment awareness of the parent-child relationship. Parental (anxiety, depression, hostility, stress, burden, mindfulness, mindful parenting) and child (anxiety diagnoses, anxiety severity, comorbidities) outcomes were assessed at pre- and post-intervention, and at 3-month follow-up. Parents reported a significant increase in mindful parenting and a significant reduction in parent-child dysfunctional interaction, but no change in mental health symptoms. There was a significant reduction in parent-rated child anxiety symptoms, severity of child anxiety diagnosis and number of comorbid diagnoses at post and 3-month follow-up. Limitations include a lack of waitlist control, small sample size, and participants were largely mothers, from intact families and highly educated. There was attrition of 43% and outcomes were predominantly self-report. MPIs offer a novel and potentially effective method of increasing mindful parenting, decreasing dysfunctional parent-child interactions, reducing parenting stress and might also be an effective early intervention for indirectly decreasing young children's clinical anxiety symptoms. Larger-scale controlled trials of MPIs are needed.
期刊介绍:
Child Psychiatry & Human Development is an interdisciplinary international journal serving the groups represented by child and adolescent psychiatry, clinical child/pediatric/family psychology, pediatrics, social science, and human development. The journal publishes research on diagnosis, assessment, treatment, epidemiology, development, advocacy, training, cultural factors, ethics, policy, and professional issues as related to clinical disorders in children, adolescents, and families. The journal publishes peer-reviewed original empirical research in addition to substantive and theoretical reviews.