Mindfulness As a Mediator of Response to a Parent Training Intervention for Military Families

Introduction: Parental deployment can be disruptive to family adjustment and negatively impact parenting behaviors in military families. Given the high rate of military deployment in the United States, it is critical to better understand how to support parenting in these families. Mindfulness skills have been identified as a valuable component of effective parenting, but less is known about the role of parenting training interventions in supporting the development of mindfulness skills. The present study evaluated the impact of a parenting training intervention for military families on mindfulness skills and how the development of mindfulness skills related to improved parenting behaviors.

Methods: A sample of 336 families with a history of parental deployment overseas were recruited to participate in a randomized controlled trial of the ADAPT preventive intervention. ADAPT is a 14-week intervention designed to support parenting in military families adapted from a Parent Management Training – Oregon (PMTO) model framework. Adaptions included the incorporation of mindfulness and emotion coaching components. Both mothers and fathers completed a measure of mindfulness skills (Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire) at baseline and a 6 month follow up and parenting behaviors (Alabama Parenting Questionnaire – Short Form) at baseline and a 12 month follow up.

Results: An Actor Partner Independence Model (APIM) framework was used to simultaneously estimate effects for mothers and fathers individually as well as the impact of each on their partner. For both mothers and fathers, a mediational path model was embedded within the APIM to examine the relationship between participation in the intervention, mindfulness skills at the 6 month follow up and parenting behaviors at the 12 month follow up. Baseline mindfulness skills, parenting behaviors, and other demographic characteristics were controlled for in the model. The model was a strong fit for the data and revealed that the intervention was associated with improved mindfulness skills for mothers at 6 months when compared to control participants. Furthermore, mothers’ mindfulness skills were associated with improved parenting behaviors in mothers at 12 months. While fathers’ mindfulness skills did not improve as a result of the intervention, they were associated with mothers’ improved parenting behaviors at 12 months.

Conclusions: Improvements in mindfulness skills as a result of a parent training program were associated with improvements in self-reported parenting behaviors for mothers within military families. Fathers’ mindfulness skills also seem to facilitate improvement in mothers’ parenting behaviors. Mindfulness skills appear to be a relevant target of parent training programs for military families.