Mindfulness-Enhanced Strengthening Families Program 10-14: Differential Effects and Mediation for Mothers and Fathers

Introduction: Mindfulness training is an innovative intervention technique for improving parenting skills, enhancing parent-youth relationship quality and reducing risk for youth problem behaviors. The evidence, however, has been limited primarily to small scale studies, reporting only on mothers. This presentation focuses on: 1) differential effects of the Mindfulness-based Strengthening Families (MSFP 10-14) program versus the original Strengthening Families 10-14 Program (SFP 10-14) on mindful parenting, parenting behaviors, parent-youth relationship quality and parent well-being for mothers and fathers; and, 2) tests whether changes in parental mindfulness mediates the program’s one-year effects on changes in parent-youth relationship quality and changes in parent-wellbeing.

Methods: 432 families of 6^th and 7^th graders from four communities were randomly assigned to MSFP, SFP or a home study control condition and assessed at baseline, post-intervention and one-year followup. Families were primarily European-American (69%) two-parent (66%) with median annual income of $49,000. Fifty-four percent of youth were female; average age was 12.14 (SD = .67). Youth and parents reported on parent mindfulness, parenting practices/child management strategies, and parent-youth relationship quality. Parents reported on parenting stress, parenting self-efficacy and overall well-being.

Results: HLM analyses have revealed significant differences (effect size) for youth report of maternal monitoring at post (ES = .26) and followup (ES = .31) with MSFP youth reporting more monitoring by mothers. Analyses also revealed that MSFP fathers reported greater mindful parenting (ES = .24-.46), support and understanding of their youth (ES = .22), and lower parenting stress (ES = -.33) than SFP fathers at followup. MSFP Youth also reported stronger relationship quality with fathers at post (ES = .27-.36), but not followup. SEM analyses indicated that changes in Mindful Parenting partially mediated intervention effects on parent-youth relationship quality for mothers in both the MSFP and SFP conditions, but only for fathers in the MSFP condition.

Conclusions: Results from one of the few RCTs testing a mindfulness-based family intervention provides evidence for the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions to change parenting practices and parent-youth relationship quality. Results also suggest the benefit of engaging fathers into interventions.