Parental mindfulness and externalizing problems in Chinese adolescents: Parenting anxiety and negative parenting as mechanisms

Objective The current study aims to examine parenting anxiety and negative parenting practices as intervening variables in the relation between parental dispositional mindfulness and Chinese adolescents' externalizing problems. Background Parental dispositional mindfulness is negatively associated with their adolescents' adjustment difficulties through both positive and negative parenting practices in Western samples. However, research does not support these same pathways of effects among Eastern samples. Therefore, there is a need to explore alternative mediators of the link between parental mindfulness and lower adolescent adjustment problems in Eastern cultures. The present study addresses this need by examining parenting anxiety as a mechanism linking parental dispositional mindfulness, negative parenting practices, and Chinese adolescents' externalizing problems. Methods Participants were 624 adolescents (aged from 9 to 18 years, M = 12.69 years, SD = 2.30) and their parents from urban areas in Southeast China. Parents completed questionnaires on their dispositional mindful awareness, parenting anxiety, and negative parenting practices, and adolescents reported on their externalizing problems. Results Structural equation modeling revealed that the indirect relation between parental dispositional mindful awareness and adolescents' externalizing problems was significant, with parenting anxiety and negative parenting practices as the first and second intervening variables. Conclusion The results highlighted the importance of parenting anxiety in the relation between parental mindful awareness and parenting. Implications It suggested that mindfulness-based parenting interventions may help alleviate parenting anxiety, which may further improve parenting behaviors and indirectly decrease adolescents' externalizing problems.