Mindful Parenting and Maternal Psychological Adjustment: The Mediating Role of Self-Expressiveness Within the Family

Mindful parenting has been linked to maternal psychological adjustment in mothers of babies, preschoolers and adolescents, but research including mothers of school-aged children is lacking. Also, little is known about the mechanisms linking mindful parenting and maternal psychological adjustment (e.g., maternal depression and parenting stress). The aims of this study were: first, to explore differences in mindful parenting, self-expressiveness within the family (SEF), maternal depression, and parenting stress as a function of sociodemographic and health-related variables; second, to analyze the associations between mindful parenting, SEF, maternal depression, and parenting stress; and third, to examine the mediating role of positive and negative SEF on the links between mindful parenting and maternal psychological adjustment (i.e., maternal depression and parenting stress). A sample of 229 mothers of elementary school-aged children was collected through online resources. Path analysis was used to explore direct and indirect effects between variables. First, results revealed differences in mindful parenting, negative SEF, maternal depression and parenting stress, depending on number of children, and health status-related variables. Second, while positive SEF correlated positively with mindful parenting and negatively with maternal depression and parenting stress, negative SEF, on the other hand, correlated positively with maternal depression and parenting stress. And third, positive SEF mediated the association between mindful parenting and maternal depression, while both positive and negative SEF mediated the association between mindful parenting and parenting stress. Mindful parenting interventions are likely to improve the psychological adjustment of mothers of school-aged children through the promotion of adaptive communication skills, namely SEF.