Development and Validation of Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale Among Chinese Mothers of Infants in the First Year of Life

The Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting (IM-P) Scale is widely used for assessing mindful parenting. However, there is a significant research gap regarding the relationship between mindful parenting in mothers of infants and their psychological well-being, as well as their infants’ emotional and behavioral problems. Thus, this study evaluated the psychometric properties of the IM-P scale among Chinese mothers of infants aged 0 to 12 months.

The study’s final sample included 948 mothers in mainland China. Participants completed the IM-P scale, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Parenting Stress Index, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised-Very Short Form online or on paper. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to determine the factor structure.

A 25-item Chinese version of the IM-P with six factors was developed based on the English version: listening with full attention, non-judgmental acceptance of parental functioning, emotional awareness of the child, compassion for the child, emotional awareness of the self, and emotional non-reactivity in parenting. Sufficient construct validity was supported by the fact that IM-P scores were moderately to strongly correlated with general mindfulness and weakly related or unrelated to a variety of unrelated constructs such as parenting stress, depression, and infant behavior. Furthermore, the Chinese IM-P demonstrated good reliability, including acceptable internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Importantly, IM-P scores predicted mothers’ psychological distress and infant behavioral styles.

The Chinese IM-P may be an effective and appropriate measure for clinicians and researchers studying mindful parenting in Chinese mothers of infants.