The Mutual Role of Mindful Parenting on Parents’ Subjective Well-being and Young Children’s Emotional Regulation Through Reducing Perceived Parenting Daily Hassles

Mindful parenting interventions have shown to be positively associated with mental health of both parents and children in clinical settings. However, there is limited research on the links between mindful parenting and parents’ and children’s social-emotional well-being in community samples. The current study aimed to explore the mutual role of mindful parenting on parents’ subjective well-being and children’s emotional regulation in a community sample. We also sought to further examine the mediating role of perceived parenting daily hassles to explain these relationships in a sample of parents with healthy preschoolers.

Four hundred and ninety-four parents of preschool children (58.3% boys; the mean age = 5.08, SD = 1.15) completed questionnaires assessing mindful parenting, parenting daily hassles, overall life satisfaction, positive and negative feelings, and their children’s emotional regulation.

We found that mindful parenting was related to higher levels of parents’ overall subjective well-being and children’s emotional regulation and lower levels of perceived parenting daily hassles. A decrease in perceived parenting daily hassles may serve as an explanation for the associations between mindful parenting and parents’ subjective well-being and children’s emotional regulation.

This research helped us better understand the associations of mindful parenting with parents’ subjective well-being and children’s emotional regulation through perceived parenting daily hassles among community samples.