Longitudinal Impact of Mindful Parenting on Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Objectives The present study examined the longitudinal impact of mindful parenting on child internalizing and externalizing symptoms in families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and explored the potential mechanisms underlying this impact. We hypothesized that mindful parenting would be longitudinally associated with decrements in child internalizing and externalizing symptoms and these associations would be mediated by increased parent-child closeness and reduced parent-child conflict. Methods Data were collected from 441 parents of children with ASD in three waves (W1, W2, W3) over 2 years. Measures included mindful parenting, parent-child closeness and conflict, and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Results Path analyses showed that, when demographic factors and autoregressive effects were controlled, mindful parenting at W1 had significant direct effects on parent-child closeness and conflict at W2. While parent-child closeness at W2 had non-significant direct effects on child internalizing and externalizing symptoms at W3, parent-child conflict at W2 had significant direct effects on child internalizing and externalizing symptoms at W3. Bootstrap analyses further showed that mindful parenting at W1 had significant indirect effects on child internalizing and externalizing symptoms at W3 through parent-child conflict at W2. Conclusions Our findings reveal the longitudinal impact of mindful parenting on child psychopathology. In particular, our findings indicate that mindful parenting is associated with lower levels of child internalizing and externalizing symptoms through lower levels of maladaptive parent-child interactions.