Title:
A mindful parenting program for parents of children with social impairments
Author:
David J. Whitsett
Thesis Advisor:
Sharon Green-Hennessy
Committee Member:
Beth A. Kotchick
Committee Member:
Matthew W. Kirkhart
Committee Member:
Carolyn M. Barry
Committee Member:
Stephen E. Fowl
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola Univeristy Maryland
Date Created:
2018
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
Social competence is an integral part of human development. The ability to develop positive relationships with peers is an important predictor of future adaptation. As a result, social skills trainings (SSTs) have been developed and widely disseminated in order to support skills development in children and adolescents. Many of these include concurrent parenting trainings that are aimed at reinforcing acquired social skills at home. However, the trajectory of a child’s social development depends not only on teaching and reinforcement of skills, but on other parenting factors as well, such as the overall quality of parenting and the parents’ own level of stress. As a result, it is possible that collateral parent trainings for parents of children with social skills deficits might be enhanced by interventions that also target parenting behaviors and stress. One promising avenue for this could be the inclusion of collateral mindful parenting, which is posited to improve enhance emotion-regulation skills and thereby the overall quality of parenting. This study sought to compare the effectiveness of a traditional collateral parenting skills program for children with social skills deficits to one enhanced with mindfulness-based instruction. Participants included 18 primary caregivers of children with social weaknesses who were enrolled in a social skills group at small community mental health clinic. Parents were assigned to either five-week standard collateral parenting intervention or to one enhanced with mindfulness-based instruction. Linear regression was used to assess the effect of the enhanced treatment on parenting mindfulness, stress, and parenting styles. Results did not show any significant differences across outcomes between the standard and enhanced groups, which contrasts with previous studies of mindful parenting. The lack of significant findings may reflect inadequate treatment length, limited statistical power, and/or a poor fit between the intervention and this particular patient population. Future mindful programs would benefit by ensuring that (a) mindfulness is an appropriate fit for their population and (b) the intervention is of sufficient duration for parents to gain mastery of mindfulness skills.
Subject:
Parenting
Subject:
Children
Subject:
Interpersonal relations
Subject:
Academic theses
Degree:
Doctor of Clinical Psychology
Level:
Doctor
Discipline:
Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online to Loyola Notre Dame Library basic constituency.
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Identifier:
WhitsettDJ-23