The mediating role of children's perfectionism in the association between mindful parenting and children’s well-being

Moreira, H.; Maia, B.

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/54177

Use this identifier to reference this record.

Name:	Description:	Size:	Format:
28037284.pdf		809.63 KB	Adobe PDF	Download

Send Feedback

Authors

Moreira, H.

Maia, B.

Abstract(s)

Although scarce, there is some evidence that parental practices are associated with the development of children’s perfectionism. Mindful parenting, a parental approach characterized by the practice of bringing mindful awareness to parent-child interactions, is associated with several positive psychosocial outcomes in children. However, no study examined whether it is associated with children’s perfectionism. The aim of this study is to test a path model to explore whether mindful parenting can contribute to lower levels of children’s perfectionism and, consequently, to higher levels of children’s well-being. A sample of 222 mother- child dyads (56.3% girls; Mage = 11.97 years, SD = 2.91, range = 8-18 years) was collected in a public school in central Portugal. Mothers completed the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale and children completed the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale and the Kidscreen-10 index. The indirect effect of mindful parenting on children’s well-being through perfectionism (socially prescribed perfectionism and self-oriented perfectionism) was explored through the Process macro for SPSS. Children’s age was introduced as a covariate. Higher levels of mindful parenting were associated with higher levels of children’s well-being only through lower levels of socially prescribed perfectionism (point estimate = .036, 95%BcCI = [.002, .100]), in a model explaining 30.26% of the children’s well-being variance. These results suggest that mindful parents seem to help their children to be less perfectionists, particularly to feel less pressured by others to be perfect, and consequently, to experience greater well-being. One key feature of mindful parenting is the non-judgmental acceptance of children’s shortcomings and limitations, which seem to protect them from developing maladaptive perfectionism.