Symposia
Parenting / Families
Grace H. Cain, B.A. (she/her/hers)
Graduate Student
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Yexinyu Yang, MA (she/her/hers)
Graduate Student
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Laura G. McKee, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Associate Professor
Georgia State University
Decatur, Georgia
Justin Parent, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor (Research)
Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island
Deborah Jones, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Zachary Smith Distinguished Term Professor
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Objectives: Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) is considered the standard of care for early-onset (3- to 8-years old) Behavior Disorders (BDs), which disproportionately affect children from homes that are low-income. However, BPT does not work equally well for all families, highlighting the importance of better understanding predictors of treatment progress and outcomes. Parent mindfulness has been discussed as one such correlate, and researchers have adapted BPT to target mindfulness with mixed results. Past research has not examined parent dispositional mindfulness as a predictor of skill mastery.
Methods: This study explored the link between parent self-reported dispositional mindfulness at baseline and observed parent skill mastery in a sample of 101 families with low income during a mastery-based BPT program, Helping the Noncompliant Child.
Results: Results of a spline growth model suggest that parents with greater dispositional mindfulness achieved higher levels of skill mastery than those with lower mindfulness. However, this varied by aspect of skill mastery, time point, and statistical analyses.
Conclusions: Parent dispositional mindfulness was associated with parent use of BPT skills. Findings have the potential to inform tailored BPT programs consistent with a precision medicine approach.