Feasibility of a brief online mindfulness intervention for parents of children with developmental disabilities

Parents of children with developmental disabilities often experience increased levels of distress but have difficulty accessing face-to-face mental health care due to parenting demands. A brief, online mindfulness intervention was designed to improve accessibility for these families. Ten mothers completed a 2-week intervention in addition to pre-post measures of mood and mindfulness. Six participants provided 3-month follow-up data. Immediate reductions in distress and improvements in mindfulness were reported, with gains maintained over time. Despite difficulties with recruitment, satisfaction ratings and user-end data suggested good engagement. Online mindfulness training may help to alleviate distress as well as enhance wellbeing for parents of children with a developmental disability. These promising findings require confirmation with an adequately powered randomised controlled trial.