Mindful Parenting and Adolescents’ Behaviour Problems: The Moderating Role of Family Structure

This present study investigated the associations of mindful parenting with adolescents’ externalising and internalising problems in Chinese families and explored the moderating role of family structure. The sample included 134 Chinese parents (64.9% mothers; 23.1% single parents) aged 33 to 55, whose adolescents (56.7% girls) ranged from 11 to 16 years old. This study employed a cross-sectional survey on Qualtrics. Parents’ levels of mindful parenting and adolescents’ behaviour problems were measured with parent-reported items. Data were analysed using hierarchical linear regressions. As expected, quantitative results suggested that mindful parenting was significantly negatively associated with Chinese adolescents’ externalising and internalising problems. Contrary to the prediction, since this study found no interaction effects between family structure and mindful parenting on Chinese adolescents’ externalising and internalising problems, family structure did not moderate any associations of mindful parenting with Chinese adolescents’ behaviour problems. The study extended empirical studies to Chinese adolescents and offered fresh insights into potential variances in the influence of mindful parenting on adolescents from dual-parent and single-parent families. Furthermore, the study contributed policymakers and Chinese secondary schools to designing evidence-based mindful parenting training programmes