Family‐centered profiles of mindful parenting: Longitudinal associations with negative parenting and youth emotional and behavioral problems

Abstract There has been great interest in analyzing the potential of mindful parenting in promoting family well‐being. Studies indicated that there is a lack of research on the predictive relationship between parenting practice and youth emotional and behavioral problems analyzed from a multi‐informant perspective. This study evaluates the family‐centered profiles of mothers and fathers' mindful parenting and negative parenting and youth problems associated with those profiles. A total of 441 youths (aged 9–14 years), along with their parents, answered self‐report questionnaires in a three‐wave longitudinal study conducted over 1 year. A latent profile analysis was performed to examine the mindful parenting profiles and to identify their associations with youth emotional and behavioral problems and negative parenting as outcomes. The results of latent profile analyses supported a three‐profile solution: low mindful parenting family (35%), high maternal mindful parenting family (24%), and average mindful parenting family (41%). The low mindful parenting family profile showed the highest scores on negative parenting and youth emotional and behavioral problems. The high maternal mindful parenting family profile had the lowest scores on youth negative outcomes but demonstrated similar levels to those of the average mindful parenting family profile regarding negative parenting. Our findings highlight the importance of analyzing specific family profiles that help to develop personalized interventions with optimized treatments regarding family cohesion and environment.