Parental Psychological Distress and Children’s Social Emotional Adjustment: Mindful Parenting and Children’s Gratitude as Mediators

Parents’ mental health may influence their emotion-related parenting such as mindful parenting. This, in turn, links to their children’s social emotional adjustment. However, the underlying mechanisms in this relation have not been fully investigated. Children’s gratitude may play a significant role, as it can be cultivated through mindful parenting practices, potentially facilitating their social emotional development. In line with emotion socialization, the current study examined the serial mediating roles of mindful parenting and children’s gratitude in the relation between parental psychological distress and children's social emotional adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. Participants consisted of 937 parents (87.8% mothers), with children aged 5 to 12 (M = 7.35 years, SD = 2.09; 51% girls) from Hong Kong. Parents reported their psychological distress, mindful parenting, children’s gratitude, internalizing problems, and prosocial behavior through an online questionnaire. We used structural equation modeling to examine the serial mediation model. The results showed that mindful parenting and children’s gratitude serially mediated the relationship between parental psychological distress and children's adjustment. These findings suggest that promoting mindful parenting and children’s gratitude may be effective strategies for prevention and intervention programs to support social emotional adjustment of children among distressed parents.