Gershy, Naama (5/14) Mentalization, mindfulness, and emotion regulation do parents need to mind themselves in order to mind their child (Nicholas Papouchis, Ph.D.; Kevin B. Meehan, Ph.D.;Haim Omer, Ph.D.)
Parent management training (PMT) has been considered the gold standard for treating children with externalizing disorders. A growing literature suggested the parents' emotional characteristics (i.e., experience of stress, impulse control and emotions towards the child) to be an important predictor of treatment outcomes. This study evaluated the addition of a mindfulness skills module to PMT in enhancing the parents' capacity for emotion regulation and mentalization, and in reducing negative feelings and coercive behaviors towards the child. In an outpatient clinic specializing in PMT in Non Violent Resistance method (NVR) for children with ADHD and behavior difficulties, seventy nine families (79 mothers and 73 fathers) were randomly assigned to an experimental condition (PMT+ mindfulness) and a control condition (PMT). Thirty eight families returned the end of treatment measures. Across treatments, mothers were found to significantly improve their capacity for emotion regulation and mentalization, and to reduce their level of negative feelings and escalating behaviors towards the child. Change during treatment did not differ between the experiment and control conditions. Small effect sizes between experiment and control groups were observed in relation to changes in fathers' and mothers' level of negative emotions and fathers' capacity for emotion regulation, suggesting that mindfulness based skills intervention may help parents reduce the negative emotional reactivity to the child's behaviors. The findings of the current study support the evolving model that views parental capacity for emotion regulation as a predictor of treatment change. Future research should further assess the applicability and utility of mindfulness skills training in PMT and develop ways for enhancing the parents' capacity for emotion regulation and mentalization.
