The Effect Of Mindfulness On Parenting Styles Among Preschool Children’s Parents:A Moderated Mediation Model

Mindfulness is an increasingly popular concept in the field of mental health and is viewed as a positive mental quality that all people possess,i.e.,maintaining attention on the current experience or experience and subsequently allowing for a deepening awareness of the mental activity in the present moment and a specific orientation or attitude toward the current experience or experience,such as curiosity,openness,and acceptance,as well as an ability or disposition that is common among individuals but varies between individuals.Research has found that parents’ level of mindfulness is a significant predictor of their parenting style,i.e.,the emotional climate in which parents raise their children and the specific behaviors parents use to interact with their children.However,there are no clear results on the mechanisms underlying this predictive effect.In recent years,more and more researchers have begun to focus on parenting roles and the subjective parenting experiences and behaviors they possess,and parental burnout has attracted the attention of researchers.Parental burnout is a set of negative symptoms that arise from prolonged exposure to parenting stress,such as feelings of depletion associated with the parenting role,emotional detachment from children,and low efficacy in the parenting role.With reference to previous studies,parental burnout has been found to affect the emotional climate of parenting in terms of interaction with children and parenting,while appreciated social support as a resource can buffer the negative effects of stress and burnout.Preschool children are less independent and have a strong dependence on their parents,who also have a heavy parenting load during this period.In this paper,we explore the influence of mindfulness on parenting styles of parents of preschool children,and explore the mediating role of parental burnout and the moderating role of social support in the relationship between parental burnout and parenting styles,in an attempt to develop a moderating mediating model to enrich the domestic and international research on parenting psychology and behavior of parents of preschool children.This study used a questionnaire survey with 502 parents of preschool children,and the findings were as follows.（1）Parents of preschool children were at an intermediate level of mindfulness;parents of preschool children with above-average income levels had significantly higher mindfulness scores than parents of preschool children with average and below-average income levels,and parents of preschool children with average income levels had significantly higher mindfulness levels than parents of preschool children with below-average income levels.（2）The authoritative parenting style of young children’s parents is at the upper middle level,and the authoritarian parenting style is at the lower level;the gender difference is significant,women are more inclined to authoritative parenting,while men are more inclined to authoritarian parenting;the income level is significantly different,and the score of the authoritarian parenting style of parents whose income level is lower than that of parents with income is higher than that of parents,while the score of authoritative parenting style is significantly lower than that of parents whose income is higher than average;the parental authoritative parenting style is significantly marginal in the difference in educational level The score of authoritative parenting style for parents with an education level of junior high school and below is significantly lower than that of parents with a college degree or above.（3）Parental burnout was at a low level and differed significantly by age of parents,with parents aged 36 years and older having significantly lower levels of Parental burnout than parents aged 30 years and younger.（4）Parents of preschool children with moderate to high levels of perceived social support;significant differences in income,with parents of preschool children with above-average income having significantly higher perceived social support scores than parents of preschool children with below-average income.（5）There is a significant correlation between mindfulness,perception of social support,parental burnout and parenting style,among which mindfulness,perception of social support and authoritative parenting style are significantly positively correlated,and parental burnout and authoritarian parenting style are significantly correlated.Positive correlation,parental burnout was negatively correlated with mindfulness,perceived social support and authoritative parenting style,and authoritarian parenting style was negatively correlated with mindfulness,perceived social support and authoritative parenting style.（6）After controlling for age,education,income level,and education,Parental burnout partially mediated the relationship between mindfulness and parenting style,with 34.1% mediating the effect of Parental burnout between mindfulness and authoritative parenting style and 48.9% mediating the effect of Parental burnout between positive parenting and authoritarian parenting style.（7）The moderating effect between perceived social support and Parental burnout and parenting style was found,where the predictive effect of Parental burnout on authoritative parenting style and authoritarian parenting style was enhanced at low levels of perceived social support.Based on these results,we conclude that mindfulness,as a positive psychological quality,can positively influence parenting psychology and behavior,and that the level of mindfulness of parents of preschool children can directly and indirectly（i.e.,through Parental burnout）influence parenting styles.Perceived social support is an important resource that can effectively mitigate the negative effects of Parental burnout on parenting styles.Parental burnout is an important risk factor affecting parenting styles of preschool children,therefore,effective interventions on Parental burnout of young parents will have a positive effect on enhancing positive parenting of preschool children.