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There is strong evidence that parents of children with developmental disabilities are more likely to report parental stress and depression. This, in turn, leads to vicious cycles of negative outcomes for these children and the family's well-being. To use mindfulness training to address the difficulties of such parents, the authors developed a brief mindful parenting program (6 weekly sessions, 9 total contact hours, and 10 minutes of home practice per day). A randomized control trial was designed to examine the effectiveness of the program. The results showed that after completing the program, parents had significant improvements in parental stress (F[1, 176] = 4.76, p = .03), depression (F[1, 176] = 8.07, p = .01), and stress from parentchild dysfunctional interaction (F[1, 176] = 6.46, p = .01). Based on the pretest scores, parents with severe stress and depression reported more significant positive changes, and they reported moderate effect sizes of 0.62 for stress and 0.57 for depression respectively. Participant satisfaction scores revealed that the parents were satisfied with the content and overall program arrangement, and agreed that their ability to cope with emotions and stress was enhanced. The results gave support to the program's feasibility. Future studies could further compare its outcomes with a

IntroductionMindfulness is one of the potential alternative interventions for children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Some evidence suggests that mindfulness is related to changes in brain regions associated with ADHD. The potential benefits of mindfulness on children with ADHD, as well as the feasibility of this intervention approach, are warranted through prior local and foreign studies. This study aims to evaluate the effect of mindfulness-based group intervention for children with ADHD and their respective parents through a robust research design.Methods and analysisThis study will adopt a randomised controlled trial design including 140 children aged 8–12 years with ADHD together with one of their parents (n=140). These families will be randomised into intervention group (n=70) who will be offered the MYmind programme delivered by trained healthcare professionals, and an active control group (n=70) who will be offered the CBT programme. The intervention includes 8 weekly 90 min group sessions for children with ADHD (aged 8–12 years) and their respective parents. The primary and secondary outcomes will include children’s attention, ADHD-related symptoms, behaviours, executive function and mindfulness levels measured by validated objective measures and parent’s reported instruments. Parents’ parental stress, parenting styles, ADHD related symptoms, well-being, rumination level and mindfulness levels will also be measured. Analysis is by intention to treat. The effects of intervention will be evaluated by comparing outcomes between the two arms, as well as comparing outcomes within subject through comparing measurements at baseline (T0), immediately after the 8 week intervention (T1) and at 3 (T2) and 6 (T3) months postintervention.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval has been granted by the Joint Chinese University of Hong Kong – New Territories East Cluster Clinical Research Ethics Committee (The Joint CUHK-NTEC CREC). Participants will be required to sign informed consent form from both parents and children. Findings will be reported in conferences and peer-reviewed publications in accordance with recommendations of Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials.Trial registration numberChiCTR1800014741; Pre-results.

This study investigated the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a concurrent mindfulness program (MYmind) on Chinese adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and their parents in Hong Kong, China using a randomized controlled trial with a waitlist control group. Results showed the study had 80% compliance rate, 0% dropout rate, and 89% response rate. Between-group comparisons showed mindfulness had trend effects on parent’s rumination (g = 1.16), mindful parenting (d = 0.6), parenting style (d = 0.59), and parenting stress (d = 0.5). The study demonstrated the feasibility of the MYmind program in the Chinese context. A larger trial with longer follow-up period is suggested to better examine the effect of mindfulness on adolescents with ASD and their parents.