Mindful Parenting: A Behavioral Tool for Parent Wellbeing

Abstract

Parents often suffer from conditions such as stress and depression due to the high demands ofparenting. In particular, parenting children with some form of developmental disability maybring about increased maladaptive behaviors that may increase daily parenting stressors. Thefast-spreading repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic has left millions of parents across theglobe to deal with various stressors in isolation. Recent studies have demonstrated theeffectiveness of mindfulness as an intervention on targeting individuals’ behaviors such asaggression, SIB, and non-compliance while increasing overall well-being and happiness levels.Significant decreases in target behaviors are noted across studies as well as increases in parentsatisfaction and well-being. This study proposes to review the use of mindfulness within thescope of behavior analysis as a tool that can be quickly implemented to support parents not onlythrough this crisis but throughout parenthood in general.Keywords: mindfulness, parent training, COVID-19, behavior reduction, parent wellbeing