Effectiveness of Mindful Parenting Intervention on Depressive Symptoms in Children of Mothers with Perfectionistic Personality Traits

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Parental perfectionism, particularly among mothers, may contribute to rigid parenting expectations and emotionally controlling interactions that increase children’s vulnerability to internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a mindful parenting intervention on anxiety/depression and withdrawal/depression symptoms in children of mothers with perfectionistic personality traits.

Methodology: This study employed a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design with a control group and a two-month follow-up. The statistical population consisted of 6- to 7-year-old children with depressive symptoms and their perfectionistic mothers living in Tehran in 2023. Forty mother–child dyads were selected using purposive sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Following participant attrition, data from 35 participants were included in the final analysis. The experimental group received eight 90-minute sessions of mindful parenting intervention based on the protocol developed by Susan Bögels and Restifo (2014). Research instruments included the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale developed by Paul Hewitt and Flett, as well as the Anxiety/Depression and Withdrawal/Depression subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist developed by Thomas Achenbach and Rescorla. Data were analyzed using mixed repeated-measures analysis of variance in SPSS-25.

Findings: The results indicated that the effect of time was significant for both anxiety/depression (F=6.85, p<0.01) and withdrawal/depression (F=10.69, p<0.01). Moreover, the interaction effect of time and group was significant for anxiety/depression (F=17.84, p<0.001) and withdrawal/depression (F=14.70, p<0.001). The between-group effect of treatment on anxiety/depression was also significant (F=4.77, p<0.05), indicating a reduction in anxiety/depression symptoms in the experimental group compared to the control group. However, the between-group effect of treatment on withdrawal/depression was not statistically significant (F=2.10, p>0.05).

Conclusion: Mindful parenting intervention was effective in reducing anxiety/depression symptoms among children of mothers with perfectionistic personality traits, although it did not significantly affect withdrawal/depression symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of mindfulness-based parenting approaches in improving parent–child interactions and reducing children’s emotional difficulties. The results also suggest that additional child-centered interventions may be required to effectively address social withdrawal symptoms in children.