Parental mindfulness and externalizing problems in Chinese adolescents: Parenting anxiety and negative parenting as mechanisms

• Published date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Shuang Bi,Huiwei Zhou,Juan Wang,Hui Zhou,Peggy S. Keller
• Date: 01 October 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12783

RESEARCH

Parental mindfulness and externalizing problems

in Chinese adolescents: Parenting anxiety

and negative parenting as mechanisms

Shuang Bi

1

|Huiwei Zhou

2,4

|Juan Wang

3

|Hui Zhou

2

|

Peggy S. Keller

5

1

Department of Applied Psychology, College

of Public Administration, Guangzhou,

Guangdong, China

2

Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen

University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

3

School of Psychology, Beijing Normal

University, Beijing, China

4

The Liede Experimental School of

Guangzhou Tianhe Middle School,

Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

5

Department of Psychology, University of

Kentucky, Lexington, KY

Correspondence Hui Zhou, Department of

Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University,

Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

Email: edszh@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Funding information

Department of Education of Guangdong

Province, Grant/Award Number:

2020WTSCX015

Abstract

Objective: The current study aims to examine parenting

anxiety and negative parenting practices as intervening vari-

ables in the relationbetween parental dispositional mindful-

ness and Chinese adolescents’externalizing problems.

Background: Parental dispositional mindfulness is nega-

tively associated with their adolescents’adjustment diffi-

culties through both positive and negative parenting

practices in Western samples. However, research does not

support these same pathways of effects among Eastern

samples. Therefore, there is a need to explore alternative

mediators of the link between parental mindfulness and

lower adolescent adjustment problems in Eastern cultures.

The present study addresses this need by examining par-

enting anxiety as a mechanism linking parental disposi-

tional mindfulness, negative parenting practices, and

Chinese adolescents’externalizing problems.

Methods: Participants were 624 adolescents (aged from 9 to

18 years,M=12.69 years,SD =2.30) and their parents

from urban areas in Southeast China. Parents completed

questionnaires on their dispositional mindful awareness,

parenting anxiety, and negative parenting practices, and

adolescents reported on their externalizingproblems.

Results: Structural equation modeling revealed that the

indirect relation between parental dispositional mindful

awareness and adolescents’externalizing problems was sig-

nificant, with parenting anxiety and negative parenting

practices as the first and second intervening variables.

Author Note Shuang Bi and Huiwei Zhou have contributed equally to this study. The manuscript does not contain clinical studies or

patient data. All the participants in this study voluntarily joined this study after providing informed consent. The authors declare that

they have no conflict of interest. Shuang Bi ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8362-1210 Peggy S. Keller ORCID ID: https://

orcid.org/0000-0002-3050-5670

Received: 15 February 2022Revised: 6 July 2022Accepted: 11 September 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12783

© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:1643–1655. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 1643