Interactive effects of mindfulness and negative urgency on intimate partner aggression perpetration.

Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is a costly and incompletely understood phenomenon. Negative urgency, the tendency to act impulsively in response to negative affect, is predictive of IPA perpetration. Mindfulness, by virtue of its emphasis on nonreactivity to negative affect, is an opposing force to urgent tendencies that may mitigate the negative urgency-IPA link. Yet, no research to date investigates the interactive effects of negative urgency and mindfulness on IPA perpetration. Two studies were conducted that measured and manipulated multiple facets of mindfulness alongside measures of negative urgency and tendencies of IPA perpetration (combined N = 508 undergraduate students in monogamous intimate relationships). Counter to our preregistered predictions, we found that negative urgency's association with greater IPA perpetration increased at higher levels of mindfulness. These findings suggest that mindfulness may not be a protective factor against IPA perpetration for individuals higher in negative urgency, but rather may serve as a risk factor.

Inside the mindful moment: The effects of brief mindfulness practice on large-scale network organization and intimate partner aggression.

Mindfulness can produce neuroplastic changes that support adaptive cognitive and emotional functioning. Recently interest in single-exercise mindfulness instruction has grown considerably because of the advent of mobile health technology. Accordingly, the current study sought to extend neural models of mindfulness by investigating transient states of mindfulness during single-dose exposure to focused attention meditation. Specifically, we examined the ability of a brief mindfulness induction to attenuate intimate partner aggression via adaptive changes to intrinsic functional brain networks. We employed a dual-regression approach to examine a large-scale functional network organization in 50 intimate partner dyads (total n = 100) while they received either mindfulness (n = 50) or relaxation (n = 50) instruction. Mindfulness instruction reduced coherence within the Default Mode Network and increased functional connectivity within the Frontoparietal Control and Salience Networks. Additionally, mindfulness decoupled primary visual and attention-linked networks. Yet, this induction was unable to elicit changes in subsequent intimate partner aggression, and such aggression was broadly unassociated with any of our network indices. These findings suggest that minimal doses of focused attention-based mindfulness can promote transient changes in large-scale brain networks that have uncertain implications for aggressive behavior.

Affective Neural Mechanisms of a Parenting-Focused Mindfulness Intervention.

OBJECTIVES: Behavioral evidence suggests that parenting-focused mindfulness interventions can improve parenting practices and enhance family wellbeing, potentially operating through altered emotional processing in parents. However, the mechanisms through which parent mindfulness interventions achieve their positive benefits have not yet been empirically tested, knowledge which is key to refine and maximize intervention effects. Thus, as part of a randomized controlled trial, the present study examined the affective mechanisms of an 8-week parenting-focused mindfulness intervention, the Parenting Mindfully (PM) intervention, versus a minimal-intervention parent education control. METHODS: Twenty highly stressed mothers of adolescents completed pre- and post-intervention behavioral and fMRI sessions, in which mothers completed a parent-adolescent conflict interaction, fMRI emotion task, and fMRI resting state scan. Mothers reported on their mindful parenting, and maternal emotional reactivity to the parent-adolescent conflict task was assessed via observed emotion expression, self-reported negative emotion, and salivary cortisol reactivity. RESULTS: Results indicated that the PM intervention increased brain responsivity in left posterior insula in response to negative affective stimuli, and altered resting state functional connectivity in regions involved in self-reference, behavioral regulation, and social-emotional processing. Changes in mothers' brain function and connectivity were associated with increased mindful parenting and decreased emotional reactivity to the parent-adolescent conflict task. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that mindfulness-based changes in maternal emotional awareness at the neurobiological level are associated with decreased emotional reactivity in parenting interactions, illuminating potential neurobiological targets for future parent-focused intervention.

Parenting-focused mindfulness intervention reduces stress and improves parenting in highly-stressed mothers of adolescents.

Parent stress has been associated with negative outcomes for youth and may be particularly high during adolescence. Mindfulness interventions have the potential to reduce parent stress and to improve parenting behavior and parent-child relationship quality. The present randomized controlled study examined effects of a parenting-focused mindfulness intervention, the Parenting Mindfully (PM) intervention, for highly stressed parents of adolescents. Eighty three mothers of 12-17 year olds reporting high stress were randomly assigned to the PM intervention or to a minimal-intervention Parent Education (PE) control group. At pre- and post-intervention, mothers reported on their mindfulness, stress, parenting stress, mindful parenting, and parent-adolescent relationship quality. At pre- and post-intervention, mothers' observed parenting behaviors and reported negative emotional responses to a laboratory parent-adolescent interaction task (PAIT) were also collected. Findings indicated that the PM intervention, compared to PE, increased mothers' mindfulness, reduced parenting stress in two domains, increased mindful parenting related to emotional awareness in parenting, and improved parent-adolescent relationship quality. For mothers of girls (but not mothers of boys), the PM intervention also decreased negative parenting behavior and decreased negative emotional responses in PAIT. Effects sizes were medium to large. In sum, findings support parenting-focused mindfulness training as a viable intervention strategy for highly-stressed parents.

Effects of A Parenting-Focused Mindfulness Intervention on Adolescent Substance Use and Psychopathology: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Substance use and psychopathology symptoms increase in adolescence. One key risk factor for these is high parent stress. Mindfulness interventions reduce stress in adults and may be useful to reduce parent stress and prevent substance use (SU) and psychopathology in adolescents. This study tested the feasibility and effects of a mindfulness intervention for parents on adolescent SU and psychopathology symptoms. Ninety-six mothers of 11-17 year olds were randomly assigned to a mindfulness intervention for parents (the Parenting Mindfully [PM] intervention) or a brief parent education [PE] control group. At pre-intervention, post-intervention, 6-month follow-up, and 1-year follow-up, adolescents reported on SU and mothers and adolescents reported on adolescent externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Primary intent to treat analyses found that the PM intervention prevented increases in adolescent SU over time, relative to the PE control group. The PM intervention also prevented increases in mother-reported externalizing symptoms over time relative to the PE control group. However, PM did not have a significant effect on internalizing symptoms. PM had an indirect effect on adolescent-reported externalizing symptoms through greater mother mindfulness levels at post-intervention, suggesting mother mindfulness as a potential intervention mechanism. Notably, while mothers reported high satisfaction with PM, intervention attendance was low (31% of mothers attended zero sessions). Secondary analyses with mothers who attended > = 50% of the interventions (n = 48) found significant PM effects on externalizing symptoms, but not SU. Overall, findings support mindfulness training for parents as a promising intervention and future studies should work to promote accessibility for stressed parents.Clinical Trials Identifier: NCT02038231; Date of Registration: January 13, 2014.

When less is more: mindfulness predicts adaptive affective responding to rejection via reduced prefrontal recruitment.

Social rejection is a distressing and painful event that many people must cope with on a frequent basis. Mindfulness-defined here as a mental state of receptive attentiveness to internal and external stimuli as they arise, moment-to-moment-may buffer such social distress. However, little research indicates whether mindful individuals adaptively regulate the distress of rejection-or the neural mechanisms underlying this potential capacity. To fill these gaps in the literature, participants reported their trait mindfulness and then completed a social rejection paradigm (Cyberball) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Approximately 1 hour after the rejection incident, participants reported their level of distress during rejection (i.e. social distress). Mindfulness was associated with less distress during rejection. This relation was mediated by lower activation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during the rejection incident, a brain region reliably associated with the inhibition of negative affect. Mindfulness was also correlated with less functional connectivity between the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the bilateral amygdala and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, which play a critical role in the generation of social distress. Mindfulness may relate to effective coping with rejection by not over-activating top-down regulatory mechanisms, potentially resulting in more effective long-term emotion-regulation.