Mindful Parenting: Study on Parents of Preschool Children

Abstract

—Parenting needs a calm and aware state regarding what parents might be facing at that moment. Also, it requires parents to be mindful; thus, they are more aware of their emotions, accept situation, and improve quality of their interaction. This is called mindful parenting. This type of parenting becomes more understood by parents today. More evidence supports mindfulness in parenting, this study analysed and described mindful parenting of pre-schoolers’ parents in Bandung City, Indonesia. The total of 163 parents completed self-reported questionnaires using Mindfulness in Parenting Questionnaire developed by McCaffrey, Reitman, and Black [1]. The demographic data, including age, sex, education background, monthly income, and number of children were reported by respondents. Sample of this research was preschools in centre region of Bandung. The range of mindful parenting was divided into “high” and “low”. Most of parents with preschool children had high level of mindful parenting. Total of 12 fathers had high mindfulness in parenting and 123 mothers were also categorized high on mindful parenting. Previous research found that parents’ age becomes one of several factors affecting mindfulness, particularly in period of late adulthood. This result was in contrast with data which found that higher score of mindful parenting was distributed in all range of ages. In line with age, education was found as one contributing factor in mindful parenting. According to this result, high score of mindfulness in parenting was spread in all range of parents’ education, starting from elementary school to master’s degree.