Examining the relationship between parents’ self-reported mindfulness and observed language use in attachment-relevant communication

Abstract

Parents’ language use is an important context for early socialization. We examined the relationship between parents’ self-reported mindfulness and observed language use in two forms of attachment-relevant communication. Sixty-three parents of 6–18-month-old infants from Australia (n = 32) and New Zealand (n = 31) completed the five facets of mindfulness-short form (FFMQ-SF) questionnaire, the adult attachment interview (AAI), and a 10-min play session with their infant. We examined parents’ frequency of word usage within the categories of the linguistic inquiry word count (LIWC) text analysis program to explore the relationship between mindfulness and language use. Mindfulness was associated with cognitive, affective, perceptual, and time orientation language use in the AAI. However, fewer associations were identified between mindfulness and language use in the parent-infant play session. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance to mindfulness and attachment.