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Towards a Nuanced Understanding of Mindful Parenting and its Links to Child Well-Being

A parenting approach that has become popular in recent years is mindful parenting, defined as a present-focused and nonjudgmental stance towards oneself and one’s child in parenting. Emerging research evidence suggests that engaging in mindful parenting may help to foster children’s mental health and psychological adjustment. 

In this project, we aim to expand our understanding of the complex pathways by which mindful parenting may or may not be helpful to children and families over time. Using my Consolidated Model of Mindful Parenting as a framework, we will examine the theorized links between parent mindfulness, mindful parenting, and child well-being across time, incorporating multi-informant methods and assessing bidirectionality and next-day associations among these constructs. 

Findings from this project will contribute to a better understanding of the implications of mindful parenting at both theoretical and practical levels. As the public’s interest in mindfulness continues to grow, news and media outlets have reported that mindful skills used in interpersonal situations can benefit both the self and others. This project will help to raise awareness of whether and how mindful skills applied in parenting contexts may be linked to children’s well-being over time.

Making Awe More Accessible: Can Drawing Attention to Shared Complex Systems Promote Feelings of Awe and, In Turn, Everyday Prosociality?

This work aims to investigate whether revealing the intricate and connected nature of shared complex systems – defined here as systems that are more complex than the sum of their parts, such as the human brain, a living cell, or power grid – can evoke feelings of awe to promote prosociality. This research will provide novel insight into human prosociality, a topic at the core of human morality.

In addition, this research will deepen our understanding of awe in psychology by examining whether some experiences – shared or common to many people– are more effective at promoting awe than solitary experiences of awe. Ultimately, this work will provide insight into new sources of awe and everyday prosociality, helping people, charities and policy makers understand daily positive experiences as well as rare occasions that inspire people to engage in prosocial action.