However, empirical evidence on the role of mindfulness in parenting is sparse and a comprehensive model of mindful parenting has not yet been developed.
Mindfulness theories describe other dimensions that might plausibly fit into an alternative model of mindful parenting.
The model of mindful parenting we offer extends the concepts and practices of mindfulness, defined here as "the awareness that emerges through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment" (Kabat-Zinn 2003, p. 145), to the social context of parent child relationships.
The model of mindful parenting described here draws from the concepts and practices of psychological mindfulness (Baer et al. 2006; Brown and Ryan 2003), mindfulness-based interventions (Kabat-Zinn 1994, 2003), and contemporary theoretical and empirical writings about parenting.
In our model of mindful parenting, we emphasize parents' capacity for awareness of emotions within themselves and their child.
Our model of mindful parenting includes some similar components, including distancing from negative affect and a focus on reducing automatic reactions through mindfulness practice.
Our model of mindful parenting acknowledges that during the period of developmental change in parent adolescent relationships both parent and youth are agentic partners (Kuczynski and Parkin 2007).
Our model of mindful parenting pairs full attention with listening because it is by directing their full attention to their child that parents convey that they are truly listening to their child.
Our model of mindful parenting comprises the five interrelated elements described above, but we should also note that mindful parenting is an approach to parenting that is reflected in qualitatively different intrapsychic and interpersonal processes within the dynamic parent child relationship.
