Effectiveness of mindfulness parent training on parenting stress and children’s ADHD-related behaviors: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background/Objective: Literature shows that there is a circular relationship between children’s ADHD-related behaviors and parenting stress. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to understand if mindfulness parent trainings have benefits for both parenting stress and the problem behaviors in children with ADHD.

Methods: Five databases, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, PubMED, and Web of Science, were searched. Within-group effects at post-treatment and follow-up assessment, and between-group effects at post-treatment were analyzed. Effect sizes (Hedges’ g) were also calculated.

Results: Ten studies (5 RCTs and 5 non-RCTs) met the selection criteria and were selected for systematic review, and nine of them were included for meta-analysis. Among these 10 studies, five studies involved mindfulness training for both parents and children, while the other five studies involved mindfulness training for parents only. Within-group effects at post-treatment were small-to-large for all outcomes. Hedges’ g ranged between −0.17 [95% CI (−0.98, 0.64)] and 4.70 [95% CI (3.59, 5.81)] for parenting stress; 0.17 [95% CI (−0.03, 0.37)] and 4.03 [95% CI (2.97, 5.09)] for children’s problem behaviors; and 0.20 [95% CI (−0.10, 0.50)] and 2.98 [95% CI (2.16, 3.80)] for children’s ADHD symptoms. Between-group comparisons showed mindfulness parent training was superior to other active controls on all outcomes.

Conclusion: Findings suggest that mindfulness parent training may be beneficial for parenting stress and children’s ADHD-related behaviors, and due to the small number of studies reviewed, cautions should be taken when interpreting the results.