Mindful Parenting: A Pilot Study Leveraging Neureoscience and Technology to Promote Well-being and Child Development at Home

Recent evidence suggests that programs aimed at increasing “mindfulness” are successful at reducing the cognitive demands of stress and increasing focus and attention. This pilot study would be the first to apply this approach to improving parenting among disadvantaged families. In partnership with Chicago's Children's Home and Aid Society, it would explore the feasibility of developing a technology-based mindfulness training intervention (i.e., with apps and videos) combined with behavioral devices such as reminders and goal-setting with the goal of improving executive function, and in turn the quality and quantity of time parents interact with their children and other parent and child outcomes. The results of the pilot work will be used to inform the development of a JPAL Full Research Project Grant Proposal to conduct a large-scale RCT. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop a cost-effective scalable approach for fostering mindfulness in parents in order to foster children’s cognitive and non-cognitive development.