Investigation of the development of mindfulness in middle childhood in the context of mindful parenti̇ng and the child's socio-emotional and socio-cognitive skills

The aim of the study is to examine the socio-cognitive, socio-emotional and environmental factors that affect the development of mindfulness skills in middle childhood. In this context, the relationship between mother's mindful parenting and child's mindfulness skills is discussed. In addition, it was investigated how the child's emotional knowledge (emotion recognition, understanding and expression), emotional control-inhibition (emotion regulation and emotional inhibition) and theory of mind skills would mediate the expected relationship between the mother's mindful parenting and the child's mindfulness skills. The sample of the study consists of 78 children (ngirl = 39, nboy = 39) in the 8-11 age range and their mothers. During the data collection process of the study, the Demographic Information Form, which includes the basic information of the family, the The Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting to determine the mother's mindful parenting level, and the Emotion Regulation Checklist to evaluate the child's emotion regulation skills were applied to the mothers. In addition, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale-Children to measure mindfulness skills, The Kusche Emotional Inventory and The Assesment of Children's Emotion Skills to evaluate emotion knowledge skills, Emotional Stroop Test to examine emotional inhibition skill, and finally a theory of mind story which named "Chocolate" is used to assess theory of mind skill. The data collection process of the study was carried out online due to pandemic conditions. According to the results of the correlation analysis of the study, the child's mindfulness skill showed a positive relationship with the The Assesment of Children's Emotion Skills Emotion Understanding sub-dimension and emotional inhibition skill. In addition, mother's mindful parenting has a positive relationship with the child's emotion recognition evaluated with the The Kusche Emotional Inventory, emotion regulation and theory of mind skills. According to the results of the Hierarchical Regression Analysis carried out in the context of these relationships, the results of the The Assesment of Children's Emotion Skills Emotion Understanding sub-dimension and emotional inhibition skills predict the child's mindfulness skills. Finally, it was seen that the education level of the mother predicted the emotion recognition assessed by the Kursche Emotion Inventory and emotion regulation skills of the child. Mindful parenting only predicts the child's ability to regulate emotion.