The Influence Of Parental Mindful Parenting On Children’s Empathy: A Moderated Mediation Model

Empathy is an important social emotional ability,which is of great significance and practical value to the development of interpersonal communication and social adaptation.The development of individual empathy is influenced by both innate and acquired environmental factors.Early childhood is not only the initial stage of individual socialization,but also the foundation stage of various ability development.Therefore,it is important and necessary to study the influencing factors of early childhood empathy.Among many influencing factors,parenting plays an irreplaceable role in the development of children’s social and emotional abilities.In recent years,mindful parenting has attracted extensive attention from foreign scholars.Some studies have confirmed the positive impact of mindful parenting on children’s development and parent-child relationship,but its specific mechanism remains to be further explored and verified.Therefore,this study explored the influence of parental mindful parenting on children’s empathy,and examined the mediating role of parent-child attachment and the moderating role of children’s temperament in this process,so as to build a moderated mediation model.Considering the influence of cultural differences,this study made a revision of the authoritative foreign mindful parenting scale and formed a Chinese version of the Scale.On the basis of the revised scale,1606 parents of children aged 3-6 were surveyed on the variables of parental mindful parenting,parent-child attachment,empathy and temperament.Through the statistics,analysis and discussion of the data,the following conclusions are drawn:First,the revised Chinese version of the Mindful Parenting Scale for Children’s Parents has been verified to have good reliability and validity,and can be used as a research tool to measure the level of Chinese parents’ mindful parenting.Second,the overall level of children’s empathy varies significantly in parents’ education level.The overall level of parental mindful parenting differed significantly in age,education level,annual household income and number of children.Third,parental mindful parenting and its dimensions are significantly correlated with children’s empathy and its dimensions.parental mindful parenting and its dimensions were significantly correlated with the dimensions of parent-child attachment.All dimensions of parent-child attachment are significantly correlated with children’s empathy and its dimensions except attachment avoidance and children’s empathy.The dimensions of temperament are significantly correlated with children’s empathy and its dimensions.All dimensions of children’s temperament are significantly correlated with the dimensions of parent-child attachment except children’s extraversion and attachment avoidance.Fourth,the negative emotion and effort control of children’s temperament play a moderating role in the direct influence of parental mindful parenting on children’s empathy and parent-child attachment security.Specifically,the higher the level of negative emotion of children’s temperament,the greater the impact of parental mindful parenting on children’s empathy and parent-child attachment security,the higher the level of effort control of children’s temperament,the less the impact of parental mindful parenting on children’s empathy and parent-child attachment security.According to the above research conclusions,the following educational suggestions are put forward: drawing on experience,to provide more suitable options for parents with corresponding needs;clarifying the difference,be more targeted to support different types of parent groups;teaching children on the basis of their aptitude,adjust the parenting style according to the children’s own temperament.