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Peer-reviewedCC BYFrontiers in psychology

Examining child stress response, parenting and relationship-related changes associated with a dyadic mindfulness and self-compassion program

  • Christine R. Lathren1
  • Jessica L. Borelli2
  • Rosemary Ellsworth1
  • Elondra Harr3
  • Samantha DiMaio4
  • Jamie Lynn Tatera5
  • Veronica Diaz5
  • Karen Bluth6
  • Ryan J. Herringa7
  • Sara A. Heyn8
8 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , , ,
  2. 2Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine , , ,
  3. 3Department of Public Health Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro , , ,
  4. 4Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health , , ,
  5. 5Wholly Mindful , , ,
  6. 6Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , , ,
  7. 7Medical College of Wisconsin , , ,
  8. 8Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin , , ,
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Abstract

Introduction

Interventions that dyadically equip families with self-compassion skills represent a promising approach for addressing mental health challenges, particularly during the key transitional period of middle childhood. This study examines changes and candidate processes associated with participation in the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Children and Caregivers (MSC-CC) course.Methods

Twenty-three caregiver-child dyads (Child, M age=8.78; Caregiver, M age=41.2) participated in MSC-CC, delivered remotely over six weekly group sessions. Pre- and post-intervention assessments included self-report measures of parenting and relational closeness outcomes during a dyadic stressor task (behavior, reflective functioning[RF], and physiology). Analyses investigated pre-post change in primary outcomes and linear mixed-effects models estimated time-related changes and baseline moderators of physiological change. Significance tests identify pre-post increases in parenting and emotion-supportive beliefs.Results and discussion

Physiologically, we detected significant decreases in child physiological arousal. Exploratory moderation analyses suggest, among others, low levels of mindfulness and high RF at baseline predict the largest reductions in child stress physiology. While uncontrolled, the MSC-CC participation was associated with increases in mindful parenting and the caregiver-child relationship and lower child physiological arousal during a dyadic challenge, most prominently in families with lower emotion-supportive beliefs at baseline. Altogether, this highlights candidate processes and moderators of efficacy to be confirmed in a fully powered randomized controlled trial.Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov, Self-Compassion for Children and Caregivers (SCCC), NCT05818397, registration and study start on 2023-10-16.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{lathren2026examining,
  title = {{Examining child stress response, parenting and relationship-related changes associated with a dyadic mindfulness and self-compassion program}},
  author = {Christine R. Lathren and Jessica L. Borelli and Rosemary Ellsworth and Elondra Harr and Samantha DiMaio and Jamie Lynn Tatera and Veronica Diaz and Karen Bluth and Ryan J. Herringa and Sara A. Heyn},
  journal = {Frontiers in psychology},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1933287},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13716759},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Examining child stress response, parenting and relationship-related changes associated with a dyadic mindfulness and self-compassion program
AU  - Christine R. Lathren
AU  - Jessica L. Borelli
AU  - Rosemary Ellsworth
AU  - Elondra Harr
AU  - Samantha DiMaio
AU  - Jamie Lynn Tatera
AU  - Veronica Diaz
AU  - Karen Bluth
AU  - Ryan J. Herringa
AU  - Sara A. Heyn
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/15
JO  - Frontiers in psychology
DO  - 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1933287
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13716759
AB  - Introduction  Interventions that dyadically equip families with self-compassion skills represent a promising approach for addressing mental health challenges, particularly during the key transitional period of middle childhood. This study examines changes and candidate processes associated with participation in the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Children and Caregivers (MSC-CC) course.Methods  Twenty-three caregiver-child dyads (Child, M age=8.78; Caregiver, M age=41.2) participated in MSC-CC, delivered remotely over six weekly group sessions. Pre- and post-intervention assessments included self-report measures of parenting and relational closeness outcomes during a dyadic stressor task (behavior, reflective functioning[RF], and physiology). Analyses investigated pre-post change in primary outcomes and linear mixed-effects models estimated time-related changes and baseline moderators of physiological change. Significance tests identify pre-post increases in parenting and emotion-supportive beliefs.Results and discussion  Physiologically, we detected significant decreases in child physiological arousal. Exploratory moderation analyses suggest, among others, low levels of mindfulness and high RF at baseline predict the largest reductions in child stress physiology. While uncontrolled, the MSC-CC participation was associated with increases in mindful parenting and the caregiver-child relationship and lower child physiological arousal during a dyadic challenge, most prominently in families with lower emotion-supportive beliefs at baseline. Altogether, this highlights candidate processes and moderators of efficacy to be confirmed in a fully powered randomized controlled trial.Trial registration  ClinicalTrials.gov, Self-Compassion for Children and Caregivers (SCCC), NCT05818397, registration and study start on 2023-10-16.
SN  - 1664-1078
ER  -