The Effects of Cultivating Mindful Parenting Interventions on Satisfaction, Efficacy, and Conflict Over Emotional Expression in Mothers of Bullying Sons: A Quasi-experimental Study

Abstract

Background: Bullying, as a socially inappropriate behavior in educational and non-educational settings, has led to extensive educational and psychological problems for those involved. Mothers, as the primary caregivers of bullying children, face social and psychological challenges resulting from their child's bullying behavior at home and in society. Objectives: The present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of mindful parenting on parenting satisfaction and efficacy, as well as conflict over emotional expression in mothers of sons who bully. Materials and Methods: The study adopted a quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, control group, and follow-up measurements. The research population included all mothers of boys who bully in school and who visited the Razi Psychological Services Clinic affiliated with the Department of Education in Karaj, Alborz province, Iran, in 2024. A total of 30 participants were selected using convenience and voluntary sampling and were randomly assigned to either the intervention or control group through a lottery-based random allocation. The participants in the intervention group attended an eight-session mindful parenting training intervention program, while the participants in the control group received no intervention. Data were collected using the parenting sense of competence (PSOC) (for mothers), the Conflict over Emotional Expression Questionnaire (for mothers), and the Illinois Bullying Scale (IBS) (for sons). The collected data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni post-hoc tests with SPSS-26 software. Results: The findings revealed a significant difference between the intervention and control groups in parenting competence and emotional expression in both the post-test and follow-up stages, favoring the intervention group. The results also suggested that mindful parenting training enhanced parenting competence, reduced ambivalence in emotional expression, and increased competence in emotional expression. Furthermore, a significant difference (P < 0.01) was observed in the time-interaction effects between time and group across the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages. Conclusions: The mindful parenting training intervention can be employed to enhance parenting competence. Moreover, given that mindful parenting training provides effective strategies for optimizing emotional regulation skills, it is suggested as a method for improving emotional expression.