Mindfulness in Adults: Papers Supporting Conscious Discipline’s Framework

Research Supporting the Positive Impact of Mindfulness in Adults

These articles support the idea that adults who become more conscious and mindful have more positive interactions with children and other adults. This mindfulness provides both benefits for adults and children as it has been noted to improve teaching/parenting satisfaction, decrease child aggression, improve family communication and emotional intelligence, and lead to overall healthier classroom/family relations.

1. Cohen, J. A. S., & Semple, R. J. (2010). Mindful parenting: A call for research. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 19(2), 145-151. This study conducted a mindfulness intervention for parents and found an increase in parenting satisfaction, decrease in child aggression, and increase in child pro-social behaviors.
2. Langer, E. J., Cohen, M., & Djikic, M. (2012). Mindfulness as a Psychological Attractor: The Effect on Children. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(5), 1114-1122. This study demonstrated that children preferred to interact with mindful adults.
3. Ulloa, M. L., Evans, I. M., & Parkes, F. (2010). Teaching to Care: Emotional Interactions between Preschool Children and Their Teachers. New Zealand Research in Early Childhood Education, 13, 33-43. This study demonstrated that teachers who considered children’s emotions encountered less aggressive conflict. The authors stressed the importance of teacher emotional awareness training.
4. Gambrel, L. E., & Keeling, M. L. (2010). Relational aspects of mindfulness: Implications for the practice of marriage and family therapy. Contemporary Family Therapy, 32(4), 412-426. This intervention study demonstrated that mindfulness could benefit relationships by improving communication, empathy, and emotional regulation.
5. Capel, C. M. (2012). Mindlessness/mindfulness, classroom practices and quality of early childhood education: An auto-ethnographic and intrinsic case research. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 29(6), 666-680. This intervention demonstrated that mindful classroom practices could improve overall performance of both students and teachers.