Mind-mindedness, parenting, and family adversity: Associations and moderation effects across three sites

Heng, Jean Anne, Wang, Zhenlin, Xu, Chengyi, Agtchin, Ayalguu, Chen, Laure Lu, Dempsey, Caoimhe, Devine, Rory T., D’Souza, Hana, Edwards, Miryam, Fink, Elian, Gray, Louise, Jess, Mikeda, Mehrotra, Mishika, Wong, Siu Ching, Wu, Catherine, Wu, Zhen, Zheng, Jiayin and Hughes, Claire 2025. Mind-mindedness, parenting, and family adversity: Associations and moderation effects across three sites. Journal of Family Psychology 10.1037/fam0001432

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (833kB)

Abstract

Parental mind-mindedness (MM)—defined as the propensity to view children as mental agents with their own thoughts, feelings, and intentions—is thought to shape parental behavior and affect, which are also impacted by family adversity. However, little is known about whether associations between MM, parenting, and family adversity generalize across cultural contexts. This study aimed to both address this question, and to also consider whether parental MM attenuates associations between family adversity and parenting behavior/affect. Across three sites (England, Hong Kong, mainland China), 832 parent–child dyads (Mchild age = 5.18 years; SD = 0.52) were observed remotely in a shared drawing task, with video-footage coded for parental behavior and affect. Parental MM was assessed from transcripts of parents’ descriptions of their child. Our index of family adversity comprised indicators of socioeconomic status, parental mental health, negative life events, and COVID-19 related stress. Using a single-study meta-analysis design, we found across-site generalizability of associations between parenting aspects and (a) MM (summary estimate = 0.13) and (b) family adversity (summary estimate = −0.16). By contrast, the predicted effect of MM in attenuating associations between family adversity and parenting was only partially supported. That is, the association between family adversity and parental negative affect was attenuated in the context of high MM in mainland China (but not in England or Hong Kong). For parenting behavior and affect, findings indicate both cultural similarities and contrasts and are discussed within the framework of “universality without uniformity” models.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Psychology
Publisher:	American Psychological Association
ISSN:	0893-3200
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	1 December 2025
Date of Acceptance:	16 October 2025
Last Modified:	01 Dec 2025 12:34
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182767

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item