Psychometric Properties of the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale in a Sample of Portuguese Mothers

The Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting scale (IM-P) is a self-report questionnaire for measuring mindful parenting. The goal of this study was to explore the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Portuguese version of the IM-P. Three studies were conducted. The first study included 300 mothers of children/adolescents, the second study included 323 mothers of children/adolescents, and the third study included 237 mothers and 142 fathers of children/adolescents. In study 1, the exploratory factor analysis and the reliability analyses resulted in a five-factor structure. Furthermore, the scale scores showed adequate internal consistency and correlated as expected with measures of self-compassion, parenting stress, and perceived stress, evidencing adequate convergent validity. In study 2, the five-factor structure was confirmed through a confirmatory factor analysis. In study 3, the construct validity of the scale (convergent and known-groups) was further explored. Significant correlations were found between the IM-P and measures of self-compassion, parenting styles, and anxious/depressive symptomatology. Mothers reported higher levels of compassion for the child and emotional awareness of the child but lower levels of non-judgmental acceptance of parental functioning than fathers. This study demonstrated that mindful parenting can be measured through the assessment of five dimensions (Listening with Full Attention, Compassion for the Child, Non-judgmental Acceptance of Parental Functioning, Self-regulation in Parenting, and Emotional Awareness of the Child) and confirmed that the Portuguese version is an adequate measure of this construct.