Publications by authors named "Larissa Duncan"

Objectives: Two key parental reflective capacities-mindful parenting (MP) and parental reflective functioning (PRF) - have been shown to promote healthy parent-child relationships through parents' increased sensitivity and responsiveness to their children's needs in spite of parenting stressors. Despite the theoretical overlap between these two constructs, researchers have continued to examine them independently. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review was to review the overlapping and distinctive outcomes and correlates in the empirical MP and PRF literatures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Mindful parenting and parenting cognitions likely have important linkages to each other and to parent-child communication, but these linkages have not been tested. In this article, we test the bidirectional linkages between mindful parenting and parenting cognitions (sense of competence, parent-centered attributions) and the underlying mediational processes that link them to parent-child communication (parental solicitation and youth disclosure).

Methods: Longitudinal, autoregressive cross-lagged models were run within a longitudinal sample of rural and suburban early adolescents and their mothers ( = 421; mean adolescent age = 12.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mindfulness and compassion meditation are thought to cultivate prosocial behavior. However, the lack of diverse representation within both scientific and participant populations in contemplative neuroscience may limit generalizability and translation of prior findings. To address these issues, we propose a research framework called which adapts research procedures to be more inclusive of under-represented groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The perinatal period is a time of immense change, which can be a period of stress and vulnerability for mental health difficulties. Mindfulness-based interventions have shown promise for reducing distress, but further research is needed to identify long-term effects and moderators of mindfulness training in the perinatal period.

Methods: The current study used data from a pilot randomized control trial (RCT) comparing a condensed mindfulness-based childbirth preparation program-the Mind in Labor (MIL)-to treatment as usual (TAU) to examine whether prenatal mindfulness training results in lower distress across the perinatal period, and whether the degree of benefit depends on child-bearers' initial levels of risk (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Meditation practices are often used to cultivate interoception or internally-oriented attention to bodily sensations, which may improve health cognitive and emotional regulation of bodily signals. However, it remains unclear how meditation impacts internal attention (IA) states due to lack of measurement tools that can objectively assess mental states during meditation practice itself, and produce time estimates of internal focus at individual or group levels. To address these measurement gaps, we tested the feasibility of applying multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to single-subject fMRI data to: (1) learn and recognize internal attentional states relevant for meditation during a directed IA task; and (2) decode or estimate the presence of those IA states during an independent meditation session.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: We examined whether the timing of maternal-neonate skin-to-skin contact (SSC) predicts infant emotional and cognitive development in the context of chronic maternal perinatal stress and depressive symptoms.

Study Design: This secondary analysis included data from a group-based prenatal care clinical trial for 37 pregnant women with low household income. Mothers completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) during the third trimester and postpartum.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Pregnancy and the postpartum period are times of great change for women and their partners, often bringing substantial challenges and stress. Approximately 10%-20% of women suffer from mood disorders such as depression in the perinatal period. There are risks involved in using psychopharmacological interventions to treat perinatal depression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The current study examined unfolding relations among mothers' mindful parenting, parent-adolescent recurrent conflict, and adolescents' externalizing and internalizing problems. In a community sample of 117 families (31% black, Asian, American Indian, or Latino), parents and adolescents (52% female; average age = 12.13 years) were followed over 15 months.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Pregnancy can lead to too much weight gain, which can be bad for both moms and their babies.
  • The study tested an 8-week mindfulness program aimed at helping overweight pregnant women manage stress and eating habits.
  • Results showed that most women found the program helpful, which led to less stress, depression, and overeating.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Evidence links depression and stress to more rapid progression of HIV-1 disease. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to test whether an intervention aimed at improving stress management and emotion regulation, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), would improve immunological (i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: There is growing interest in mindful parenting and how this form of intentional, compassionate interactions with youth are associated with developmental outcomes. We investigated how mindful parenting changes over time, either naturally or in response to interventions, and how that change is associated with other proximal developmental changes.

Method: We used data from a longitudinal, randomized-controlled study design ( = 432 families) to investigate the associations between changes in mindful parenting and 3 outcomes: positive parenting, parent-youth relationship quality, and youth aggression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: This study examines the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of Positive Adaptations for Trauma and Healing (PATH), a manualized treatment for Latino youth and their caregivers. PATH is a culturally adapted program that incorporates a trauma model, positive psychology, and resilience.

Method: Latino youth (N = 16) recruited from an urban community clinic participated in PATH with their caregiver.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Childbirth fear is linked with lower labor pain tolerance and worse postpartum adjustment. Empirically validated childbirth preparation options are lacking for pregnant women facing this problem. Mindfulness approaches, now widely disseminated, can alleviate symptoms of both chronic and acute pain and improve psychological adjustment, suggesting potential benefit when applied to childbirth education.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: We conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether IRISS (Intervention for those Recently Informed of their Seropositive Status), a positive affect skills intervention, improved positive emotion, psychological health, physical health, and health behaviors in people newly diagnosed with HIV.

Method: One-hundred and fifty-nine participants who had received an HIV diagnosis in the past 3 months were randomized to a 5-session, in-person, individually delivered positive affect skills intervention or an attention-matched control condition.

Results: For the primary outcome of past-day positive affect, the group difference in change from baseline over time did not reach statistical significance (p = .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The novel group treatment program Training for Awareness, Resilience, and Action (TARA) was developed to target specific mechanisms based on neuroscience findings in adolescent depression and framed within the National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria. TARA contains training of autonomic and emotional self-regulation, interoceptive awareness, relational skills, and value-based committed action.

Methods: We performed a single-arm trial to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of TARA in reducing depression and anxiety levels and assessed whether the specific targeted domains of function reflected the hypothesized symptom change.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mindfulness in the parenting relationship has been proposed to help both parents and children better regulate stress, though this has not yet been shown at the physiological level. In this study, we tested relations between maternal mindfulness in parenting and both mothers' and their infants' hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity during a dyadic stressor 3 months later. Participants were 73 mother-infant dyads from a larger longitudinal study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Approximately 25 % of pregnant women suffer from a high level of Fear of Childbirth (FoC), as assessed by the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire (W-DEQ-A, score ≥66). FoC negatively affects pregnant women's mental health and adaptation to the perinatal period. Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) seems to be potentially effective in decreasing pregnancy-related anxiety and stress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We examined the birth experience of immigrant and minority women and how CenteringPregnancy (Centering), a model of group prenatal care and childbirth education, influenced that experience. In-depth interviews and surveys were conducted with a sample of racially diverse Centering participants about their birth experiences. Interview transcripts were analyzed thematically.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The purpose of this study was to evaluate group medical visits using an integrative health approach for underserved women with chronic pelvic pain (CPP). We implemented an integrative medicine program to improve quality of life among women with CPP using Centering, a group-based model that combines healthcare assessment, education, and social support. Patients were from university-affiliated and public hospital-affiliated clinics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Researchers have sought to understand the processes that may promote effective parent-adolescent communication because of the strong links to adolescent adjustment. Mindfulness, a relatively new construct in Western psychology that derives from ancient Eastern traditions, has been shown to facilitate communication and to be beneficial when applied in the parenting context. In this article, we tested if and how mindful parenting was linked to routine adolescent disclosure and parental solicitation within a longitudinal sample of rural and suburban, early adolescents and their mothers (n = 432; mean adolescent age = 12.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Research on mindful parenting, an extension of mindfulness to the interpersonal domain of parent-child relationships, has been limited by its reliance on self-report assessment. The current study is the first to examine whether observational indices of parent-youth interactions differentiate between high and low levels of self-reported mindful parenting. The Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales (IFIRS) were used to code interactions between mothers and their 7th grade youth.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There is growing support for the efficacy of mindfulness training with parents as an intervention technique to improve parenting skills and reduce risk for youth problem behaviors. The evidence, however, has been limited to small scale studies, many with methodological shortcomings. This study sought to integrate mindfulness training with parents into the Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14 (SFP 10-14), an empirically-validated family-based preventive intervention.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the current leading causes of disability worldwide. Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the onset of depression, with MDD affecting 8-20% of all youth. Traditional treatment methods have not been sufficiently effective to slow the increasing prevalence of adolescent depression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF