Daily Mindfulness and Depressive Symptoms among Parents of Autistic Children: A Dynamic Structural Equation Modelling Study
Saved in:
| Title: | Daily Mindfulness and Depressive Symptoms among Parents of Autistic Children: A Dynamic Structural Equation Modelling Study |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Lin Wang (ORCID |
| Source: | Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice. 2026 30(6):1576-1592. |
| Availability: | SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 17 |
| Publication Date: | 2026 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Parents, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Children, Depression (Psychology), Mental Health, Metacognition, Social Support Groups, Child Behavior, Behavior Problems, Foreign Countries |
| Geographic Terms: | China |
| Assessment and Survey Identifiers: | Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire |
| DOI: | 10.1177/13623613261439930 |
| ISSN: | 1362-3613 1461-7005 |
| Abstract: | Elevated depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children are well documented and associated with poorer mental health. Mindfulness has been identified as a protective factor against mental health difficulties, but its day-to-day associations with depressive symptoms in this population remain unclear. A total of 210 Chinese parents of autistic children participated in this 15-day diary study, during which they completed daily measures of mindfulness and depressive symptoms. The data were analysed using dynamic structural equation modelling. Results indicated that (1) parents' daily mindfulness and depressive symptoms exhibited autoregressive stability and showed significant negative reciprocal cross-lagged associations at the within-person level. At the between-person level, (2) higher perceived social support was associated with lower mean depressive symptoms and higher mean mindfulness, and it strengthened the negative cross-lagged effect of daily mindfulness on next-day depressive symptoms; and (3) child externalising problems were positively associated with parents' overall mean depressive symptoms and negatively associated with both parents' overall mean daily mindfulness and the autoregressive effects of daily mindfulness and depressive symptoms. Findings underscore the importance of fostering daily mindfulness within a supportive resource context and highlight the need to maintain the day-to-day persistence of mindfulness in families of autistic children with higher externalising problems. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2026 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1506480 |
| Database: | ERIC |
|
Full text is not displayed to guests.
Login for full access.
|
|
| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwGDL6TkPvZx11GFAOZqwZh-AAAA4jCB3wYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHRMIHOAgEAMIHIBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDFcwrVsQ9EDdU43VmwIBEICBmlWMS51geovJSBdiWOzi2xtH9zQmzXK7cPGFz6QOZuPQK69EJ2NILPijtVIhkeTYLR0p7z2XXfZNBdUAOJy5psi1e4SJ7Jda-NO4PDoZsES8zHes9FFE6_aYRxW5wZVd5TPwhIGW0Gm79_GEuT1pe_-6OMsUrO_xQyWtcbJifpmH3xhHRS-pAd1qNyRnK0t0yu7ybhZTvNQ5t_8= Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0193858198;f9d01jun.26;2026May21.02:15;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0193858198-1">Daily Mindfulness and Depressive Symptoms Among Parents of Autistic Children: A Dynamic Structural Equation Modelling Study </title> <p>Elevated depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children are well documented and associated with poorer mental health. Mindfulness has been identified as a protective factor against mental health difficulties, but its day-to-day associations with depressive symptoms in this population remain unclear. A total of 210 Chinese parents of autistic children participated in this 15-day diary study, during which they completed daily measures of mindfulness and depressive symptoms. The data were analysed using dynamic structural equation modelling. Results indicated that (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref1">1</reflink>) parents' daily mindfulness and depressive symptoms exhibited autoregressive stability and showed significant negative reciprocal cross-lagged associations at the within-person level. At the between-person level, (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref2">2</reflink>) higher perceived social support was associated with lower mean depressive symptoms and higher mean mindfulness, and it strengthened the negative cross-lagged effect of daily mindfulness on next-day depressive symptoms; and (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref3">3</reflink>) child externalising problems were positively associated with parents' overall mean depressive symptoms and negatively associated with both parents' overall mean daily mindfulness and the autoregressive effects of daily mindfulness and depressive symptoms. Findings underscore the importance of fostering daily mindfulness within a supportive resource context and highlight the need to maintain the day-to-day persistence of mindfulness in families of autistic children with higher externalising problems. Parents of autistic children tended to feel fewer depressive symptoms on the day after they felt more mindful; likewise, they tended to feel less mindful the day after they felt more depressed. We asked 210 parents in China to complete a short daily questionnaire for 15 days about their daily mindfulness and depressive symptoms. We also looked at two factors that might affect day-to-day mindfulness and depressive symptoms: the level of perceived social support and children's challenging externalising behaviours directed towards parents. We focused on how parents' mindfulness and depressive symptoms shift from one day to the next to identify practical ways to improve parents' mental well-being. We found that more perceived social support was linked to a stronger next-day connection between feeling more mindful and feeling less depressed, whereas more frequent behavioural challenges were linked to more ups and downs from one day to the next in both mindfulness and mood. The findings of this work can guide researchers and practitioners to design simple, everyday actions, such as brief mindfulness moments and better support for families, that help parents feel less low from one day to the next.</p> <p>Keywords: child externalising problems; daily diary study; depressive symptoms; dynamic structural equation modelling; mindfulness; parents of autistic children; perceived social support</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-2">Introduction</hd> <p>Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that typically begins in early childhood and is characterised by differences in social communication and interaction as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour ([<reflink idref="bib85" id="ref4">85</reflink>]). Many parents of autistic children experience substantial and ongoing caregiving demands and parenting stress, which may increase their risk of psychological distress ([<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref5">20</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib76" id="ref6">76</reflink>]). Depression, one of the most common mental health challenges, is typically characterised by low mood, loss of interest, sleep disturbances, and fatigue ([<reflink idref="bib70" id="ref7">70</reflink>]). It co-occurs with higher parenting stress, thereby further undermining parents' health-related quality of life and children's mental health ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref8">3</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref9">7</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref10">20</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib82" id="ref11">82</reflink>]). However, the day-to-day dynamics of depression among parents of autistic children and its potential protective mechanisms remain unclear. Accordingly, it is necessary to identify the psychological resources that buffer parents of autistic children against daily depressive symptoms. The conservation of resources (COR) theory is a widely applied framework in the field of caregiver mental health ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref12">59</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib62" id="ref13">62</reflink>]). It posits that individuals strive to retain, protect, and build a range of valued resources and invest them to forestall losses and hasten recovery ([<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref14">35</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref15">36</reflink>]). Thus, it can provide a theoretical basis to examine how personal resources may alleviate depression among parents of autistic children. Among these resources, mindfulness is salient as a personal resource expressed at both trait and daily levels and therefore warrants focused examination in relation to depression. Given that depression-related experiences and self-regulatory resources are often context-sensitive and exhibit substantial day-to-day fluctuations ([<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref16">34</reflink>]), and that daily diary reports can reduce retrospective reconstruction of short-term experiences while enhancing ecological validity in natural caregiving contexts ([<reflink idref="bib78" id="ref17">78</reflink>]), this study further investigates the temporal dynamics between mindfulness and depressive symptoms at the daily level.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-3">Mindfulness as a Personal Resource: From Trait to Daily Dynamics</hd> <p>Mindfulness refers to the awareness marked by intentionally sustained attention to present experiences on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally, together with an open and accepting orientation ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref18">8</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref19">42</reflink>]). Viewed through a COR lens, mindfulness functions as a valued trait personal resource that helps individuals cope effectively under stress ([<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref20">47</reflink>]). Mechanistically, it can be conceptualised as two complementary yet distinguishable processes: the first process concerns attention regulation, that is, sustained awareness of present-moment experience and the intentional deployment of attention, whereas the second involves an open, accepting, and non-judgemental orientation towards experience ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref21">8</reflink>]). Although the first process may explain mindfulness-related cognitive benefits, heightened awareness without acceptance may render aversive cues more salient, thereby increasing emotional reactivity in contexts of high stress or intense negative experience ([<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref22">38</reflink>]). By contrast, when the first process is coupled with the second process, individuals adopt a more decentred, non-judgemental stance towards noticed experience, with less evaluative processing, entanglement, and self-criticism, making it more likely that awareness yields emotional benefits rather than affect amplification ([<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref23">52</reflink>]).</p> <p>In families of autistic children, cross-sectional evidence showed that higher parental mindfulness was associated with lower parenting stress and fewer depressive symptoms ([<reflink idref="bib83" id="ref24">83</reflink>]). Longitudinal research further demonstrated that mindfulness attenuated the impact of stigma on subsequent depression among these parents ([<reflink idref="bib89" id="ref25">89</reflink>]). More recently, there has been a shift from focusing on between-person differences in mindfulness and depressive symptoms to examining within-person day-to-day fluctuations in daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms. This shift is well-suited to daily repeated assessments, which can capture the within-person day-to-day dynamics between mindfulness and depressive symptoms in naturalistic contexts ([<reflink idref="bib80" id="ref26">80</reflink>]). Such designs also help disentangle within-person variability from between-person differences, thereby reducing the risk of misinterpreting between-person associations as within-person mechanisms ([<reflink idref="bib78" id="ref27">78</reflink>]). Accumulating evidence indicates that daily mindfulness predicts daily fluctuations in affect, including reductions in daily depressive symptoms among the general population ([<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref28">51</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib73" id="ref29">73</reflink>]). However, little is known to date about the relationship between daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children.</p> <p>Within the COR framework, when individuals can mobilise relatively high levels of resources on a given day, they are better positioned to cope effectively and protect their existing resources, thereby reducing resource loss and facilitating recovery. Over time, such processes may extend resource acquisition and give rise to a potential resource gain spiral ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref30">31</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref31">36</reflink>]). Accordingly, when mindfulness is viewed as a personal resource, elevated mindfulness on a given day may serve as a protective factor against depressive symptoms on the following day among parents of autistic children. Conversely, elevated psychological distress may further deplete the coping resources and other valued personal resources needed to manage stress and may intensify negative experiences, thereby contributing to a potential resource loss spiral ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref32">31</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref33">35</reflink>]). Accordingly, elevated depressive symptoms on a given day may serve as a risk factor for lower mindfulness on the following day among parents of autistic children. In addition, daily psychological states typically exhibit autoregressive dynamics, such that levels of mindfulness and depressive symptoms on a given day tend to carry over to the next, a pattern documented in general population samples ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref34">22</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref35">50</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref36">56</reflink>]). Therefore, it is anticipated that both mindfulness and depressive symptoms exhibit day-to-day autoregression among parents of autistic children, such that part of each day's relative level carries over to the next.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-4">Perceived Social Support as Perceived Resource Availability</hd> <p>Social support is a key psychosocial resource and a robust marker of resiliency resources, whereas perceived social support reflects individuals' global judgement of whether support is accessible when needed and has been operationalised as the "perceived availability of resources" within the COR framework ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref37">31</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref38">37</reflink>]). Cross-sectional evidence suggested that perceived social support was linked to higher mindfulness and lower depressive symptoms among Chinese parents of autistic children ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref39">13</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib88" id="ref40">88</reflink>]). Given its relative temporal stability, perceived social support is often treated as a person-level characteristic ([<reflink idref="bib81" id="ref41">81</reflink>]). Accordingly, higher perceived social support is expected to be associated with higher mean daily mindfulness and lower mean daily depressive symptoms after separating between-person differences from within-person fluctuations.</p> <p>Moreover, individuals who perceive resources as more available are better positioned to accrue resource gains, whereas those who perceive resources as scarce are more likely to experience resource losses ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref42">31</reflink>]). Notably, resource gains and losses are not synonymous with gain and loss spirals which capture the mutually reinforcing accumulation of resources and outcomes over time. Thus, it remains unclear whether perceived resource availability, operationalised as perceived social support, further shapes gain spirals (e.g. the cross-lagged effect, whereby higher daily mindfulness predicts lower next-day depressive symptoms) and loss spirals (e.g. the cross-lagged effect, whereby higher daily depressive symptoms predict lower next-day mindfulness). In light of this, we conduct exploratory analyses examining whether perceived social support is associated with the strengths of these two day-to-day cross-lagged relations among parents of autistic children.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-5">Child Behaviour Problems as Environmental Stressors</hd> <p>Behaviour problems are among the most common difficulties in parenting autistic children and have been consistently linked to heightened parental psychological distress ([<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref43">24</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref44">48</reflink>]). These problems have been shown to be independent of age or gender, and to persist from adolescence into adulthood in autistic individuals, indicating a chronic course ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref45">16</reflink>]). Among these difficulties, child externalising problems, such as hyperactivity-inattention and conduct problems, showed the strongest association with child-related parenting stress, demonstrating predictive power even greater than that of ASD diagnosis ([<reflink idref="bib64" id="ref46">64</reflink>]). According to COR theory, although individuals strive to retain, protect, and accrue valued resources, high-intensity, chronic environmental stressors hasten resource depletion and precipitate resource loss spirals ([<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref47">35</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref48">36</reflink>]). Within this framework, child externalising problems can be seen as ongoing, salient environmental stressors that are likely to significantly deplete parents' resources, thereby precipitating resource loss spirals. Thus, at higher levels of child externalising problems, parents of autistic children may show greater depressive symptoms and reduced mindfulness. In addition, child internalising problems, such as emotional symptoms and peer problems, were reported to show weaker associations with parenting stress than child externalising problems and were less readily observable, more difficult to recognise, and often overlooked ([<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref49">10</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib64" id="ref50">64</reflink>]). However, prior studies linking child behaviour problems to greater psychological distress and lower mindfulness among parents of autistic children typically focused on overall child behaviour problems rather than distinguishing between internalising and externalising problems (e.g. [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref51">5</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref52">41</reflink>]). This may obscure potentially meaningful differences in how distinct types of child behaviour problems relate to parents' psychological functioning. Accordingly, we further differentiate child behaviour problems into externalising and internalising problems and conduct exploratory analyses to examine their respective associations with parents' mean levels of daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms.</p> <p>In summary, although trait mindfulness has been shown to be protective against depression, the mechanisms through which daily mindfulness sustains the psychological health of parents of autistic children in day-to-day life remain insufficiently understood. Within the context of child behaviour problems as chronic environmental stressors, and incorporating perceived social support as perceived resource availability, this study investigates mindfulness-related day-level dynamics in parents of autistic children. This provides empirical evidence to inform the optimisation of support systems for families of autistic children and the selection of targets for mindfulness-based interventions. We employ a 15-day daily diary design and dynamic structural equation modelling (DSEM) to examine the cross-day dynamics between daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children at the within-person level. Meanwhile, we assess how perceived social support and child behaviour problems are associated with these dynamic processes and with parents' mean levels of daily mindfulness and depressive symptoms at the between-person level. Figure 1 illustrates the autoregressive and cross-lagged paths as well as the between-person predictors. Based on this framework, we propose the following hypotheses.</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> H1: <emph>Autoregressive Effects.</emph></item> </ulist> <p>At the within-person level, daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms will show daily inertia, such that levels on one day carry over to the next day in parents of autistic children.</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> H2: <emph>Cross-lagged Effects</emph>.</item> <p></p> <item> H2a: At the within-person level, mindfulness on one day will have a negative next-day effect on depressive symptoms in parents of autistic children.</item> <p></p> <item> H2b: At the within-person level, depressive symptoms on one day will have a negative next-day effect on mindfulness in parents of autistic children.</item> <p></p> <item> H3: <emph>Main Effects of Perceived Social Support</emph>.</item> </ulist> <p>At the between-person level, parents of autistic children with greater perceived social support will show lower mean daily depressive symptoms and higher mean daily mindfulness than those with less perceived social support.</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> H4: <emph>Exploratory Moderation of Perceived Social Support</emph>.</item> </ulist> <p>At the between-person level, we exploratorily examine whether differences in perceived social support moderate cross-day dynamics between daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms.</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> H5: <emph>Exploratory Impact of Child Behaviour Problems</emph>.</item> <p></p> <item> H5a: At the between-person level, we exploratorily examine whether higher levels of child externalising problems are associated with lower mean daily mindfulness and higher mean daily depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children.</item> <p></p> <item> H5b: At the between-person level, we exploratorily examine whether higher levels of child internalising problems are associated with lower mean daily mindfulness and higher mean daily depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children.</item> </ulist> <p>Graph: Figure 1. Dynamic Structural Equation Model of Daily Mindfulness and Daily Depressive Symptoms.MF = Daily Mindfulness; DEP = Daily Depressive Symptoms; PSS = Perceived Social Support; EXT = Child Externalising Problems; INT = Child Internalising Problems. Black dots indicate person-specific autoregressive and cross-lagged effects. Solid arrows indicate statistically significant effects, whereas dashed arrows indicate effects estimated in the model that were not statistically significant.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-6">Methods</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0193858198-7">Procedure</hd> <p>Parents of autistic children were recruited using convenience sampling supplemented by purposive sampling from autism intervention centres in Jiangsu Province, Mainland China. All research procedures and materials were approved by the university's ethics committee, and written informed consent was obtained from all enrolled parents. All participants reported that their children had been formally diagnosed with ASD by experienced clinicians, based on assessments conducted with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2) or the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders (CCMD) ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref53">15</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref54">55</reflink>]).</p> <p>Prior to the commencement of the daily diary, all parents were fully informed of the procedures and provided family demographic information. Following the preparatory procedures, parents completed the same short (i.e. 2–3 min) questionnaire each night via Wenjuanxing, a widely used online survey platform in China, before bedtime over a 3-week period (15 consecutive weekdays, Monday–Friday for 3 weeks), reporting their depressive symptoms and mindfulness levels for that day. The link to the questionnaire was sent at 10:00 p.m. each night, with a submission deadline of 11:00 p.m. Parents who had not yet completed the questionnaire received a reminder at 10:40 p.m. Contact with participants was limited to completion reminders and technical assistance, with no counselling, emotional support, or supportive intervention provided during the diary period. Within 3 days after the completion of the daily diaries, parents were asked to complete additional questionnaires via Wenjuanxing, reporting on their overall perceived social support and their children's externalising and internalising problems during the 15-day period. Overall, parents completed 2850 of 3150 possible daily questionnaires (90.48% compliance; range = 53.33%–100%, SD = 11.48%), indicating high compliance. Incentives were prorated according to individual completion rates.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-8">Participants</hd> <p>The initial sample included 216 parents of autistic children. Six participants were excluded from the analyses due to having more than 50% missing data on all daily measured variables, yielding a final analytic sample of 210 parents (e.g. [<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref55">57</reflink>]). Descriptive statistics summarising the family demographic characteristics are shown in Supplementary Table 1. Regarding parent gender, 81.9% were mothers and 18.1% were fathers. Fathers' mean age was 37.419 years (SD = 4.074) and mothers' mean age was 34.929 years (SD = 3.865). Among the children, 21.9% were girls and 78.1% were boys. The children's mean age was 6.319 years (SD = 2.333; range = 3–10 years). With respect to annual household income in 2024, 25.7% of families earned less than 50,000 RMB (approximately USD6944), 67.1% earned between 50,000 and 300,000 RMB (approximately USD6944–41,667), and 4.8% earned more than 300,000 RMB (approximately USD41,667). Regarding fathers' educational level, 11.0% had completed junior high school or below, 23.8% had completed high school, 32.9% had completed a vocational degree, and 32.4% had earned a bachelor's degree or higher. Regarding mothers' educational level, 20.5% had completed junior high or below, 29.5% had completed high school, 28.6% had completed a vocational degree, and 21.4% had earned a bachelor's degree or higher.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-9">Measures</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0193858198-10">Within-Person Variables</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0193858198-11">Daily Depressive Symptoms</hd> <p>Daily depressive symptoms were assessed using three items adapted from the Chinese version of the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), with adjustments made to capture the daily dynamics of three dimensions: anhedonia, depressed mood, and fatigue ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref56">46</reflink>]). Specifically, anhedonia and depressed mood were selected as the two core depressive symptoms (i.e. the PHQ-2), which has been extensively validated as a brief measure of depressive symptom severity and has been widely used in diary studies for repeated daily assessment ([<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref57">49</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib63" id="ref58">63</reflink>]). Fatigue was included as the third item because it is highly salient in high-demand caregiving contexts and carries substantial informational value in ultra-brief PHQ-based screening, serving as a useful complement to the core items ([<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref59">32</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib87" id="ref60">87</reflink>]). An example item was "Today, I had little interest or pleasure in doing things." Parents indicated the extent to which they experienced each item on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (extremely). The total score was calculated by summing the three items, with higher scores reflecting greater levels of daily depressive symptoms. Two-level factorial validity was examined using multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) and all three items loaded positively on a single latent factor at both levels. Level-specific reliability was evaluated using McDonald's ω ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref61">27</reflink>]). The results indicated excellent reliability coefficients, with ω = 0.754 at the within-person level and ω = 0.939 at the between-person level.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-12">Daily Mindfulness</hd> <p>Daily mindfulness was assessed using three items adapted from the Chinese version of the Multidimensional State Mindfulness Questionnaire (MSMQ), with adjustments made to capture the daily dynamics of three dimensions: acting with awareness, non-judgemental acceptance, and present-moment attention ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref62">9</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib91" id="ref63">91</reflink>]). The MSMQ did not include nonreactivity because this dimension was difficult to adapt equivalently for time-contingent experience sampling assessments at fixed time points, and nonreactivity showed relatively weaker multilevel measurement support and was therefore not retained in the final MSMQ factor structure ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref64">9</reflink>]). An example item was "Today, I did tasks with awareness of what I was doing." Parents endorsed each statement on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (extremely). The total score was calculated by summing the three items, with higher scores reflecting greater levels of daily mindfulness. Two-level factorial validity was examined using MCFA and all three items loaded positively on a single latent factor at both levels. The results indicated excellent reliability coefficients, with ω = 0.749 at the within-person level and ω = 0.973 at the between-person level.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-13">Between-Person Variables</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0193858198-14">Perceived Social Support</hd> <p>The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) was utilised to evaluate perceived social support ([<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref65">44</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib92" id="ref66">92</reflink>]). The Chinese version of the MSPSS has demonstrated strong reliability and validity among family caregivers of individuals with special needs ([<reflink idref="bib83" id="ref67">83</reflink>]). The scale comprises three dimensions, namely family, friends, and significant other support, with 12 items in total. In the current study, parents reported their perceived social support on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), with higher scores reflecting greater levels of perceived social support. An example item from the scale is "I get the emotional help and support I need from my family." The scale in this study indicated excellent reliability coefficients, with Cronbach's α = 0.942. Model fit was evaluated using commonly cited cutoffs, with comparative fit index (CFI) ⩾ 0.95, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) ⩽ 0.06, and standardised root mean square residual (SRMR) ⩽ 0.08 indicating good overall fit ([<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref68">39</reflink>]). Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit for the scale, with CFI = 0.987, RMSEA = 0.049, and SRMR = 0.028.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-15">Child Externalising and Internalising Problems</hd> <p>The emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity-inattention, and peer problems dimensions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were utilised to evaluate child externalising and internalising problems ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref69">28</reflink>]). In the current study, parents reported their children's externalising and internalising problems on this 3-point scale ranging from 1 (not true) to 3 (certainly true). Child internalising problems were computed from the emotional symptoms and peer problems subscales, totaling 10 items. Child externalising problems were computed from the conduct problems and hyperactivity-inattention subscales, also totaling 10 items. Higher scores on the emotional symptoms and peer problems dimensions indicate that autistic children have more internalising problems. Similarly, higher scores on the conduct problems and hyperactivity-inattention dimensions indicate more externalising problems in children. An example item from the scale is: "Rather solitary, tends to play alone." The scale in this study indicated excellent reliability coefficients, with Cronbach's α for child internalising problems and child externalising problems being 0.895 and 0.900, respectively. Confirmatory factor analyses showed a good fit for the scale, with χ<sups>2</sups>/df = 1.209, CFI = 0.982, RMSEA = 0.032, and SRMR = 0.041.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-16">Data Analysis</hd> <p>To examine the complex dynamics between daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms, the DSEM was conducted using Mplus version 8.3 ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref70">1</reflink>]). The analytical framework involved days (within-person level) nested within individuals (between-person level). This method integrates multilevel modelling, allowing for the examination of interindividual variation (differences between parents) and intra-individual variation (daily fluctuations within each parent) over time ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref71">33</reflink>]). This analytic strategy enabled the testing of core research hypotheses, including the autoregressive effects of daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms, the cross-lagged relationships between them, and the influence of parents' perceived social support and child externalising and internalising problems on these dynamics.</p> <p>The first step involved modelling daily depressive symptoms and daily mindfulness. The observed variables were decomposed into between-person components (i.e. the latent mean) and within-person components (i.e. deviations of the observed scores from the latent mean) (see Figure 1). At the within-person level, depressive symptoms and mindfulness scores at time T were regressed on their respective scores at time T-1 to estimate autoregressive effects, and on each other's scores at time T-1 to estimate cross-lagged effects. The contemporaneous residuals between the two variables were allowed to correlate. All within-person parameters were specified as random effects to capture individual differences, and at the between-person level, correlations among the random intercepts (i.e. person means) and among the random slopes (i.e. person-specific autoregressive and cross-lagged effects) were estimated. Based on the preliminary model and guided by theoretical assumptions, parents' perceived social support, child externalising and internalising problems were further incorporated to examine the cross-level effects of these between-person variables on the dynamic relationship between mindfulness and depressive symptoms.</p> <p>The parameters of the DSEM model were estimated using a Bayesian estimator and the model convergence was assessed using the potential scale reduction (PSR). We used the Mplus default non-informative prior specifications: regression-type parameters were assigned diffuse normal priors <emph>N</emph>(0, ∞), selected variance components used inverse-gamma prior<emph>s IG</emph>(−1, 0), and covariance parameters used inverse-Wishart priors, including I<emph>W</emph>(0, −3) and <emph>IW</emph>(0, −7). The Bayesian estimation was conducted using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling. The chains were run for up to 50,000 iterations with a thinning interval of 10 (i.e. only every 10th iteration was used for estimation) to obtain more stable results ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref72">1</reflink>]). The 95% credible intervals (CrIs; i.e. the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles of the posterior distribution) were reported for all parameters through MCMC sampling. A path was considered statistically significant when its 95% CrI did not include zero ([<reflink idref="bib58" id="ref73">58</reflink>]). The within-person lagged variables were all latent person-mean centred, while the between-person variables were all grand-mean centred. When employing DSEM, careful consideration must be given to the time interval between measurement occasions, particularly in intensive longitudinal designs where lagged effects are inherently interval-dependent ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref74">1</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib61" id="ref75">61</reflink>]). In this study, questionnaires were delivered at a fixed time each evening (10:00 p.m.), with responses permitted only within a narrow window (10:00–11:00 p.m.) and limited to one submission per day. Data were collected on weekdays across three consecutive weeks. To maintain a 1-day time metric despite the weekend gaps, we defined a calendar-day time variable spanning the full study period and specified a 1-day interval using the TINTERVAL option in Mplus. Under this time-grid specification, unobserved weekend days are treated as missing occasions on the underlying daily time scale, so that lag-1 effects consistently reflect day-to-day carryover, rather than effects across unequal gaps between observed assessments ([<reflink idref="bib61" id="ref76">61</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-17">Results</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0193858198-18">Preliminary Data Analysis</hd> <p>The rates of missing data were low across key variables: 9.52% for both daily depressive symptoms and daily mindfulness, 1.43% for both externalising and internalising problems, and 0.95% for perceived social support. [<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref77">53</reflink>] test of missing completely at random (MCAR) yielded a non-significant result, χ² = 2473.816, <emph>p</emph> = 0.095, suggesting that the data satisfied the MCAR assumption. Missing values were subsequently handled in Mplus through the Kalman filter procedure ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref78">1</reflink>]).</p> <p>Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations for parents' daily mindfulness, daily depressive symptoms, perceived social support, and child externalising and internalising problems. The intraclass correlations for daily mindfulness and depressive symptoms were 0.711 and 0.699, respectively, indicating that approximately 70% of the variance in these variables was at the between-person level. At the within-person level, daily mindfulness was significantly negatively correlated with daily depressive symptoms. At the between-person level, mindfulness was significantly correlated with depressive symptoms, perceived social support, child externalising problems, and internalising problems; depressive symptoms were also significantly correlated with perceived social support, child externalising problems, and child internalising problems. Perceived social support was negatively and significantly correlated with child internalising problems and externalising problems. Child externalising and internalising problems were significantly positively correlated. The equivalent income index (EQI) was calculated as annual household income divided by household size. Family socioeconomic status (SES) was then derived based on the EQI, the higher occupational status of the father or mother, and the educational level of both parents. Daily depressive symptoms and daily mindfulness were not significantly correlated with family SES, parental age, or child age (see Supplementary Table 2 for details). Prior to the primary analyses, the DSEM included family SES, parental age, and child age at the between-person level as covariates. Their inclusion did not materially change the focal parameter estimates in terms of direction, magnitude, or statistical significance. Therefore, the main text reports the model without these covariates for parsimony and to reduce model complexity.</p> <p>Table 1. Descriptive Statistics and Correlations Between All Variables Included in DSEM.</p> <p>Graph</p> <p> <ephtml> &lt;table&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col align="left" /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;&lt;thead&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;th /&gt;&lt;th align="left" rowspan="2"&gt;M (SD within, SD between)&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left" rowspan="2"&gt;ICC&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left" colspan="5"&gt;Correlations&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;th /&gt;&lt;th align="left"&gt;1 MF&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left"&gt;2 DEP&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left"&gt;3 SS&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left"&gt;4 EXT&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left"&gt;5 INT&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/thead&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;1 MF&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;3.016 (0.805, 1.227)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.711&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.181&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;2 DEP&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;4.626 (0.80, 1.13)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.699&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.550&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;3 PSS&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;4.149 (1.442)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.353&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.407&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;4 EXT&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;2.165 (0.515)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.332&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.390&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.452&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;5 INT&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;2.057 (0.470)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.224&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.285&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.283&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.432&lt;xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn2"&gt;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&amp;#42;&lt;/xref&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt; </ephtml> </p> <p>1 Between-person correlations are presented below the diagonal, and within-person correlations are presented above the diagonal. MF = Daily Mindfulness; DEP = Daily Depressive Symptoms; PSS = Perceived Social Support; EXT = Child externalising problems; INT = Child internalising problems; ICC = Intraclass correlation coefficient.</p> <p>2 **<emph>p</emph> &lt; 0.01; ***<emph>p</emph> &lt; 0.001.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-19">Within-Person Effects</hd> <p>First, the model demonstrated satisfactory convergence, with the PSR factor values ⩽ 1.011 for all parameters. The results revealed significant autoregressive effects for both mindfulness and depressive symptoms with coefficients of 0.285 and 0.254, respectively (see Table 2). This suggested that both mindfulness and depressive symptoms exhibited temporal stability. When parents experienced higher (or lower) levels on one day, they tended to maintain correspondingly higher (or lower) levels on the following day, confirming H1 regarding the autoregressive effects. However, the difference between the autoregressive effects of mindfulness and depressive symptoms was not credibly different from zero (β = 0.030, 95% CrI = [−0.081, 0.118]) (see Table 2). Second, cross-lagged coefficients revealed dynamic interactions between mindfulness and depressive symptoms. The lagged effect of mindfulness on next-day depressive symptoms was significant and negative (β = −0.074, 95% CrI = [−0.123, −0.025]), indicating that an increase in mindfulness one day significantly predicted a reduction in depressive symptoms on the following day. Thus, H2a was supported. The lagged effect of depressive symptoms on mindfulness was significant and negative (β = −0.049, 95% CrI = [−0.096, −0.000]; the upper bound rounds to 0.000), and thus H2b was supported.</p> <p>Table 2. DSEM Results for Standardised Within-Person Effect (N = 210).</p> <p>Graph</p> <p> <ephtml> &lt;table&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col align="left" /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;&lt;thead&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;th align="left" rowspan="2"&gt;Effects&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left" rowspan="2"&gt;Notation&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left" rowspan="2"&gt;Estimate&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left" rowspan="2"&gt;Posterior S.D.&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left" colspan="2"&gt;95% CrI&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;th align="left"&gt;Lower&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left"&gt;Upper&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/thead&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;Autoregressive Effects&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td /&gt;&lt;td /&gt;&lt;td /&gt;&lt;td /&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;MF&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;MF&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#966;&lt;sub&gt;11&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.285&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.028&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.229&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.339&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#966;&lt;sub&gt;22&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.254&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.027&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.199&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.305&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;Cross-lagged Effects&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td /&gt;&lt;td /&gt;&lt;td /&gt;&lt;td /&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;MF&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#966;&lt;sub&gt;12&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;-0.074&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.025&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;-0.123&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;-0.025&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;MF&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#966;&lt;sub&gt;21&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;-0.049&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.025&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;-0.096&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;-0.000&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan="6"&gt;Autoregressive Difference Test&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#916;AR (MF&amp;#8722;DEP)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#966;&lt;sub&gt;11-&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#966;&lt;sub&gt;22&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.030&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.052&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;-0.081&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.118&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt; </ephtml> </p> <p>3 φ<subs>11</subs> = autoregressive effect of mindfulness; φ<subs>22</subs> = autoregressive effect of depressive symptoms; φ<subs>12</subs> = cross-lagged effect of mindfulness on the next-day depressive symptoms; φ<subs>21</subs> = cross-lagged effect of depressive symptoms on the next-day mindfulness; ΔAR = difference between autoregressive effects; Credible intervals (CrI) represent the range within which the parameter lies with 95% probability based on the posterior distribution.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-20">Between-Person Effects</hd> <p>Table 3 presents the effects of the between-person-level covariates. First, perceived social support was significantly related to the intercept of depressive symptoms (β = −0.262, 95% CrI = [−0.403, −0.110]), indicating that parents with higher levels of perceived social support exhibited lower overall mean levels of depressive symptoms. Perceived social support was also significantly related to the intercept of mindfulness (β = 0.255, 95% CrI = [0.095, 0.403]), suggesting that parents reporting greater perceived social support tended to maintain higher overall mean levels of mindfulness. Thus, H3 was supported. Second, perceived social support was significantly related to the cross-lagged effect of daily mindfulness on next-day depressive symptoms (β = −0.389, 95% CrI = [−0.655, −0.085]) (see Table 3). As shown in Figure 2, higher perceived social support was associated with a more negative lagged effect of daily mindfulness on next-day depressive symptoms, whereas under lower perceived social support this lagged effect was attenuated and close to zero. In contrast, perceived social support was not significantly related to the cross-lagged effect of daily depressive symptoms on next-day mindfulness (β = −0.179, 95% CrI = [−0.491, 0.163]). Taken together, these results yielded evidence of cross-level moderation as posed in H4, such that perceived social support moderated the cross-lagged association from daily mindfulness to next-day depressive symptoms, but did not moderate the cross-lagged association from daily depressive symptoms to next-day mindfulness (see Figure 3 and Table 3).</p> <p>Table 3. DSEM Results for Standardised Between-Person Effect (N = 210).</p> <p>Graph</p> <p> <ephtml> &lt;table&gt;&lt;colgroup&gt;&lt;col align="left" /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;col align="char" char="." /&gt;&lt;/colgroup&gt;&lt;thead&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;th align="left" rowspan="2"&gt;Predictor&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left" rowspan="2"&gt;Outcome&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left" rowspan="2"&gt;Notation&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left" rowspan="2"&gt;Estimate&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left" colspan="2"&gt;95% CrI&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;th align="left"&gt;Lower&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="left"&gt;Upper&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/thead&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td rowspan="6"&gt;Perceived social support&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;Int of MF&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;bold&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;11&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;bold&gt;0.255&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;&lt;bold&gt;[0.095, 0.403]&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Int of DEP&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;bold&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;12&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.262&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;&lt;bold&gt;[&lt;/bold&gt;&amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.403&lt;/bold&gt;, &amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.110]&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;MF&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;MF&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;13&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.123&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.342, 0.114]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;MF&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;bold&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;14&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.389&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;&lt;bold&gt;[&lt;/bold&gt;&amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.655&lt;/bold&gt;, &amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.085]&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;MF&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;15&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.179&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.491, 0.163]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;16&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.025&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.239, 0.200]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td rowspan="6"&gt;Externalising problems&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;Int of MF&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;bold&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;21&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.196&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;&lt;bold&gt;[&lt;/bold&gt;&amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.360&lt;/bold&gt;, &amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.016]&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Int of DEP&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;bold&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;22&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;bold&gt;0.236&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;&lt;bold&gt;[0.067, 0.395]&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;MF&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;MF&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;bold&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;23&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.298&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;&lt;bold&gt;[&lt;/bold&gt;&amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.511&lt;/bold&gt;, &amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.040]&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;MF&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;24&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.108&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.374, 0.207]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;MF&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;25&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.032&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.379, 0.325]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;26&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.281&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;&lt;bold&gt;[&lt;/bold&gt;&amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.485&lt;/bold&gt;, &amp;#8722;&lt;bold&gt;0.035]&lt;/bold&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td rowspan="6"&gt;Internalising problems&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;Int of MF&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;31&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.073&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.232, 0.088]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Int of DEP&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;32&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.108&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.041, 0.261]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;MF&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;MF&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;33&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.027&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.205, 0.249]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;MF&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;34&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.164&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.114, 0.433]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;MF&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;35&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#8722;0.214&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.552, 0.128]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t-1&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;#8594;DEP&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&amp;#947;&lt;sub&gt;36&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;0.146&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td colspan="2"&gt;[&amp;#8722;0.086, 0.354]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt; </ephtml> </p> <p>4 <emph>Note.</emph> Bold values indicate estimates whose 95% credible intervals do not include zero.</p> <p>Graph: Figure 2. Moderation by Perceived Social Support of the Cross-Lagged Association From Daily Mindfulness to Next-Day Depressive Symptoms.</p> <p>Graph: Figure 3. DSEM Path Diagram.Solid arrows indicate statistically significant effects, whereas black dashed arrows represent effects that were estimated in the model but were not statistically significant.</p> <p>Third, in the case of child externalising problems, significant positive associations were found with the overall mean levels of depressive symptoms (β = 0.236, 95% CrI = [0.067, 0.395]), and significant negative associations were found with the overall mean levels of mindfulness (β = −0.196, 95% CrI = [−0.360, −0.016]), thereby yielding evidence consistent with H5a (see Figure 3 and Table 3). Regarding child internalising problems, the results indicated weak and non-significant associations with parents' overall mean levels of mindfulness and depressive symptoms, suggesting that internalising problems were not reliably related to these between-person outcomes in the present sample. Accordingly, these findings yielded no clear evidence consistent with H5b. In addition, child externalising problems were negatively associated with the autoregressive effects of both daily mindfulness (β = −0.298) and depressive symptoms (β = −0.281), indicating weaker day-to-day stability at higher levels of externalising problems.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-21">Discussion</hd> <p>To our knowledge, this is the first daily diary study to use DSEM to examine day-to-day processes between mindfulness and depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children. At the within-person level, the results demonstrated that daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms exhibited significant autoregressive effects, and significant negative reciprocal cross-lagged effects emerged between the two constructs across consecutive days. At the between-person level, perceived social support had a significant negative effect on mean depressive symptoms, a significant positive effect on mean mindfulness, and significantly moderated the cross-lagged association from daily mindfulness to next-day depressive symptoms. Child externalising problems had a significant positive effect on mean depressive symptoms, a significant negative effect on mean mindfulness, and a significant negative effect on the autoregressive parameters of both mindfulness and depressive symptoms, whereas child internalising problems showed no significant associations with daily means or dynamic parameters.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-22">Within-Person Dynamics of Daily Mindfulness and Daily Depressive Symptoms (H1 and H2)</hd> <p>The findings showed that daily mindfulness was a significant predictor of subsequent daily depressive symptoms at the within-person level. This result extends previous between-person conclusions, which showed that higher trait mindfulness was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children ([<reflink idref="bib83" id="ref79">83</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib88" id="ref80">88</reflink>]). Daily mindfulness can be conceptualised as the day-to-day availability and enactment of a valued personal resource that may help parents build resilience over time, thereby interrupting the spiral of resource loss and mitigating daily depressive symptoms ([<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref81">47</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib77" id="ref82">77</reflink>]). Another possible explanation for the finding is from the perspective of mindfulness-related cognitive mechanisms. Mindfulness involves the self-regulation of a metacognitive attentional state, characterised by nonreactive and nonevaluative monitoring of moment-to-moment cognition, emotion, perception, and sensation without fixation on past or future, thereby modifying maladaptive thinking patterns ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref83">2</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref84">26</reflink>]). Prior research has highlighted the non-judgemental acceptance as particularly relevant to depressive symptoms, including day-to-day dysphoric mood, and as a potential buffer against stress-related negative affective responding ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref85">4</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref86">17</reflink>]). Mechanistically, a non-judgemental attitude and nonattachment inherent in mindfulness can help parents of autistic children release negative experiences such as self-shame or self-blame and view their distress from a broader, more balanced perspective, thereby allowing them to live with greater ease and composure ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref87">12</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib72" id="ref88">72</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib89" id="ref89">89</reflink>]).</p> <p>In addition, daily depressive symptoms were also a significant predictor of subsequent daily mindfulness, suggesting that depressive symptoms can act as a "loss trigger" that makes it more difficult to sustain mindfulness on the next day, thereby increasing vulnerability to a continued loss spiral in high-demand caregiving contexts. Frequent and unpredictable challenging behaviours and sensory difficulties in autistic children, greater child support needs, parental worries about the child's future, and affiliate stigma jointly contribute to elevated and chronic parenting stress ([<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref90">14</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref91">40</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib83" id="ref92">83</reflink>]). Under such circumstances, parents may become caught in a resource loss spiral where depressive stress leads to the loss of more personal resources, which in turn further exacerbates stress ([<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref93">35</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib62" id="ref94">62</reflink>]). Notably, COR theory posits that resource loss spirals are often more consequential than gain spirals, reflecting an asymmetry that prioritises loss processes ([<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref95">35</reflink>]). This suggests that enhancing mindfulness alone may be insufficient to fully counter resource erosion among parents of autistic children. More effective intervention and support efforts may need to combine timely identification and alleviation of depressive symptoms (e.g. improving sleep, emotion regulation training, and stress management) with strategies that promote sustained mindfulness practice, thereby reducing the risk of resource loss spirals. As for the autoregressive effects, both daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms exhibited significant inertia, suggesting that each carried over from one day to the next. Consistent with affect dynamics research, the significant autoregression of depressive symptoms may reflect perseverative negative affect maintained by rumination and by a slower recovery from emotional perturbations ([<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref96">45</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib65" id="ref97">65</reflink>]). Together, these processes foster the persistence of low mood from one day to the next.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-23">Between-Person Perceived Social Support: Mean-Level Benefits and Stronger Daily Carryover (H3...</hd> <p>Consistent with prior evidence, perceived social support was significantly associated with lower average levels of depressive symptoms and higher average levels of mindfulness ([<reflink idref="bib74" id="ref98">74</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib88" id="ref99">88</reflink>]). This finding underscores the role of perceived social support as a protective factor that simultaneously alleviates psychological distress and fosters positive psychological functioning among parents of autistic children ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref100">21</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref101">54</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib84" id="ref102">84</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib90" id="ref103">90</reflink>]). Beyond mean-level associations, perceived social support acted as a contextual moderator that amplified the negative cross-lagged effect from daily mindfulness to next-day depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children. In other words, the protective effect of daily mindfulness on next-day depressive symptoms was stronger for parents with higher perceived social support. Mechanistically, when parents of autistic children perceive high perceived social support, including parent-to-parent support, spousal calming and shared caregiving, and professional guidance and resources, they are better able to reduce rumination, a resource-draining cognitive process ([<reflink idref="bib69" id="ref104">69</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib86" id="ref105">86</reflink>]). In this context, they are more likely to regulate in a non-judgemental, nonreactive manner, thereby enhancing psychological flexibility and resilience and fostering more adaptive stress appraisal, which facilitates relief from negative affect ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref106">25</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref107">43</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib60" id="ref108">60</reflink>]).</p> <p>However, a significant association between perceived social support and the strength of the day-to-day lagged effect of daily depressive symptoms on next-day mindfulness was not observed. The carryover effect of daily depressive symptoms on next-day mindfulness may operate through pathways such as fatigue, motivational depletion, and impairments in attentional control ([<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref109">29</reflink>]). These processes are relatively endogenous and automatic, and may directly reduce individuals' capacity to enter a non-judgemental and nonreactive mindful state within a short time window ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref110">8</reflink>]). Accordingly, even when parents generally perceive social support resources as available, such perceived availability may be insufficient to meaningfully attenuate the adverse impact of depressive symptoms on mindfulness over a 24-h lag. This pattern further suggests that interrupting such depletion processes may depend more on the mobilisation and actual use of support than on subjective perceptions of its availability in high-demand caregiving contexts. For example, when spouses share concrete caregiving responsibilities and specific task demands, or when parents receive guidance from professional services, the depleting influence of depressive symptoms on next-day mindfulness may be attenuated. Taken together, while social support acts as a critical environmental baseline, mindfulness provides an actionable daily strategy. Our findings suggest that interventions should prioritise building social networks (e.g. family support programmes) to maximise the impact of mindfulness, potentially yielding greater clinical gains than isolated mindfulness training.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-24">Between-Person Externalising Problems: Mean-Level Detriments and Weaker Day-to-Day Carryover...</hd> <p>Child externalising problems were significantly associated with a higher mean level of depressive symptoms and a lower mean level of mindfulness among parents. In contrast, child internalising problems were not significantly related to parents' mean depressive symptoms or mindfulness. One possible explanation is that externalising problems are outwardly directed, readily observable, and highly disruptive in context ([<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref111">19</reflink>]). Externalising problems such as hyperactivity and noncompliance have been shown to increase caregiving demands in families of autistic children, because these behaviours are more noticeable and disruptive in social contexts than internalising problems (e.g. social withdrawal) ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref112">16</reflink>]). Two complementary processes may account for this difference: first, in public settings, the visibility of externalising outbursts invites misinterpretation and blame, exposing parents to associative stigma and prompting them to reduce public participation, which in turn heightens emotional distress ([<reflink idref="bib68" id="ref113">68</reflink>]); second, managing externalising problems typically requires on-the-spot, high-intensity responding, including hypervigilance, prompt intervention, and redirection which may deplete parents' cognitive and emotion regulation resources over time ([<reflink idref="bib66" id="ref114">66</reflink>]). This suggests that in families of autistic children similar to those in this study's sample, with younger children and respondents predominantly mothers, prioritising intervention resources towards externalising problems may reduce parents' day-to-day personal self-regulatory resource depletion and depressive stress.</p> <p>In addition, beyond expectations, child externalising problems were negatively associated with the autoregressive parameters of both daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms. This indicates that parents' mindfulness and depressive symptoms are more easily disrupted and show attenuated day-to-day carryover in families of autistic children where externalising problems are higher. In terms of mindfulness, although daily mindfulness can be replenished and exerts a protective next-day effect on depressive symptoms, its day-to-day retention appears weaker under higher levels of child externalising problems, rendering it a renewable yet less persistent resource that is less readily accumulated across days ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref115">11</reflink>]).</p> <p>Moreover, elevated levels of externalising problems are typically characterised by frequent conflicts, emotional outbursts, and noncompliance in families of autistic children, which require substantial daily parental time and attention for caregiving, thereby increasing parents' event load and stress intensity on a given day ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref116">18</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib66" id="ref117">66</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib79" id="ref118">79</reflink>]). Thus, depressive symptoms reported on a given day may be driven more by child-related stressors occurring that day than by depressive carryover from the prior day ([<reflink idref="bib71" id="ref119">71</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib75" id="ref120">75</reflink>]). In particular, because depressive symptoms were assessed each evening in this study, reports may be relatively more sensitive to experiences occurring earlier that day, which could further reduce the apparent contribution of prior-day depressive carryover. Alternatively, high-demand caregiving contexts may activate a potential adaptive or compensatory mechanism, whereby parents rapidly reconfigure their context and resources on the following day by engaging in adaptive coping and implementing more effective parenting strategies or intervention efforts ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref121">6</reflink>]). Therefore, depressive symptoms on the following day may be more contingent on that day's resource mobilisation and coping outcomes.</p> <p>Practically, our findings suggest that interventions for parents of autistic children could potentially transition from intensive, clinical-level treatments towards sustainable, daily maintenance strategies. These include "micro-mindfulness" practices that are feasible for busy caregivers and the strengthening of social support networks to provide a necessary resource foundation. Crucially, in families where child externalising behaviours are prominent, extra support is needed to prevent the daily erosion of parental mindfulness, thereby breaking the cycle of day-to-day resource loss. For example, multiple brief mindfulness practices each day (e.g. breathing space, mindful pause, or compassion practices) can serve as maintenance strategies for emotion regulation ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref122">23</reflink>]).</p> <p>Notably, the observed finding that higher mindfulness on one day predicts lower depressive symptoms on the next day can be understood as a resource gain spiral. Guided by COR theory, such gain spirals may have the potential to interrupt or slow down resource loss spirals among parents facing high caregiving demands. From an effect size perspective, the estimated cross-lagged effect of daily mindfulness on next-day depressive symptoms should be interpreted in the context of benchmarks for longitudinal models.</p> <p>According to [<reflink idref="bib67" id="ref123">67</reflink>], this effect represents a medium effect size, as cross-lagged coefficients in daily diary designs are typically attenuated by high autoregressive stability and short time lags. This interpretation is particularly relevant for parents of autistic children who often experience chronic and low-grade depressive symptoms alongside persistent caregiving stress. Over time, these small day-to-day increases in mindfulness may accumulate, thereby helping to prevent the gradual escalation of more severe depressive symptoms and yielding meaningful long-term change in this population. Moreover, unlike intensive mindfulness interventions, this study captures naturally occurring, momentary mindfulness in everyday life. Its value may therefore lie more in interrupting acute stress responses than in producing rapid and large reductions in depressive symptoms, thereby helping to prevent the compounding of resource loss over time.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-25">Limitations and Future Directions</hd> <p>Interpretation of the findings of this study warrants consideration of several limitations. First, this study relied on a geographically bounded sample drawn only from Jiangsu Province, comprising primarily mothers of autistic children aged 3 to 10 years, with relatively limited participation of fathers and limited coverage of parents of autistic adolescents. In particular, stress-coping patterns may differ by parent gender, and parenting stress and mindfulness may also vary across developmental stages among autistic children. Future studies should recruit more gender-balanced samples, conduct stratified analyses by parent gender and child age, and extend recruitment to other regions to strengthen external validity. It would also be important to assess additional potentially relevant child and family characteristics (e.g. co-occurring intellectual disability and single-parent status) to better account for heterogeneity in caregiving contexts. Second, the observation window of this study was relatively limited, covering only 15 consecutive weekdays and excluding weekends. Although this design helped maximise adherence and data integrity while minimising disruption to families' weekend rest and routines, it may have missed systematic weekend-related fluctuations and limited the examination of longer-term dynamic processes. As a result, this study could not determine whether sustained high levels of mindfulness over weeks or months would produce lasting reductions in depressive symptoms. Future studies should incorporate both weekday and weekend sampling and extend the follow-up period to better capture the day-to-day dynamics of mindfulness and depressive symptoms. Such evidence may also inform the development of brief mindfulness interventions with sustained practice components to test whether continued mindfulness practice leads to more durable reductions in depressive symptoms. Third, although the brief PHQ-based diary measure capturing anhedonia, depressed mood, and fatigue is well-suited to detecting day-to-day within-person symptom fluctuations, its time frame and scoring format are not aligned with those of the standard PHQ-9 used for clinical screening. As a result, we could not ascertain whether parents' depressive symptoms exceeded the PHQ-9 clinical cutoff prior to the diary period, nor could we determine the clinically interpretable level to which symptoms changed by the end of the diary period. In addition, this daily measure did not assess domains such as sleep disturbance and self-blame, which may have constrained content coverage and the precision of estimating depressive symptom severity. Future research should incorporate the PHQ-9 alongside diary assessments and further adopt a micro-intervention design to test whether brief daily mindfulness practice can reduce depressive symptoms to clinically meaningful levels among parents of autistic children. Fourth, perceived social support reflects parents' global appraisal of the availability of supportive resources. Its accuracy as a proxy for actual perceived social support may be compromised by recall bias in retrospective reporting and by pre-existing mental health status. Prior research has shown that perceived social support is only moderately correlated with received social support ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref124">30</reflink>]). As such, relying solely on global perceptions of perceived social support may not adequately capture day-to-day perceived social support acquisition and resource use processes. Accordingly, future intensive longitudinal studies should incorporate daily objective indicators of social support and resource investment. Such designs would also enable clearer comparisons of the relative contributions of contextual resources (e.g. actual perceived social support) and personal resources (e.g. mindfulness) to parents' depressive symptom levels and their changes over time, thereby providing more actionable evidence for intervention prioritisation and resource allocation.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-26">Conclusion</hd> <p>To our knowledge, this study is the first to use DSEM to trace the daily dynamics of mindfulness and depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children. At the within-person level, the results indicated that both daily mindfulness and daily depressive symptoms exhibited significant autoregressive effects, and significant negative reciprocal cross-lagged effects emerged between daily mindfulness and depressive symptoms across consecutive days. At the between-person level, higher levels of perceived social support were associated with lower mean depressive symptoms and higher mean mindfulness, and also amplified the cross-day protective pathway by which same-day mindfulness predicted lower next-day depressive symptoms. Child externalising problems were associated with higher mean depressive symptoms, lower mean mindfulness, and weaker day-to-day carryover in both mindfulness and depressive symptoms, whereas child internalising problems did not show any significant associations. This study demonstrates that mindfulness, a personal resource, forms a protective pathway for the mental health of parents of autistic children within a context of higher perceived social support. These findings highlight the importance of prioritising the provision of supports that incorporate brief daily mindfulness practices to sustain parents' self-regulatory capacity and reduce day-to-day depressive symptoms.</p> <hd id="AN0193858198-27">Supplemental Material</hd> <p>Graph: Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-aut-10.1177_13623613261439930 for Daily Mindfulness and Depressive Symptoms Among Parents of Autistic Children: A Dynamic Structural Equation Modelling Study by Lin Wang, Meng Hua, Xinyi Hu, Yifan Wang, Qinxing Xie, Guang Yang and Yuan Chen in Autism</p> <ref id="AN0193858198-28"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref1" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Asparouhov T., Hamaker E. L., Muthén B. (2018). Dynamic structural equation models. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 25(3), 359–388.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref2" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Baer R. A. (2003). Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 125–134.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref3" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Barańczuk U., Pisula E. (2022). Parental stress and symptoms of depression: A preliminary report. International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 68(4), 445–453.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref85" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Barcaccia B., Baiocco R., Pozza A., Pallini S., Mancini F., Salvati M. (2019). The more you judge the worse you feel. A judgemental attitude towards one's inner experience predicts depression and anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 138, 33–39.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref51" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Beer M., Ward L., Moar K. (2013). The relationship between mindful parenting and distress in parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder. Mindfulness, 4(2), 102–112.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" idref="ref121" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Benjamin L. R., Krantz M. L., Fenning R. M., Neece C. L. (2024). Parenting stress and child behaviour problems among Latino and non-Latino families of autistic children: Exploring day-to-day temporal relations. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 33(10), 3302–3316.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" idref="ref9" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Benson P. R. (2006). The impact of child symptom severity on depressed mood among parents of children with ASD: The mediating role of stress proliferation. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(5), 685–695.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" idref="ref18" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Bishop S. R., Lau M., Shapiro S., Carlson L., Anderson N. D., Carmody J., Segal Z. V., Abbey S., Speca M., Velting D., Devins G. (2004). Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11(3), 230–241.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" idref="ref62" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Blanke E. S., Brose A. (2017). Mindfulness in daily life: A multidimensional approach. Mindfulness, 8(3), 737–750.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Briesch A. M., Donaldson A. R., Matta M., Volpe R. J., Daniels B., Owens J. S. (2022). Development of brief rating scales for progress monitoring internalising behaviour. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 30(3), 199–209.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Brown K. W., Ryan R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822–848. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Brown-Iannuzzi J. L., Adair K. C., Payne B. K., Richman L. S., Fredrickson B. L. (2014). Discrimination hurts, but mindfulness may help: Trait mindfulness moderates the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms. Personality and Individual Differences, 56, 201–205.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Chen X., Tong J., Zhang W., Wang X., Ma S., Shi D., Yan D., Liu Y. (2024). Factors predicting depressive symptoms in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder in eastern China. BMC Public Health, 24(1), Article 226.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Cheung R. Y., Leung S. S., Mak W. W. (2019). Role of mindful parenting, affiliate stigma, and parents' well-being in the behavioural adjustment of children with autism spectrum disorder: Testing parenting stress as a mediator. Mindfulness, 10(11), 2352–2362.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Chinese Society of Psychiatry. (2001). The Chinese classification and diagnostic criteria of mental disorders (3rd ed.) (in Chinese).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Chua S. Y., Abd Rahman F. N., Ratnasingam S. (2023). Problem behaviours and caregiver burden among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Kuching, Sarawak. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, Article 1244164.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ciesla J. A., Reilly L. C., Dickson K. S., Emanuel A. S., Updegraff J. A. (2012). Dispositional mindfulness moderates the effects of stress among adolescents: Rumination as a mediator. Journal of Clinical Child &amp; Adolescent Psychology, 41(6), 760–770.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Davy G., Unwin K. L., Barbaro J., Dissanayake C. (2022). Leisure, employment, community participation and quality of life in caregivers of autistic children: A scoping review. Autism, 26(8), 1916–1930.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Degnan K. A., Calkins S. D., Keane S. P., Hill-Soderlund A. L. (2008). Profiles of disruptive behaviour across early childhood: Contributions of frustration reactivity, physiological regulation, and maternal behaviour. Child Development, 79(5), 1357–1376.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Dijkstra-de Neijs L., Boeke D. B., van Berckelaer-Onnes I. A., Swaab H., Ester W. A. (2026). Parental stress and quality of life in parents of young children with autism. Child Psychiatry &amp; Human Development, 57, 226–240.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Drogomyretska K., Fox R., Colbert D. (2020). Brief report: Stress and perceived social support in parents of children with ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50(11), 4176–4182.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ebrahimi O. V., Burger J., Hoffart A., Johnson S. U. (2021). Within- and across-day patterns of interplay between depressive symptoms and related psychopathological processes: A dynamic network approach during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Medicine, 19(1), Article 317.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Economides M., Martman J., Bell M. J., Sanderson B. (2018). Improvements in stress, affect, and irritability following brief use of a mindfulness-based smartphone app: A randomized controlled trial. Mindfulness, 9(5), 1584–1593.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Estes A., Olson E., Sullivan K., Greenson J., Winter J., Dawson G., Munson J. (2013). Parenting-related stress and psychological distress in mothers of toddlers with autism spectrum disorders. Brain &amp; Development, 35(2), 133–138.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Feng Y., Lu D., Ng T. Y. C., Chau P. H., Chan L. M. L., Kwok J. Y. Y. (2025). Mindfulness and parenting stress among parents of autistic children: The mediation of resilience and psychological flexibility. Autism, 29(7), 1849–1863.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Garland E. L., Fredrickson B., Kring A. M., Johnson D. P., Meyer P. S., Penn D. L. (2010). Upward spirals of positive emotions counter downward spirals of negativity: Insights from the broaden-and-build theory and affective neuroscience on the treatment of emotion dysfunctions and deficits in psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 849–864.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Geldhof G. J., Preacher K. J., Zyphur M. J. (2014). Reliability estimation in a multilevel confirmatory factor analysis framework. Psychological Methods, 19(1), 72–91.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Goodman R. (2001). Psychometric properties of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. Journal of the American Academy of Child &amp; Adolescent Psychiatry, 40(11), 1337–1345.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Grahek I., Shenhav A., Musslick S., Krebs R. M., Koster E. H. (2019). Motivation and cognitive control in depression. Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 102, 371–381.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Haber M. G., Cohen J. L., Lucas T., Baltes B. B. (2007). The relationship between self-reported received and perceived social support: A meta-analytic review. American Journal of Community Psychology, 39(1), 133–144.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Halbesleben J. R., Neveu J. P., Paustian-Underdahl S. C., Westman M. (2014). Getting to the "COR" understanding the role of resources in conservation of resources theory. Journal of Management, 40(5), 1334–1364.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Halki E., Kapiri M., Plakas S., Tsiou C., Govina O., Galanis P., Alikari V. (2024). Fatigue among Greek parents of children with autistic spectrum disorder: The roles of spirituality and social support. Healthcare, 12(4), 455.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hamaker E. L., Asparouhov T., Brose A., Schmiedek F., Muthén B. (2018). At the frontiers of modeling intensive longitudinal data: Dynamic structural equation models for the affective measurements from the COGITO study. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 53(6), 820–841.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hankin B. L. (2010). Personality and depressive symptoms: Stress generation and cognitive vulnerabilities to depression in a prospective daily diary study. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 29(4), 369–401.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hobfoll S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hobfoll S. E. (2001). The influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: Advancing conservation of resources theory. Applied Psychology, 50(3), 337–421.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hobfoll S. E. (2011). Conservation of resources theory: Its implication for stress, health, and resilience. In Folkman S. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of stress, health, and coping (pp. 127–147). Oxford University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hoffmann C. F. A., Schröder-Abé M., Ewert C. (2024). The role of monitoring and acceptance in daily affective stress reactivity: An ambulatory assessment study. Mindfulness, 15(10), 2609–2621.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hu L. T., Bentler P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ilias K., Cornish K., Kummar A. S., Park M. S. A., Golden K. J. (2018). Parenting stress and resilience in parents of autistic children spectrum disorder (ASD) in Southeast Asia: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 280.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Jones L., Hastings R. P., Totsika V., Keane L., Rhule N. (2014). Child behaviour problems and parental well-being in families of children with autism: The mediating role of mindfulness and acceptance. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 119(2), 171–185.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kabat-Zinn J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 144–156. https://doi.org/10.1093/clipsy.bpg016</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kashdan T. B., Rottenberg J. (2010). Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 865–878.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kazarian S. S., McCabe S. B. (1991). Dimensions of social support in the MSPSS: Factorial structure, reliability, and theoretical implications. Journal of Community Psychology, 19(2), 150–160.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Koval P., Kuppens P., Allen N. B., Sheeber L. (2012). Getting stuck in depression: The roles of rumination and emotional inertia. Cognition &amp; Emotion, 26(8), 1412–1427.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kroenke K., Spitzer R. L., Williams J. B. (2001). The PHQ-9: Validity of a brief depression severity measure. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 16(9), 606–613.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kroon B., Menting C., van Woerkom M. (2015). Why mindfulness sustains performance: The role of personal and job resources. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 8(4), 638–642.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lecavalier L., Leone S., Wiltz J. (2006). The impact of behaviour problems on caregiver stress in young people with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 50(3), 172–183.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Levis B., Sun Y., He C., Wu Y., Krishnan A., Bhandari P. M, Neupane D., Imran M., Brehaut E., Negeri Z., Fischer F. H., Benedetti A., Thombs B. D.; Depression Screening Data (DEPRESSD) PHQ Collaboration; Che L., Levis A., Riehm K., Saadat N., Azar M...Zhang Y. (2020). Accuracy of the PHQ-2 alone and in combination with the PHQ-9 for screening to detect major depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA, 323(22), 2290–2300.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Li J., Luo X., Liu H. (2025). Dynamic bidirectional relation between state mindfulness and suicidal ideation among female college students: The moderating effect of trait mindfulness. Death Studies, 49(4), 347–358.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Li Y., Ju R., Hofmann S. G., Chiu W., Guan Y., Leng Y., Liu X. (2023). Distress tolerance as a mechanism of mindfulness for depression and anxiety: Cross-sectional and diary evidence. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 23(4), 100392.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lindsay E. K., Creswell J. D. (2017). Mechanisms of mindfulness training: Monitor and Acceptance Theory (MAT). Clinical Psychology Review, 51, 48–59.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Little R. J. (1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83(404), 1198–1202.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Liu W., Thompson P. A., Gray K. M., Hastings R. P. (2024). Child behaviour problems and parental psychological distress in Chinese families of children with autism: The putative moderating role of parental social support and cultural values. Autism Research, 17(5), 1016–1026.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lord C., Rutter M., DiLavore P. S., Risi S. G. K., Bishop S. (2012). Autism diagnostic observation schedule (2nd ed.). Western Psychological Services.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Luo X., Ma J., Hu Y. (2023). Dynamic and bidirectional relation between mindfulness and procrastination among female college students. Mindfulness, 14(9), 2265–2275.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Luo X., Wang H., Xu J., Liu H., Suveg C., Han Z. R. (2025). Dynamic processes of parent–adolescent conflict and warmth in Chinese families: Differences between mothers and fathers. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 54, 1985–1998.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McElreath R. (2016). Statistical rethinking: A Bayesian course with examples in R and Stan. CRC Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McGhan G., McCaughey D., Flemons K. (2023). Examining the needs of family caregivers of people living with dementia in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement, 42(3), 485–494. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0714980823000119</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McKenna O., Fakolade A., Cardwell K., Langlois N., Jiang K., Pilutti L. A. (2022). Towards conceptual convergence: A systematic review of psychological resilience in family caregivers of persons living with chronic neurological conditions. Health Expectations, 25(1), 4–37.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McNeish D., Hamaker E. L. (2020). A primer on two-level dynamic structural equation models for intensive longitudinal data in Mplus. Psychological Methods, 25(5), 610–635. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000250</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ng N. S., Yeung N. C. (2024). The roles of COVID-19-related resource losses and coping processes in psychological distress among parents of children with special educational needs in Hong Kong: A conservation of resources approach. Current Psychology, 43(27), 23366–23377.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Oh J. W., Kim S. M., Lee D., Son N. H., Uh J., Yoon J. H., Choi Y., Lee S. (2023). Evaluating the modified Patient Health Questionnaire-2 and insomnia severity index-2 for daily digital screening of depression and insomnia: Validation study. JMIR Mental Health, 10(1), Article e45543.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Olson L., Chen B., Ibarra C., Wang T., Mash L., Linke A., Fishman I. (2022). Externalising behaviours are associated with increased parenting stress in caregivers of young children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 52(3), 975–986.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ong A. D., Wang L., Fang Y., Zhang G., Joiner R. J., Wilcox K. T., Bergeman C. S. (2025). Affect dynamics and depressive symptomatology: Revisiting the inertia–instability paradox. Emotion, 25(4), 1060–1064. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001465</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> O'Nions E., Happé F., Evers K., Boonen H., Noens I. (2018). How do parents manage irritability, challenging behaviour, non-compliance and anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorders? A meta-synthesis. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48(4), 1272–1286.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Orth U., Meier L. L., Bühler J. L., Dapp L. C., Krauss S., Messerli D., Robins R. W. (2022). Effect size guidelines for cross-lagged effects. Psychological Methods, 29(2), 421–433.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Papadopoulos D. (2021). Mothers' experiences and challenges raising a child with autism spectrum disorder: A qualitative study. Brain Sciences, 11(3), 309.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Pepperell T. A., Paynter J., Gilmore L. (2018). Social support and coping strategies of parents raising a child with autism spectrum disorder. Early Child Development and Care, 188(10), 1392–1404.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Piro-Gambetti B., Greenlee J., Hickey E. J., Putney J. M., Lorang E., Hartley S. L. (2023). Parental depression symptoms and internalising mental health problems in autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53(6), 2373–2383.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Pottie C. G., Cohen J., Ingram K. M. (2009). Parenting a child with autism: Contextual factors associated with enhanced daily parental mood. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 34(4), 419–429.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Rayan A., Ahmad M. (2016). Effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on quality of life and positive reappraisal coping among parents of autistic children spectrum disorder. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 55, 185–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2016.04.002</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Raynes S., Dobkins K. (2025). Daily mindfulness components and state affect: A day reconstruction study. Mindfulness, 16, 1028–1045.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Schiller V. F., Dorstyn D. S., Taylor A. M. (2021). The protective role of social support sources and types against depression in caregivers: A meta-analysis. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(4), 1304–1315.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Schilling O. K., Gerstorf D., Lücke A. J., Katzorreck M., Wahl H. W., Diehl M., Kunzmann U. (2022). Emotional reactivity to daily stressors: Does stressor pile-up within a day matter for young-old and very old adults? Psychology and Aging, 37(2), 149.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Schnabel A., Youssef G. J., Hallford D. J., Hartley E. J., McGillivray J. A., Stewart M., Forbes D., Austin D. W. (2020). Psychopathology in parents of autistic children spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence. Autism, 24(1), 26–40.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Schwartzman J. M., Millan M. E., Uljarevic M., Gengoux G. W. (2022). Resilience intervention for parents of autistic children: Findings from a randomized controlled trial of the AMOR method. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 52(2), 738–757.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Shiffman S., Stone A. A., Hufford M. R. (2008). Ecological momentary assessment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 4, 1–32.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Smith L. E., Hong J., Seltzer M. M., Greenberg J. S., Almeida D. M., Bishop S. L. (2010). Daily experiences among mothers of adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40(2), 167–178.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Suelmann H., Brouwers A., Snippe E. (2018). Explaining variations in mindfulness levels in daily life. Mindfulness, 9(6), 1895–1906.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Uchino B. N. (2009). Understanding the links between social support and physical health: A life-span perspective with emphasis on the separability of perceived and received support. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(3), 236–255.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Van der Lubbe A., Swaab H., Vermeiren R., Van Rossum E. F. C., Van Balkom I. D. C., Ester W. A. (2025). Chronic parenting stress in parents of children with autism: Associations with chronic stress in their child and parental mental and physical health. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-025-06736-9</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wang H., Wang Q., Hu X., Han Z. R. (2022). Mindfulness and stress among parents of autistic children spectrum disorder in China. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 52(5), 2035–2045.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wang L., Xie Q., Hua M., Lu H. (2025). How do social support and resilience interact in parents of children with ASD? A cross-lagged mediation and moderation analysis from the COR perspective. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-025-06776-1</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> World Health Organization. (2025, September 17). Autism. https://<ulink href="http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disorders">www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disorders</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Xu L., Song L., Xiong Z., Chen J. (2024). The relationship between perceived social support and rumination among parents of autistic children: Moderating effect of the degree of intervention received by children. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, Article 1340046.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Xu R. F., Wang M. Y., Xu D., Yan W. J. (2026). From PHQ-2 to PHQ-2W: Data-driven identification of depressed mood and fatigue for optimized weighted depression screening. Journal of Affective Disorders, 399, 121129.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Yang C. J., Jin J. Y., Sun Y. W. (2023). The impact of children behaviour on depressive symptoms among parents of children with ASD: The mediating role of mindfulness and perceived social support. Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 16(2), 92–113.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Yip C. C. H., Chan K. K. S. (2022). Longitudinal impact of public stigma and courtesy stigma on parents of autistic children spectrum disorder: The moderating role of trait mindfulness. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 127, 104243.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Zhang J., Lin X., Zhou S., Ye B., Zhang Y., Xiong H. (2024). Social support and parenting self-efficacy in parents of children with ASD: The mediating role of post-traumatic growth and the moderating role of self-esteem. Current Psychology, 43(10), 9025–9040.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Zhou J., Song X., Liao Q. (2021). The Chinese version of the Multidimensional State Mindfulness Questionnaire. Chinese Journal of Applied Psychology, 27(4), 358–367. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1006-6020.2021.04.008</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Zimet G. D., Dahlem N. W., Zimet S. G., Farley G. K. (1988). The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52(1), 30–41.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0193858198-29"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibtext> Lin Wang</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext>Graph</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext>https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8459-8195 Meng Hua</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext>Graph</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7194-0708 Guang Yang</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext>Graph</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8918-4579 Yuan Chen</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext>Graph https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6706-0962</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> This study received ethical approval from the appropriate institutional ethics committee. All procedures involving human participants complied with the ethical standards of institutional and/or national research committees and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants prior to data collection.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lin Wang: Conceptualisation; Data curation; Formal analysis; Software; Writing – original draft; Writing – review &amp; editing.Meng Hua: Conceptualisation; Project administration; Resources; Writing – original draft.Xinyi Hu: Investigation; Writing – original draft.Yifan Wang: Investigation; Writing – original draft.Qinxing Xie: Investigation; Writing – original draft.Guang Yang: Methodology; Validation; Writing – review &amp; editing.Yuan Chen: Conceptualisation; Supervision; Writing – review &amp; editing.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by Qing Lan Project of Mid-career Academic Leader in Jiangsu Province (2023) and Qing Lan Project of Excellent Teaching Team in Jiangsu Province (2025).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Supplemental material for this article is available online.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Lin Wang; Meng Hua; Xinyi Hu; Yifan Wang; Qinxing Xie; Guang Yang and Yuan Chen</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib85" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib76" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib70" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib82" firstref="ref11"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib59" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib62" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib35" firstref="ref14"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib36" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib34" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib78" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib42" firstref="ref19"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib47" firstref="ref20"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib38" firstref="ref22"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib52" firstref="ref23"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib83" firstref="ref24"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib89" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib80" firstref="ref26"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib51" firstref="ref28"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib73" firstref="ref29"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref34"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib50" firstref="ref35"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl24" bibid="bib56" firstref="ref36"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl25" bibid="bib37" firstref="ref38"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl26" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref39"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl27" bibid="bib88" firstref="ref40"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl28" bibid="bib81" firstref="ref41"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl29" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref43"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl30" bibid="bib48" firstref="ref44"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl31" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref45"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl32" bibid="bib64" firstref="ref46"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl33" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref49"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl34" bibid="bib41" firstref="ref52"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl35" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref53"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl36" bibid="bib55" firstref="ref54"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl37" bibid="bib57" firstref="ref55"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl38" bibid="bib46" firstref="ref56"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl39" bibid="bib49" firstref="ref57"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl40" bibid="bib63" firstref="ref58"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl41" bibid="bib32" firstref="ref59"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl42" bibid="bib87" firstref="ref60"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl43" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref61"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl44" bibid="bib91" firstref="ref63"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl45" bibid="bib44" firstref="ref65"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl46" bibid="bib92" firstref="ref66"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl47" bibid="bib39" firstref="ref68"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl48" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref69"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl49" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref71"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl50" bibid="bib58" firstref="ref73"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl51" bibid="bib61" firstref="ref75"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl52" bibid="bib53" firstref="ref77"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl53" bibid="bib77" firstref="ref82"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl54" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref84"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl55" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref86"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl56" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref87"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl57" bibid="bib72" firstref="ref88"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl58" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref90"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl59" bibid="bib40" firstref="ref91"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl60" bibid="bib45" firstref="ref96"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl61" bibid="bib65" firstref="ref97"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl62" bibid="bib74" firstref="ref98"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl63" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref100"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl64" bibid="bib54" firstref="ref101"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl65" bibid="bib84" firstref="ref102"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl66" bibid="bib90" firstref="ref103"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl67" bibid="bib69" firstref="ref104"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl68" bibid="bib86" firstref="ref105"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl69" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref106"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl70" bibid="bib43" firstref="ref107"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl71" bibid="bib60" firstref="ref108"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl72" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref109"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl73" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref111"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl74" bibid="bib68" firstref="ref113"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl75" bibid="bib66" firstref="ref114"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl76" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref115"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl77" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref116"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl78" bibid="bib79" firstref="ref118"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl79" bibid="bib71" firstref="ref119"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl80" bibid="bib75" firstref="ref120"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl81" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref122"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl82" bibid="bib67" firstref="ref123"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl83" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref124"></nolink> |
|---|---|
| Header | DbId: eric DbLabel: ERIC An: EJ1506480 AccessLevel: 3 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
| IllustrationInfo | |
| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Daily Mindfulness and Depressive Symptoms among Parents of Autistic Children: A Dynamic Structural Equation Modelling Study – Name: Language Label: Language Group: Lang Data: English – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Lin+Wang%22">Lin Wang</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8459-8195">0009-0002-8459-8195</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Meng+Hua%22">Meng Hua</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7194-0708">0000-0002-7194-0708</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Xinyi+Hu%22">Xinyi Hu</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Yifan+Wang%22">Yifan Wang</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Qinxing+Xie%22">Qinxing Xie</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Guang+Yang%22">Guang Yang</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8918-4579">0000-0001-8918-4579</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Yuan+Chen%22">Yuan Chen</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6706-0962">0000-0001-6706-0962</externalLink>) – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Autism%3A+The+International+Journal+of+Research+and+Practice%22"><i>Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice</i></searchLink>. 2026 30(6):1576-1592. – Name: Avail Label: Availability Group: Avail Data: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 17 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2026 – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Parents%22">Parents</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Autism+Spectrum+Disorders%22">Autism Spectrum Disorders</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Children%22">Children</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Depression+%28Psychology%29%22">Depression (Psychology)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Mental+Health%22">Mental Health</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Metacognition%22">Metacognition</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+Support+Groups%22">Social Support Groups</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Child+Behavior%22">Child Behavior</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Behavior+Problems%22">Behavior Problems</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Geographic Terms Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22China%22">China</searchLink> – Name: SubjectThesaurus Label: Assessment and Survey Identifiers Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SU" term="%22Strengths+and+Difficulties+Questionnaire%22">Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire</searchLink> – Name: DOI Label: DOI Group: ID Data: 10.1177/13623613261439930 – Name: ISSN Label: ISSN Group: ISSN Data: 1362-3613<br />1461-7005 – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Elevated depressive symptoms among parents of autistic children are well documented and associated with poorer mental health. Mindfulness has been identified as a protective factor against mental health difficulties, but its day-to-day associations with depressive symptoms in this population remain unclear. A total of 210 Chinese parents of autistic children participated in this 15-day diary study, during which they completed daily measures of mindfulness and depressive symptoms. The data were analysed using dynamic structural equation modelling. Results indicated that (1) parents' daily mindfulness and depressive symptoms exhibited autoregressive stability and showed significant negative reciprocal cross-lagged associations at the within-person level. At the between-person level, (2) higher perceived social support was associated with lower mean depressive symptoms and higher mean mindfulness, and it strengthened the negative cross-lagged effect of daily mindfulness on next-day depressive symptoms; and (3) child externalising problems were positively associated with parents' overall mean depressive symptoms and negatively associated with both parents' overall mean daily mindfulness and the autoregressive effects of daily mindfulness and depressive symptoms. Findings underscore the importance of fostering daily mindfulness within a supportive resource context and highlight the need to maintain the day-to-day persistence of mindfulness in families of autistic children with higher externalising problems. – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: As Provided – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2026 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: EJ1506480 |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1506480 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1177/13623613261439930 Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 17 StartPage: 1576 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Parents Type: general – SubjectFull: Autism Spectrum Disorders Type: general – SubjectFull: Children Type: general – SubjectFull: Depression (Psychology) Type: general – SubjectFull: Mental Health Type: general – SubjectFull: Metacognition Type: general – SubjectFull: Social Support Groups Type: general – SubjectFull: Child Behavior Type: general – SubjectFull: Behavior Problems Type: general – SubjectFull: Foreign Countries Type: general – SubjectFull: China Type: general – SubjectFull: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Daily Mindfulness and Depressive Symptoms among Parents of Autistic Children: A Dynamic Structural Equation Modelling Study Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Lin Wang – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Meng Hua – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Xinyi Hu – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Yifan Wang – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Qinxing Xie – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Guang Yang – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Yuan Chen IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 06 Type: published Y: 2026 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 1362-3613 – Type: issn-electronic Value: 1461-7005 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 30 – Type: issue Value: 6 Titles: – TitleFull: Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice Type: main |
| ResultId | 1 |
