Breath-Focused Mindfulness and Compassion Training in Parent-Child Dyads: Pilot Intervention Study.
JMIR formative research July 17, 2025 Satish Jaiswal, Jason Nan, Seth Dizon et al. 5 citations
A pilot study tested a parent-child digital mindfulness and compassion training app called Cooperative Compassion (CoCo) with 24 families. After 30 sessions over three months, the program was feasible, with 80% of families completing most sessions. Children showed no significant improvement in depression scores but did demonstrate faster processing on an emotion task. Parents experienced significant reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression that lasted at three months, and their mindfulness gains correlated with stress relief. Brain recordings during a breathing task revealed reduced default mode network activity after training, suggesting less mind-wandering and better focus. The results support larger, randomized trials.