Mindful Self-Care for Caregivers: A Proof of Concept Study Investigating a Model for Embedded Caregiver Support in a Pediatric Setting.

There was no control group, so improvements cannot be attributed to MSCC alone. The sample was small and homogeneous, with 13 parents in the intention-to-treat analysis. Attendance and missing data were uneven: 12 of 13 participants attended at least one session, three completed baseline only, and 9 were included in longitudinal analyses. Participants also received other supports: 11 of 13 had outpatient behavioral therapy targeting child behaviors, and 2 received additional therapy or medication. No fathers completed the intervention; the one male participant left after job loss. The study did not collect facilitator fidelity or homework logs. Screening excluded psychosis, PTSD, and current alcohol or substance use disorders, which may have selected lower-risk caregivers. The group setting itself may have contributed to reported stress and depression reductions. The paper called stress and depression reductions clinically significant, but the overall repeated-measures p values were 0.1692 for stress and 0.1056 for depression.

Do not read the 15.1% and 39.5% reductions as proof the program works. The overall repeated-measures p values for stress and depression were 0.1692 and 0.1056, the study had no control group, and parents also received outpatient behavioral therapy for their child, while some received individual therapy or medication, so the contribution of the program cannot be separated.