One of the central questions in the theory of the intergenerational transmission of psychological symptoms is to identify whether parenting practices explain the transmission of psychological symptoms from parents to youth. This study examined the mediating mechanism of mindful parenting in the relationship between parental anxiety and youth’s emotional and behavioral difficulties. In three waves separated by six months, longitudinal data were collected from 692 Spanish youth (54% girls) aged between 9 and 15 years (M_age = 12.84 years, SD = 1.22 years at Wave 1) and their parents. Path analysis showed that maternal mindful parenting mediated the relationship between maternal anxiety and the youth’s emotional and behavioral difficulties. No mediating effect was found concerning fathers; however, marginal bidirectional relationships were obtained between paternal mindful parenting and youth’s emotional and behavioral difficulties. This study addresses one of the main concerns about the theory of intergenerational transmission using a multi-informant and longitudinal study design, concluding that maternal anxiety predicts less mindful parenting practices and these in turn predict youth’s emotional and behavioral difficulties.

心理症状代际传播理论的核心问题之一是确定养育方式是否可以解释心理症状从父母到青少年的传播。本研究探讨了正念养育在父母焦虑与青少年情绪和行为困难之间关系中的中介机制。在相隔六个月的三波中，从 692 名年龄在 9 至 15 岁之间的西班牙青年（54% 为女孩）（第一波中M_年龄 = 12.84 岁，SD = 1.22 岁）及其父母收集了纵向数据。路径分析表明，母亲正念养育在母亲焦虑与青少年情绪和行为困难之间的关系中起中介作用。没有发现关于父亲的中介效应；然而，父亲的正念养育与青少年的情绪和行为困难之间存在边际双向关系。这项研究使用多信息和纵向研究设计解决了代际传播理论的主要问题之一，得出的结论是，母亲的焦虑预示着不那么专心的养育方式，而这些反过来又预示着青少年的情绪和行为困难。