Mindfulness can shape not only how we feel but also how our brains work. This study used EEG mindfulness assessments to see how a digital program can support families, both parents and children. By engaging both, the hyperscanning training aimed to leverage coregulation.
The goal is to strengthen mental health in both members of the dyad, but also make the training accessible.
Cooperative compassion (CoCo) intervention
The study designed an intervention to help parent-child pairs improve their well-being. The CoCo intervention consisted of 10-minute digital sessions. Families could have done a maximum of 30 sessions during the study.
In each session parent–child pairs practiced attention-to-breath mindfulness. You can see the instructions and details of this training in the image below:
The digital Cooperative Compassion (CoCo) training. (Level) refers to the number of breaths monitored by both parent and child ranging from 1 to 10. Higher levels were accessed when performance at lower levels was consistent for at least two-thirds of the level time. There was a total of 5 levels of standard compassion training – shown on the right.Demographics and study setup
The study enrolled 24 parent-child dyads, who did the CoCo training over a 3-month period.
Authors note the sample is relatively homogeneous, especially in terms of socioeconomic status. The measurement considers car ownership, does the child have their own bedroom, vacations, and computers in the house. In this study the scale is skewed toward higher affluence.
Check out other demographic data on the participants in the table below:
| Demographics | Parents | Children |
| AGE | 44.5 (SD = 6.5) | 9.5 (SD = 3.27) |
| GENDER | M = 4 / F = 20 | M = 10 / F = 14 |
| RACE/ETHNICITY | 14 White / 8 Asian / 2 mixed race | 11 White / 5 Asian / 7 mixed race / 1 other race |
Both parents and children completed self-report questionnaires assessing mental health. Parents also had to answer questions about their child’s emotions and behavior. They did this through the CDI – children’s depression index scale.
Find the summary of these assessments in the table below. Researchers used these scores to assess the effects of the intervention.
| Baseline assessments | Parents | Children |
| Child depression index (CDI) | 54.08 (SD = 9.06) range: 40-90 | 57.96 (SD = 13.75) range: 37-74 |
| Parental stress | 4.91 (SD = 3.61) range: 0-13 | / |
| Parental anxiety | 4.39 (SD = 3.28) range: 0-14 | / |
| Parental depression | 5.13 (SD = 3.52) range: 0-13 | / |
Objective assessment of the emotional state
To go beyond the subjective ratings, authors did an objective assessment: how do parents and children process emotions and regulate attention?
They used an emotion biased task. Here, the participants are presented with emotional faces – happy, angry, fearful, neutral. The task was to quickly decide whether the face was male or female, and the authors measured their reaction time and accuracy.
This allowed the researchers to assess whether CoCo helped reduce emotional biases and have more regulated responses.
Hyperscanning EEG mindfulness assessment
Before and after the intervention, the families went through neural assessment in a hyperscanning manner.
Authors wanted to see if the intervention caused changes in brain activity for both parents and children. To be specific, the activity of the default mode network (DMN).
DMN is linked to mind-wandering and rumination – which are heightened in depression and anxiety.
To do this, the parent-infant dyads did an attention-to-breath task. For 5 minutes, they had to close their eyes and breathe naturally. To keep them aware of the breathing pace, they had to respond every two breaths. They did this by tapping on a spacebar.
By looking into the response time, researchers defined two conditions:
- High consistency breath monitoring.
- Low consistency trials.
During the task, both parent and child wore the mobile Smarting device for collecting EEG data.
Results of the study
Self-reported mental health
Subjective ratings for different parameters pre-, post-intervention and follow-up that happened 3 months after the training ended. These rating include CDI child and parent rating, parental anxiety, depression, and stress. The ratings are presented in boxplots for all three timepoints. In the bottom-right corner authors represented the correlation between parental stress and mindfulness, which turned out to be significant!The CoCo training improved mental health scores in both parents and children. However, only parents showed statistically significant changes. They reported stronger reductions in stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.
This suggests that while both members of the dyad benefit, parents may experience more immediate or noticeable relief. Whereas children’s changes might develop more gradually or be harder for them to self-assess.
The study reported that higher parental mindfulness was associated with lower parental stress. This aligns with the idea that mindfulness practice can help parents regulate their own emotion.
Families also found the practice easy to follow and engaging, which helped maintain participation throughout the program.
Emotion-related attention task results
Processing speed on the emotion bias task in (A) children and (B) parents.After the intervention, participants were better at focusing on the task despite emotional distractions. Results reflect higher emotion regulation and attentional control due to the training.
This shows that CoCo training may help families respond more calmly and clearly in emotional situations.
Changes in the DMN network in the hyperscanning neural assessment
(A) Look of the application used for the assessment. (B) Power frequency plot of scalp channel data across all participants and sessions. (C) Source-reconstructed EEG data for three different brain control networks. We are focusing on the DMN one. (D) Source activity changes in the three control networks pre- and post-intervention. FPN – frontoparietal and CON – cingulo-opercular network.EEG results indicated reduced alpha-band activity in DMN during the attention-to-breath task after training. Since the DMN is associated with mind-wandering and rumination, this suggests participants were more focused on the present moment. The neural changes aligned with the behavioral and cognitive improvements too.
These results provide objective evidence that CoCo training can reshape brain activity related to attention and emotional regulation.
What are the next steps?
These results are very promising – they show how mindfulness training can help families battle stress and develop healthy connections.
Like any feasibility study, this research comes with limitations. CoCo was tested in a small, mostly affluent group of families, and many outcomes relied on self-reports.
Next steps include trying the program in larger, more diverse groups. Also extending follow-ups to see if benefits last and adapting it for families with greater mental health needs.
You can read the original study here (linked).
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