Multiethnic and multiracial children’s mental health and flourishing
Children with multiple ethnoracial backgrounds (multiethnic children) are often thought to experience heightened risk for emotional and behavioural disorders and related symptoms, largely owing to navigating their multiple ethnoracial identities and potentially conflicting associated cultural values. Parents of multiethnic children are also pathologized, thought to face similar issues in their couples’ relationship, leading to difficulties in parenting multiethnic children. In Dr. Kil’s lab, we aim to flip the narrative on these stereotypes held about interethnic parents and their multiethnic children, and refocus attention to multiethnic families’ flourishing. In recent work, we have found that interethnic couples and same-ethnicity couples are equally happy and satisfied with one another’s parenting roles (Kil, Robichaud & Mageau, 2022). In future work, we will test whether multiethnic children truly experience greater risk for emotional and behavioural difficulties compared to single-ethnicity children. We will also assess how specific parenting behaviours — such as supporting child autonomy — may foster multiethnic children’s psychological well-being.

Parenting cognitions and children’s mental health
Clinical psychology research points to the clear and distinguishable role of parents’ cognitions (their thought processes) on their parenting, children’s mental health, and children’s outcomes following treatment for emotional and behavioural disorders. Parents who lack self-confidence in their parenting or feel that they are not yet equipped to change their parenting tend not to participate in parent-child integrated treatments for children’s mental health, across various child diagnoses (Kil, Aitken et al., 2021). Our lab is currently working with mental health institutions in Ontario to create a novel assessment of parenting cognitions that can be efficiently and accessibly implemented in the intake process to better personalize mental health treatments for children and their families. Additionally, with evidence from our lab that parenting cognitions are culturally variable (Kil, Singh et al., 2021), we aim to identify, distinguish, and appropriately assess culturally diverse parenting cognitions, ultimately informing culturally sensitive family-based interventions for children’s mental health.

Mindfulness in the family: Parent and child mindfulness and family well-being
Mindfulness can be defined as present-focused and nonjudgmental attention and awareness. Dr. Kil’s lab investigates how parents’ mindfulness may be linked to children’s mental health, well-being, and even children’s own mindfulness. Our recent work indicates that parents who are mindful tend to have children who are mindful, suggesting that there may exist highly
mindful families (Kil, Lee et al., 2022). In future work, we will assess whether parents’ mindfulness may be targeted in children’s mental health services, with the goal to improve parenting cognitions surrounding parents’ self-confidence to change their parenting and their children’s control over misbehaviours.