624 - Mindfulness Apps for Parents and Children: Content, Accessibility and Quality

Mindfulness may positively impact the well-being of both parents and children. There are an increasing number of smart phone apps that address mindfulness for parents and children, but little is known about the content of these apps. 

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine parent and child targeted components, content, accessibility, and quality of mindfulness apps.

Design/Methods:

We used content analysis to evaluate app descriptions on the Apple App Store. We examined the first 75 apps from a search of 6 search terms using key words mindfulness and meditation. Apps were considered eligible if they were in English and the description contained at least one of the following terms (yoga, mindfulness, meditation, mind body). Eligible apps were evaluated for: 1) Parent and child targeted components 2) Content (offering content such as breathing techniques and meditation) 3) Accessibility (including cost and if offered in multiple languages) and 4) Quality of the app (if it referenced scientific research and was updated) (Table 1).

Results:

Of 270 apps screened, 128 met inclusion criteria. App content included meditations (n=100, 78%), sleep-related content (n=74, 58%), breathing techniques (n=45, 35%) and yoga (n=18, 14%). While some apps targeted children (n=25, 20%), fewer apps targeted parents or expecting parents (n=10, 8%) or contained parent-focused components (n=11, 9%) (Table 2). While a third of apps provided some free features (n=42, 33%) or a free trial (n=41, 32%), fewer apps (n=24, 19%) were completely free.  Regarding the quality of apps, approximately 59% were created or updated within the past 6 months, and 23% referenced scientific research.

Conclusion(s):

Few mindfulness apps are targeted to parents, are freely accessible, and reference scientific research. There is a need to develop evidence-based mindful parenting apps to support parent and child health.