The benefits of mindfulness have been noticed in academics, but whether and how perceived mindful parenting prevents maladaptive academic behaviours (e.g. rigid persistence, self-handicapping, and compulsive learning behaviour) have rarely been discussed. Therefore, a model of perceived mindful parenting, insecure attachment, children mindfulness, and maladaptive academic behaviours (a PAMB model) was constructed to address the issues. The participants were 739 junior high school students and structural equation modelling was used. The results were as follows: (a) The PAMB model fitted the observed data well. (b) Perceived mindful parenting negatively predicted maladaptive academic behaviours by promoting children mindfulness. (c) Insecure attachment and children mindfulness mediated in sequence the relation between perceived mindful parenting and maladaptive academic behaviours.