Do Parental Reflective Functioning and Parental Competence Affect The Socioemotional Adjustment Of Children?
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Do Parental Reflective Functioning and Parental Competence Affect The Socioemotional Adjustment Of Children? Leire Gordo
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Ana Martínez-Pampliega1 Leire Iriarte Elejalde1 Patrick Luyten2,3 ●
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Accepted: 21 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Parental reflective functioning refers to the parents’ ability to reflect on their children’s mental states, and is increasingly considered to be a key feature of competent parenting. However, to date, no study has empirically investigated this assumption. The main objective of the present study was therefore to investigate the mediating role of parental competence in the relationship between parental reflective functioning and children’s socioemotional adjustment. We also investigated whether these relationships were similar for mothers and fathers. The study was carried out in a sample of 433 mothers and 113 fathers of infants aged from 2 to 36 months. Participants had to complete the Spanish version of the Perceived Parental Competence Scale, the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire and the Ages & Stages Questionnaire. Results showed, as expected, that parental competence mediated the association between parental reflective functioning and infants’ emotional adjustment. Multigroup analysis supported the invariance of the structural model across mothers and fathers. The implications of these results for pediatric and primary care are discussed. Keywords Parental reflective functioning Parental competence Socioemotional adjustment Fathers Mothers ●
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Highlights We investigated the role of Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF) and parental competence in children’s socioemotional adjustment. ● Results indicate that parental competence mediated the association between PRF and infants’ socioemotional adjustment in both mothers and fathers. ● These results provide further evidence for the importance of PRF for children’s early socioemotional adjustment. ●
Mentalizing, or reflective functioning, refers to the ability to think about one’s own mental states and those of others, and to recognize how these mental states can affect behavior (Fonagy et al. 1991, 2002). Parental reflective functioning (PRF) is defined as the ability of parents to “keep their child in mind”, that is, to
* Leire Gordo [email protected] 1
Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
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Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK
recognize their children’s mental states and to explain and give meaning to their behavior in terms of thoughts, desires, and expectations. This capacity allows parents to reflect upon not only their own internal mental experiences, but also those of the child (Luyten et al. 2017a; Luyten et al. 2017b; Mitjavila 2013; Slade 2005). Studies suggest that PRF helps parents to face stres
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