Maternal reflective functioning, mother–infant affective communication, and infant attachment: Exploring the link between mental states and observed caregiving behavior in the intergenerational transmission of attachment

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Kelly ◽  
Arietta Slade ◽  
John F. Grienenberger
Keyword(s):  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
Reflective Functioning ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Infant Attachment ◽  
Affective Communication ◽  
Maternal Reflective Functioning

Bridging the attachment transmission gap: The role of maternal mind-mindedness

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Bernier ◽  
Mary Dozier
Keyword(s):  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Foster Children ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
Attachment Security ◽  
Infant Attachment ◽  
Attachment Research ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Age Appropriate

The intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns is one of the most reliable yet least understood findings of attachment research. The aim of this report was to examine the capacity of maternal mind-mindedness to account for the relation between adult attachment state of mind and infant attachment security. Sixty-four foster children (aged 6–30 months) participated with their foster mothers. The mother’s tendency to use mental features in describing her child (mindmindedness) was negatively related to the security of both maternal state of mind and infant attachment. Further, mind-mindedness accounted for the totality of the predictive power of state of mind on infant attachment. The results suggest that age-appropriate representations of the child may help explain intergenerational transmission, through their interplay with parental interactive behaviours.

scholarly journals Intergenerational pathways from reflective functioning to infant attachment through parenting.

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Ensink ◽  
Lina Normandin ◽  
André Plamondon ◽  
Nicolas Berthelot ◽  
Peter Fonagy
Keyword(s):  
Reflective Functioning ◽  
Infant Attachment

scholarly journals A Critical Evaluation of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sascha Müller ◽  
Leon Patrick Wendt ◽  
Carsten Spitzer ◽  
Oliver Masuhr ◽  
Sarah N. Back ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Sample ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Reflective Functioning ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Psychological Impairment ◽  
Latent Dimension ◽  
Report Measure

The Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-8) is a short self-report measure of reflective functioning (i.e., the ability to understand mental states of the self and others) that is presumed to capture individual differences in hypo- and hypermentalizing. Despite its broad acceptance by the field and its regular use in primary investigations of the construct, we argue that the validity of the measure is still not well established. The current research elaborates on why the proposed scoring procedure may be methodologically problematic, the item content might not sufficiently cover the full breadth of the mentalizing construct, and it is unclear whether the measure captures mentalizing processes in particular or rather general psychological impairment. In a clinical sample (N = 861) and a sample of young adults (N = 566), we explore these critical considerations and demonstrate that the RFQ-8 may assess a single latent dimension related to hypomentalizing, but provides little unique variance above and beyond broad dimensions of personality pathology and is unlikely to capture maladaptive forms of hypermentalizing. The findings cast doubt on the validity of the RFQ-8 as a measure of reflective functioning. Future research should increase validation efforts concerning the RFQ-8 or develop new measures of reflective functioning.

scholarly journals In-Session Reflective Functioning: Relationship With the Presence and Depth of Work on Conflict or Personality Functioning

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia de la Cerda ◽  
Paula Dagnino
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Research ◽  
Reflective Functioning ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Psychodynamic Therapy ◽  
Personality Functioning ◽  
Change Mechanism ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship

Mentalizing, conceived as the capacity to attribute intentional mental states as implicit or underlying behavior of an individual or others, has gained interest within psychodynamic clinical research due to its potential as a change mechanism. Variations and qualities of mentalization have been studied through reflective functioning (RF). But only few studies are analyzing it throughout the psychotherapeutic interaction, identifying its level for therapists and patients. In contrast, brief psychodynamic therapy has a long tradition for establishing a focus to be worked upon. Lately, a multischematic focus has arisen, considering both conflict and personality functioning focuses as key elements on successful psychotherapies. This study aimed to identify mentalizing manifestations of patients and therapists through change episodes of one successful brief psychodynamic therapy and establish the relationship between these mentalizing manifestations and the type and depth of the therapeutic focus being worked on (conflict or personality functioning). Only 37.5% of speaking turns were able to be coded with RF; 77% of these had moderate to high RF and 22% had low or failure RF. The patient had 91% of low or failure RF, while the therapist only had 9% of low or failure RF. As for moderate to high RF, patients had 39%, while therapists had 61%. The patient showed a similar number of low or failure RF interventions and moderate to high RF interventions in conflict episodes. Meanwhile, the therapist only performs moderate to high-level RF interventions. In episodes in which personality functioning is worked on, both patient and therapist show a greater presence of interventions of moderate to high levels of RF. Finally, mentalizing interactions and non-mentalizing interactions were found on segments with conflict, and only mentalizing interactions were found on personality functioning segments.

Parental mentalization: A critical literature review of mind-mindedness, parental insightfulness and parental reflective functioning

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-105
Author(s):  
Flavia L Medrea ◽  
Oana Benga
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Reflective Functioning ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Integrative Review ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Parental Reflective Functioning ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Methodological Aspects ◽  
Critical Literature

Parental mentalization captures the parent’s abilities to represent his/her child as a psychological agent and the parent’s proclivity to understand and interpret child’s behavior in terms of mental states. Under this label, the literature emphasizes three different constructs: mind-mindedness, parental reflective functioning and insightfulness. Presently, there is no integrative review addressing all three constructs comprehensively through a comparative analysis. Furthermore, there is some confusion as to where the concepts overlap and differ, how they are distinctively operationalized and which measures are used to tap into each one of them. To address this issue, this article aims to synthesize the literature in a critical manner, reviewing mind-mindedness, parental reflective functioning and insightfulness. This study identifies key theoretical and methodological aspects of parental mentalization constructs (e.g., definition and conceptualization, measurements, parental and child correlates, strengths and weaknesses). Moreover, the constructs are compared based on their similarities and differences regarding definition, conceptualization and measurements. Finally, the paper offers some directions for further research. This review informs research in the field by providing an integrative and comprehensive understanding of parental mentalization.

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