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The aim of this study was to examine whether it was possible to develop a reliable and valid assessment of reflective parenting implicit in interaction with school-aged children using an adaptation of the Squiggle paradigm developed by Winnicott (1968) and a manualized coding system (Normandin, Leroux, Ensink, Terradas & Fonagy, 2015). A total of 158 mother-child dyads participated when children were aged 5-12. Of this group, 89 children had experienced sexual abuse. Inter-rater reliability using the manualized coding system was excellent. The factor analysis identified a Reflective Parenting Stance factor, in addition to an Affectionate Support factor and a Negative Parenting factor. There is renewed interest in parenting, with evidence showing that parenting influences epigenetic regulation well into adulthood (Naumova et al., 2016) and modulates environmental and genetic risk underlying inter-generational transmission of patterns of aggression (Fonagy, 2004). Since the late 1990's there has been an increasing interest in the mentalization or reflective functioning model of intervention with parents and children, based on Fonagy and Target's (1996Target's ( , 1997 theory of child development, in which parental reflective functioning is considered central (Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist, & Target, 2002). In Fonagy and Target's (1997) model, the parent's benign interest in the child's subjectivity and mind is key in developing self and affect regulation, and the emergence of the reflective self. Parental reflective functioning has come to be viewed as mental activity, but Fonagy and Target (1997) emphasize that this is manifested in how the parent treats the child, i.e. whether the parent is able to consider the child's behaviour as internally motivated and is interested in the child's subjective world. In a now classic study, the mothers' reflective functioning (RF) about their own early attachment relationship, assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview, was shown to predict infant attachment (Fonagy, Steele, & Steele, 1991). With the subsequent development of the Parent Reflective Functioning coding (Slade, Bernbach, Grienenberger, Levy & Locker, 2004) of the Parent Development Interview (PDI: Aber, Slade, Berger, Bresgi, & Kaplan, 1985;Slade, Aber, Bresgi, Berger, & Kaplan, 2004), it became possible to assess the parent's mentalization about the child and assess the extend to which their understanding of the child goes beyond physical qualities and behaviors and conveys a sense of the child as an individual with affects and mental states. Over time these verbal, cognitive, and explicit dimensions of mentalization, as evident in the discourse of parents, have come to be regarded as synonymous with RF. In this vein, Shai and Belsky (2011) proposed that RF can also be seen as manifesting at an implicit and embodied THE SQUIGGLE ASSESSMENT OF REFLECTIVE PARENTING 4 level, and Shai and Fonagy (2014) validated a measure of embodied mentalization to analyze mother-infant interaction. In sum, reflective paren...

Já é amplamente reconhecido que as experiências de abuso e de trauma na infância, particularmente as que se passam em um contexto de apego sem segurança, prejudicam o desenvolvimento do sentimento fundamental de segurança em relação ao outro, deixando, desse modo, as vítimas com um sentimento de solidão e com afetos e dores que não podem ser partilhados e associados ao trauma. Por sua vez, quando essas crianças crescem e tornam-se pais, permanecem extremamente vulneráveis à desorganização e à confusão quando confrontados ao desamparo de seus filhos. Isso os torna ainda mais passíveis de reagir de modo impróprio, considerando a ativação dos efeitos ligados ao trauma não resolvido. Entretanto, tal como demonstrado por Fraiberg, os pais aptos para fazer face às experiências traumáticas e aos chamados "fantasmas do passado" têm menor risco de transmitir o trauma a seus filhos. Isso sugere que a mentalização é um fator importante de resiliência.

The aim of this study was to examine whether mothers who manifest insensitive and disconnected behaviors in interaction with their infants differ in terms of maternal reflective functioning (RF), personality organization, and histories of abuse. A total of 86 mother-infant dyads, 28 of them with histories of abuse, participated in the study. RF was assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview (C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1985), and personality organization was assessed with the self-report Inventory of Personality Organization (M.F. Lenzenweger, J.F. Clarkin, O.F. Kernberg, & P.A. Foelsh, 2001; L. Normandin et al., 2002), before the birth of the baby. Maternal behaviors were assessed using the Disconnected and Extremely Insensitive Parenting measure when the infants were 15 to 18 months old. The results of multivariate analyses of covariance indicate that both RF and personality organization were associated with disconnected and extremely insensitive maternal behaviors. Mothers classified as presenting intrusive/aggressive behaviors had significantly lower RF as well as significantly more difficulties in personality organization, including reality testing, identity, and defense mechanisms. Withdrawn and disconnected maternal behaviors were associated with the combination of difficulties in mentalization and personality organization rather than difficulties in one specific area. In sum, the study provides new evidence regarding the importance of a mentalizing stance about early attachment relationships for the modulation of maternal behaviors, especially intrusive/aggressive behaviors.

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Background Both the latest edition of the DSM-5 as well as the new ICD-11 have established a new focus in the diagnosis of personality disorders: the assessment of personality functioning. This recent shift in focus converges with long-standing psychodynamic conceptualizations of personality pathology, particularly Kernberg’s object relations model. Although a significant amount of research supports these models in adults, much less is known about the validity of these frameworks in youth. Considering the paucity of brief measures of personality functioning in adolescents, the current study aimed to develop and investigate the validity of the Inventory of Personality Organization for Adolescents—Short Form, a theoretically-informed measure assessing severity and core domains of functioning in adolescents. Methods A total sample of N = 525 adolescents aged 13 to 19 years were recruited through a community University-Health Psychology Clinic as current patients (n = 94) or who responded to an online research call (n = 431). Results Results indicate that a bifactor model provided the best fit to the data and consisted of a general factor reflecting core self-other functioning and three specific factors, representing additional dimensions of personality organization. Conclusions A brief 15-item version of the IPO-A was successfully derived for time-efficient screening of personality pathology in youth. Similarities with the ICD-11 framework are discussed.

The concept of personality organization (PO) is central to current psychodynamic understanding of normal personality development as well as the development of personality disorders (PDs). However, individual differences in PO have primarily been studied in adult populations, and it remains unclear whether the clinical indicators of normal, neurotic and borderline PO manifest differently during adolescence. This study aimed to address the gaps in current knowledge regarding the potentially different manifestation of pathological PO in adolescence. In addition, we wanted to further establish the validity of the adolescent version of the Inventory of Personality Organization, by identifying cut‐off points for each of the main dimensions of Normal, Neurotic, and Borderline PO. Participants included 430 adolescents (M = 16 years old) from the community. Cluster analysis identified three levels of PO corresponding to Normal, Neurotic, and Borderline PO. Cut‐ off points between the different POs were successfully established using ROC curve analyses.