Maternal caregiving representations of the infant in the first year of life: Associations with prenatal and concurrent reflective functioning

Abstract

Few studies have examined whether maternal caregiving representations are associated with maternal reflective functioning (MRF), especially when MRF is evaluated longitudinally beginning in pregnancy. This study addresses this gap by evaluating whether prenatal and postnatal MRF are associated with mothers’ caregiving representations assessed at 7 months postpartum, and by exploring theoretically unexpected MRF scores in each of the representational categories. Forty‐seven mothers were recruited during their last trimester of pregnancy from an obstetrics clinic at a university hospital located in a large mid‐western city in the United States. During pregnancy, mothers completed the Pregnancy Interview, and at 7 months postpartum they completed the Parent Development Interview (PDI) and the Working Model of the Child Interview. Results indicate that higher prenatal and postnatal MRF increased the odds of being classified as balanced versus disengaged. At 7 months, MRF also increased the odds of being balanced vs. distorted. Ten mothers who were classified as balanced or distorted had unexpected prenatal MRF scores, and six mothers had unexpected MRF scores when representations were assessed concurrently. Mothers classified as balanced with low MRF scores tended to have a low level of education, whereas mothers classified as distorted with high MRF scores had responses that were hostile, helpless, and role‐reversed.

Does Parental Reflective Functioning Mediate the Associations between the Maternal Antenatal and Postnatal Bond with the Child in a Community Sample?

“…Recent reviews that have explored the associations between pre- and postnatal bonding have highlighted that the complex pathways likely to exist in these associations are still unclear [ 2 , 15 , 17 ]. Considering other factors, such as parental mentalization, could provide a deeper understanding of the variables that influence the establishment of the maternal affective tie with the fetus and subsequently with the newborn [ 17 , 18 , 19 ].…”

“…As Alvarez-Monjarás et al [ 19 ] recently showed, it is the development of a mother’s capacity for reflecting upon the child’s mental states that allows the parent to display more appropriate and sensitive responses to the child’s behavioral cues. Therefore, higher maternal PRF is related to more positive maternal caregiving behaviors [ 18 , 19 , 38 ]. However, the link between caregiving experiences and maternal PRF has not been thoroughly studied.…”

Parental Reflective Functioning on the Parent Development Interview: A narrative review of measurement, association, and future directions

“…The sociodemographic factors examined across studies typically include income level, education level, maternal age, and single parenthood. Multiple studies have documented significant associations between level of parental education and PRF (Alismail et al., 2022; Arkle et al., 2023; Benbassat & Priel, 2012; Brophy‐Herb et al., 2023; Halfon & Besiroglu, 2020; Huber et al., 2015; Lowell et al., 2022; Newman‐Morris et al., 2020; Sleed et al., 2018; Stover & Kiselica, 2014). Similarly, a significant association between maternal income level and PRF has been reported in at least four studies (Arkle et al., 2023; Brophy‐Herb et al., 2023; Sleed et al., 2018; Yatziv et al., 2020).…”

Evaluation of the Danish version of the prenatal parental reflective functioning questionnaire in early pregnancy as a screening tool

“…These findings are not consistent with many other studies. While some studies do show depression and P‐PRF and PRF are not associated (Alismail, 2017), many studies have found these associations. Symptoms of depression (Condon & Corkindale, 1997; Huth‐Bocks et al., 2004), anxiety (Bateman & Fonagy, 2012; Nolte et al., 2011) and adverse childhood events (Håkansson et al., 2018; Yu et al., 2020) feature deficits in mentalizing.…”