Prenatal Reflective Functioning and Development of Aggression in Infancy: the Roles of Maternal Intrusiveness and Sensitivity

Abstract

Maternal reflective functioning (RF) has been associated with quality of parent-child interactions and child development. This study investigated whether prenatal RF predicted the development of infant physical aggression and whether maternal sensitivity and/or intrusiveness mediated or moderated this association. The sample consisted of 96 first-time mothers (M = 22.57 years, SD = 2.13) and their infants (54 % male). Prenatal RF was measured with an interview, maternal behavior was observed during free play at 6 months post-partum, and infant physical aggression was assessed at 6, 12, and 20 months using maternal reports. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that relatively poor prenatal RF was related to relatively high infant physical aggression. These associations were moderated by maternal intrusiveness, with significant differences in physical aggression between RF-groups reportedly only in the absence of intrusiveness. Generally, mothers reported an increase in physical aggression between 6 and 12 months, except when they had both low RF-skills and were relatively less sensitive. It is concluded that prenatal RF is associated with (development of) infant physical aggression, and may be targeted in intervention programs aimed at reducing early physical aggression. Less adequate parenting, however, may counteract the beneficial effects of good RF, or obscure insight into children’s behavioral development.

Mentalizing Makes Parenting Work: A Review about Parental Reflective Functioning and Clinical Interventions to Improve It

“…It was argued that maternal reflective functioning might promote emotional self-regulation in the child at the time of distress as well as greater trust in maternal responsiveness. Smaling et al (2016b) demonstrated that young, pregnant, high-risk women with higher PI-RF reported significantly less aggressive behaviors in their children when they were 6, 12, and 20 months old, regardless of the maternal level of sensitivity and intrusiveness, although mothers with both higher PI-RF and no or low intrusive caregiving were more likely not to report difficulties with their children related to the child’s aggressive behaviors.…”

“…Three studies (Esbjørn et al, 2013; Heron-Delaney et al, 2016; Smaling et al, 2016b) on child emotion regulation focused on anxiety symptoms in school-aged children, infants’ behavior during the Still Face procedure (Tronick et al, 1978), and infants’ aggressive behavior. Esbjørn et al (2013) found that low maternal AAI-RF (and not low paternal AAI-RF) was a predictor of higher levels of anxiety in a sample of clinically anxious school-aged children referred for psychological treatment.…”

“…Low maternal RF was found in mothers whose children suffered from anxiety disorders (Esbjørn et al, 2013), impairment in emotion regulation (Heron-Delaney et al, 2016), and externalizing behaviors (Ensink et al, 2016a; Smaling et al, 2016b). Moreover, higher parental RF was associated with better mentalizing abilities in children (Benbassat and Priel, 2012; Ensink et al, 2015; Rosso et al, 2015; Scopesi et al, 2015).…”

A non randomized mentalization intervention for parents of children with autism

“…This ability is referred to as mentalization or reflective functioning (RF) [Fonagy, 1991;Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist, & Target, 2006]. There is mounting evidence that high parental mentalization is associated with higher quality caregiving, attachment security, and successful ER while low parental mentalization is related to impairment in emotional regulation and externalizing behaviors in children [Ensink, Bégin, Normandin, & Fonagy, 2016;Heron-Delaney et al, 2016;Smaling et al, 2016]. Mentalization may play a particularly important role in families of individuals with ASD, as parents have to work harder than others to understand their children's thoughts and intentions, as they have to understand and make sense of what seems to be incomprehensible behavior, often in the absence of a positive response from the child [Slade, 2009].…”

Aggression in toddlerhood: The roles of parental beliefs, parenting behavior and precursors of theory of mind

“…In addition whereas the present study took different aspects of parental beliefs and specific forms of parenting in different contexts into account, it cannot claim to have been exhaustive regarding parenting beliefs or behavior. For example, reflective functioning and maternal mind‐mindedness, which both have been related to children's aggressive behavior, may be of specific interest in this four‐component model of early social development (Meins, Centifanti, Fernyhough, & Fishburn, ; Smaling et al, ). Finally, children's task compliance during the cognitive assessments may have influenced the results, because a low score on the cognitive tasks may be represented as noncompliance, which is related to aggressive behavior during childhood (Kalb & Loeber, ).…”