Self‐report measure of parental reflective functioning: A study of reliability and validity across three samples of varying clinical risk

Reflective functioning (RF) has been found to be associated with motherchild interactions, but less is known about the association of fathers' self and child-focused RF and father-child relationships. Fathers who have histories of intimate partner violence (IPV) are known to have poor RF, which may impact their father-child interactions. The current study was designed to examine how types of RF are associated with father-child relationships. Pretreatment assessments and recorded, coded father-child play interactions were used to examine associations among fathers' history of adverse childhood experiences (ACES), RF and coded father-child play interactions in a sample of 47 fathers with a history of IPV use in the last 6 months with their coparent. Fathers' ACES and their child's mental states (CM) were associated with father-child dyadic play interactions. Fathers with greater ACES and higher scores on CM had the most dyadic tension and constriction during play interactions. Those with high ACES but low CM had scores similar to those with low ACES and low CM. These results indicate that fathers who have used IPV and have a history of significant adversity may benefit from interventions to increase their child-focused RF and further improve their interactions with their children.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Self‐reported reflective functioning and father–child interactions in a sample of fathers who have used intimate partner violence

Stover

Farren

Campbell

et al. 2023

“…The discrepancies between mothers’ PRF scores on the PRFQ and PDI may also reflect social desirability effects on self‐report measures (PRFQ) that interview measures (PDI) are more immune to. The question of changes in one measure of PRF versus the other is also complicated by recent work demonstrating minimal correlation between the PDI and PRFQ in several samples of mothers, including samples of mothers in substance use treatment (Carlone et al., 2023). Overall, however, our present findings raise important questions about why MIO showed diminished efficacy at improving mothers’ PRF when it was delivered by community‐based providers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Clarification of mediators and moderators of clinical outcomes will also undoubtedly inform the design of implementation‐effectiveness research done with larger samples (Curran et al., 2012). Given research being done on different approaches to the measurement of key constructs in parenting research (Carlone et al., 2023), additional work might also explore the utility of more economical, ecologically valid assessments of PRF, parenting behavior, and quality of the parent‐child relationship (e.g., parental embodied mentalizing, mind‐mindedness; Shai & Meins, 2018) rather than more expensive, time‐consuming measures that may not capture these phenomena occurring in more naturalistic settings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The PRFQ has good internal consistency, and the subscales are not, or only modestly, related to demographic characteristics. These subscales also do not correlate meaningfully with measures of PRF derived from the PDI in samples of mothers with addictions (Carlone et al., 2023) but are related to attachment, emotional availability, and parenting stress in theoretically consistent ways (Luyten et al., 2017). In this sample the coefficients alpha were .69 for the Prementalization subscale, .47 for the Interest and Curiosity subscale, and .70 for the Certainty subscale.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mothering from the Inside Out: Results of a community‐based randomized efficacy trial testing a mentalization‐based parenting intervention for mothers with addictions

Lowell

DeCoste

Dalton

et al. 2023

Self Cite

Mothering from the Inside Out (MIO) is a mentalization‐based parenting intervention developed to address challenges common among mothers experiencing substance use disorders (SUDs) and previously deemed effective when delivered by research clinicians. This randomized clinical trial was designed to test the efficacy of MIO when delivered by community‐based addiction counselors in Connecticut, USA. Ninety‐four mothers [M(SD)age = 31.01(4.01) years; 75.53% White] caring for a child 11–60 months of age were randomly assigned to participate in 12 sessions of either MIO or psychoeducation. Caregiving, psychiatric, and substance use outcomes were assessed repeatedly from baseline through 12‐week follow‐up. Mothers who participated in MIO showed decreased certainty about their child's mental states, and decreased depression; their children demonstrated increased clarity of cues. Participation in MIO was not associated with the same degree of improvement that was observed in prior trials where MIO was delivered by research clinicians. However, when delivered by community‐based clinicians, MIO may be protective against a deterioration in caregiving over time often seen in mothers with addictions. The drop in efficacy of MIO in this trial raises questions about intervention‐intervenor fit. Research should examine factors influencing MIO effectiveness to close the science‐to‐service gap common in the dissemination of empirically validated interventions.

“…Analyses would have been more robust if RF were also coded from the PDI at baseline and tested as a covariate. Research documenting the limited correlation of RF measured by the PFRQ versus the PDI suggests that the PFRQ may not be a good proxy for the PDI (Anis et al., 2020; Carlone et al., 2023). Further, given that Latina mothers had lower PDI RF than non‐Latina mothers, we wonder whether a non‐linguistic measure of RF might be useful for assessing RF in this population in future studies to eliminate the possibility that any ethnic group differences were due to language proficiency.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Savoring interventions for mothers of young children: Mechanisms linking relational savoring and personal savoring to reflective functioning

Borelli

Kazmierski

Gaskin

et al. 2023

Self Cite

Parenting interventions can improve parenting outcomes, with widespread implications for children's developmental trajectories. Relational savoring (RS) is a brief attachment-based intervention with high potential for dissemination.Here we examine data from a recent intervention trial in order to isolate the mechanisms by which savoring predicts reflective functioning (RF) at treatment follow-up through an examination of the content of savoring sessions (specificity, positivity, connectedness, safe haven/secure base, self-focus, child-focus). Mothers (N = 147, M age = 30.84 years, SD age = 5.13; Race: 67.3% White/Caucasian, 12.9% other or declined to state; 10.9% biracial/multiracial, 5.4% Asian, 1.4% Native American/Alaska Native, 2.0% Black/African American; Ethnicity: 41.5% Latina) of toddlers (M age = 20.96 months, SD age = 2.50; 53.5% female) were randomized to four sessions of RS or personal savoring (PS). Both RS and PS predicted higher RF, but through different means. RS was indirectly associated with higher RF through greater connectedness and specificity of savoring content, while PS was indirectly associated with higher RF through greater self-focus in savoring content. We discuss the implications of these findings for treatment development and for our understanding of the emotional experience of mothers of toddlers.