When Parents Fail to Mind the Child: Lower Mentalizing in Parents Who Maltreat Their Children

Abstract

Mentalization is considered an essential ability for social cognition as well as a crucial competency in parenting to further the development of internal structures that are decisive for self organization and affect regulation in children. Yet, few empirical studies have investigated whether, and to what extent, parents who maltreat their children poorly mentalize. The aim of this research was to study the mentalization ability in a group of parents who maltreated their children and had been referred by the Courts for Child Custody and Parenting Plan Evaluation (Group 1), and in a comparison, non-clinical group of parents (Group 2). Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), rated in terms of both the Berkeley AAI System and the Reflective Functioning Scale was administered. Group 1 had severely impaired reflective functioning (RF) in 83.3% of cases, whilst impaired RF was found in only 12.5% of Group 2 parents. For the most part, parents in Group 1 showed Negative Reflective Functioning, systematically resisting taking a reflective stance, and the parents who most severely maltreated their children showed distorted and/or self-serving passages associated with a particular type of dismissing pattern of attachment (DS2) based on the derogation of attachment. The frequent occurrence of derogation in these parents likely explains how much the devaluation of relationships and attachment needs, presumably acquired during childhood with defensive purposes and in order to exclude the pain and perception of emotional weakness from awareness, hinders the capacity to care for children in the full respect of their needs.

Psychoanalytic Interventions with Abusive Parents: An Opportunity for Children’s Mental Health

“…Ammaniti and colleagues [ 28 ] found that 87.5% of abusive parents evinced an insecure state of mind regarding attachment and that 47% of these insecure parents specifically exhibited unintegrated states of mind, such as Unresolved or Cannot Classify states of mind, as a consequence of dissociative states that developed following early traumatic experiences of loss and/or abuse. Rosso [ 30 ] found that, in her sample, maltreating parents had not experienced poverty, poor education, lack of social support, or physical illness in their childhood, but they had suffered high degrees of family conflicts associated with significant neglect experiences, especially with their mothers, findings already reported in previous studies [ 32 , 33 ].…”

“…A number of studies have specifically investigated the quality of attachment patterns and reflective function in abusive parents [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ], highlighting the prevalence of dismissive and disorganized mind states in abusive parents. Ammaniti and colleagues [ 28 ] found that 87.5% of abusive parents evinced an insecure state of mind regarding attachment and that 47% of these insecure parents specifically exhibited unintegrated states of mind, such as Unresolved or Cannot Classify states of mind, as a consequence of dissociative states that developed following early traumatic experiences of loss and/or abuse.…”

“…In Rosso’s study [ 30 ], more than 90% of the abusive parents showed an insecure state of mind regarding attachment with a prevalence (66.7%) of dismissing classification. Compared with the control group of nonabusive parents, they showed high reliance on the defensive strategies of idealizing their childhood experiences, derogating their attachment needs, lacking memories in addition to passivity in thought processes, and disorganized states of mind regarding grief and/or abuse experiences.…”

“…Mentalization-based treatments, first developed by psychoanalyst Peter Fonagy’s research group at University College London, can be considered extensions of Selma Fraiberg’s pioneering work. Rosso [ 30 ] suggested that the prevention policies of welfare services should take into account mentalization deficit, especially if associated with a derogatory state of mind regarding attachment needs, as a major risk factor for failure in parenting. Berthelot and colleagues [ 32 ] suggested that focusing on mentalization may be crucial for the well-timed identification of individuals with a history of child maltreatment who are expecting a child, since intervening postpartum with parent–infant dyads may already be a step too late, as findings [ 57 ] show that an intergenerational impact of child maltreatment can be observed shortly after birth.…”

A follow-up study of the “Lighthouse” mentalization-based parenting program: Mentalization as a mediator of change

“…Mentalizing capacity distinguishes mothers whose attitudes and behaviours predict child abuse risk from those who show no significant indicators of risk ( Hunter et al, 2022 ). Parents with a history of child maltreatment demonstrate hostility to mentalizing demands ( Rosso, 2022 ). Synthesising the present state of this literature, Byrne et al (2019) have suggested that child abuse can be understood as a consequence of dysfunctional or limited mentalizing capacity and the consequent risk that children’s mental states and behaviours can be interpreted in distorted or inaccurate ways.…”