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

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Attachment Theory

Background:

• Parental reflective functioning (RF) is the capacity to understand a child's mental states.
• Recent research highlights RF's significance in child development.
• A comprehensive review is needed to synthesize existing findings and identify future research gaps.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a narrative review of empirical studies on parental RF.
• To examine the impact of parental RF on caregiving, attachment, and child's emotion regulation.
• To explore maternal RF in at-risk populations and the efficacy of mentalization-based interventions.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search using Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and Mendeley.
• Inclusion of 47 original articles published in peer-reviewed journals before July 2016, using the RF Scale.
• Exclusion of dissertations, qualitative, theoretical papers, and book chapters.

Main Results:

• Higher parental RF correlates with secure child attachment and adequate caregiving.
• Low maternal RF is associated with children's anxiety, emotion regulation deficits, and externalizing behaviors.
• Elevated parental RF predicts enhanced mentalizing abilities in children.

Conclusions:

• Parental reflective functioning is a key factor in healthy child development and secure attachment.
• Mentalization-based interventions show promise but may require refinement for diverse populations.
• Further research is needed to understand the nuances of parental RF, especially in at-risk groups.