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Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
Triadic interactions, parental reflective functioning, and early social-emotional difficulties.
María José León1, Marcia Olhaberry2
1Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Parental reflective functioning (RF) and family interactions significantly impact child social-emotional development. Mothers' RF influences triadic interactions, which in turn affect children's social-emotional well-being.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Family Studies
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Early childhood is crucial for social-emotional development, with family being the primary influence.
- Parental reflective functioning (RF) is key to understanding and managing children's social-emotional needs.
- Parental RF may protect children from social-emotional difficulties and impact long-term development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the relationships between parental RF, mother-father-child triadic interaction quality, and children's social-emotional difficulties.
- To analyze how parental RF and family dynamics contribute to social-emotional outcomes in early childhood.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional, correlational study involving 50 mother-father-child triads with children aged 12-36 months.
- Assessment of sociodemographic background, triadic interaction, parental RF, and children's social-emotional difficulties.
Main Results:
- Triadic interaction significantly impacted children's social-emotional difficulties, explaining 9% of the variance.
- Mothers' RF significantly influenced triadic interaction quality, explaining 19% of the variance.
- Triadic interaction was found to mediate the relationship between mothers' RF and children's social-emotional difficulties.
Conclusions:
- Family dynamics, particularly triadic interaction and parental reflective functioning, play a vital role in children's social-emotional development.
- Maternal reflective functioning is a significant predictor of positive triadic interactions, which subsequently benefit children's social-emotional health.
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