A short version of the reflective functioning questionnaire: Validation in a greek sample

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Reflective Functioning (RF), or mentalizing, is crucial for understanding mental states in typical and atypical development.
• The Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ) measures this capacity.
• Validating the Greek RFQ is essential for its use in the Greek population.

Purpose of the Study:

• Validate the Greek version of the 54-item RFQ.
• Examine its factor structure, reliability, and construct validity.
• Investigate its invariance across gender and age groups.

Main Methods:

• Administered the Greek RFQ to 875 adults.
• Assessed relationships with attachment, epistemic trust, emotion regulation, psychological mindedness, anxiety, depression, and borderline personality traits.
• Utilized cluster analysis for attachment classifications.

Main Results:

• A 31-item, three-factor RFQ (certainty, curiosity, uncertainty) showed robust structure, reliability, and validity in Greek adults.
• Uncertainty correlated with insecure attachment, epistemic mistrust, emotional suppression, and low psychological mindedness.
• Certainty and curiosity linked to secure attachment, epistemic trust, emotion reappraisal, and psychological mindedness.

Conclusions:

• The 31-item Greek RFQ is a reliable measure of reflective functioning.
• Impaired mentalizing capacity is associated with insecure attachment, epistemic mistrust, poor emotion regulation, and low psychological mindedness.
• These findings have implications for understanding adult mental health symptoms.