Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026
07:12
Profiling Maternal Behavior Responses During Whole-Brain Imaging
Published on: January 24, 2025
Maternal mind-mindedness: A latent profile analysis approach
Kathryn M Wall1, Kathleen W Guan2, Saskia Malcorps3
1Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Infant Behavior & Development
|August 14, 2026
Summary
This study identified distinct caregiver mind-mindedness profiles, revealing how these patterns relate to demographic and psychological risk factors in mothers of infants. Understanding these profiles offers insights into parental caregiving and child development.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Parent-Child Interaction Studies
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Mind-mindedness, caregivers' ability to perceive children as individuals with mental states, is linked to caregiving and child outcomes.
- Existing research lacks examination of dynamic mind-related parental representations and their risk factor associations.
- Latent profile analysis (LPA) offers a method to explore heterogeneity in these representations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify distinct profiles of mind-mindedness in mothers of infants using LPA.
- To investigate associations between these mind-mindedness profiles and demographic/psychological risk factors.
- To advance understanding of caregiver representations and their influence on child development.
Main Methods:
- Three latent profile analyses (LPAs) were conducted on data from 181 mothers and their infants.
- Profiles were examined based on mental-attribution, relative attributions (mental vs. non-mental), and representational valence.
- Associations between identified profiles and demographic/psychological risk factors were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Three distinct mind-mindedness profiles emerged: high, medium, and low mental attribution.
- Two classes differed in physical and self-referential attributes versus mental attributions.
- Three profiles based on dominant representational valence (positive, neutral, negative) were identified.
- Significant associations were found between identified classes and demographic factors.
Conclusions:
- LPA effectively identifies clusters of mind-related representations and associated demographic differences.
- This research provides novel insights into the heterogeneity of maternal mind-mindedness.
- Future studies should explore mind-mindedness profiles' links to parental factors to understand influential components.
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