McGlade, Daniel;
Rutherford, Helena;
McCrory, Eamon;
Steinbeis, Nikolaus;
(2025)
Parental reflective functioning and internalizing symptoms predict altruistic prosocial behaviour in children.
British Journal of Developmental Psychology
, 43
(3)
pp. 755-770.
10.1111/bjdp.12551.
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Abstract
Mental health has a profound impact on how we interact with the world. How it shapes prosocial behaviour during middle childhood, a period crucial for establishing healthy relationships, remains poorly understood. Moreover, whilst child mental health and prosocial behaviour are influenced by caregiving experience more broadly, less is known about how they are shaped by parental reflective functioning (PRF), that is parents' capacity to represent their child's underlying mental states. A longitudinal design, with assessments at baseline and 1 year follow-up, was used with 233 children (111 boys; 6–13 years old; 54.9% White, 17.2% Asian, 2.58% Black, 14.2% Multiple ethnic groups, 2.58% Other, 8.58% data unavailable). Using path modelling, we examined interrelations between baseline PRF, baseline child internalizing symptoms, and follow-up child altruistic prosocial behaviour. At baseline, PRF was associated with child internalizing symptoms, whilst PRF and internalizing symptoms positively predicted altruistic behaviour 1 year later. These findings suggest that mental health and caregiving experience are key influences on altruistic behaviour in childhood.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Parental reflective functioning and internalizing symptoms predict altruistic prosocial behaviour in children |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/bjdp.12551 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12551 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Author(s). British Journal of Developmental Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Altruism, depression, dictator game, internalizing symptoms, parental mentalising, parental reflective functioning, prosocial behaviour |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10214712 |
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