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Paternal And Maternal Reflective Functioning In The Western Australian Peel Child Health Study

Cooke, D; Priddis, L; Luyten, P; Kendall, G; Cavanagh, R; (2017) Paternal And Maternal Reflective Functioning In The Western Australian Peel Child Health Study. Infant Mental Health Journal , 38 (5) pp. 561-574. 10.1002/imhj.21664. Green open access

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Abstract

While past research on the care of infants has been mostly with mothers, in recent times there has been a renewed attention to the father-infant relationship. This study examined differences between mother and father parental reflective functioning (PRF) or parental mentalizing; that is, the parental capacity to reason about their own and their children's behaviors by taking into consideration intentional mental states. Data were collected from 120 couples with a 1-year-old child who were participants in the West Australian Peel Child Health Study. Parental mentalizing was assessed using the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ; Luyten, Mayes, Nijssens, & Fonagy, ). Results showed that mother and father mentalizing with their children was independent and that mothers scored slightly higher levels of mentalizing than did fathers. Paternal mentalizing was weakly associated with family income and father education, and was more strongly associated with family functioning than with maternal mentalizing. Implications for theorizing on PRF and fatherhood more generally are discussed.

Type: Article
Title: Paternal And Maternal Reflective Functioning In The Western Australian Peel Child Health Study
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/imhj.21664
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21664
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, maternal, mentalizing, paternal, reflective functioning
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/1572179
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