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Do Parental Reflective Functioning and Parental Competence Affect The Socioemotional Adjustment Of Children?

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Abstract

Parental reflective functioning refers to the parents’ ability to reflect on their children’s mental states, and is increasingly considered to be a key feature of competent parenting. However, to date, no study has empirically investigated this assumption. The main objective of the present study was therefore to investigate the mediating role of parental competence in the relationship between parental reflective functioning and children’s socioemotional adjustment. We also investigated whether these relationships were similar for mothers and fathers. The study was carried out in a sample of 433 mothers and 113 fathers of infants aged from 2 to 36 months. Participants had to complete the Spanish version of the Perceived Parental Competence Scale, the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire and the Ages & Stages Questionnaire. Results showed, as expected, that parental competence mediated the association between parental reflective functioning and infants’ emotional adjustment. Multigroup analysis supported the invariance of the structural model across mothers and fathers. The implications of these results for pediatric and primary care are discussed.

Highlights

  • We investigated the role of Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF) and parental competence in children’s socioemotional adjustment.

  • Results indicate that parental competence mediated the association between PRF and infants’ socioemotional adjustment in both mothers and fathers.

  • These results provide further evidence for the importance of PRF for children’s early socioemotional adjustment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain

    Leire Gordo, Ana Martínez-Pampliega & Leire Iriarte Elejalde

  2. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Patrick Luyten

  3. Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK

    Patrick Luyten

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  1. Leire Gordo
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  2. Ana Martínez-Pampliega
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  3. Leire Iriarte Elejalde
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by L.G., A.M.-P., L.I.E. and P.L. The first draft of the manuscript was written by L.G. and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Leire Gordo.

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Gordo, L., Martínez-Pampliega, A., Iriarte Elejalde, L. et al. Do Parental Reflective Functioning and Parental Competence Affect The Socioemotional Adjustment Of Children?. J Child Fam Stud 29, 3621–3631 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01840-z

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