Reflective Functioning in Parents of School-Aged Children

• Published in: American journal of orthopsychiatry 2016-01, Vol.86 (1), p.24-36
• Main Authors: Borelli, Jessica L., St. John, H. Kate, Cho, Evelyn, Suchman, Nancy E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Attachment; Attachment Behavior; Avoidance behavior; Child; Childhood; Childhood Development; Children; Children & youth; Correlation analysis; Emotions; Female; Human; Humans; Intergenerational relationships; Interviews as Topic; Male; Object Attachment; Parent Child Relations; Parenting; Parenting - psychology; Parents; Parents & parenting; Parents - psychology; Prevention; Reflectiveness; Risk; Risk assessment; Security; Social Class
• ISSN: 0002-9432; 1939-0025
• DOI: 10.1037/ort0000141

Parental reflective functioning (RF) has garnered tremendous support as a predictor of secure attachment in infancy, though little work has examined RF among parents of older children. In this study, we used a high-risk community sample of parent-child dyads (N = 117) to explore whether parental RF comprises self- and child-focused factors, whether parental RF is associated with parent and child attachment security, and whether parental RF mediates the association between parent and child attachment security. Results suggested that parental RF can be characterized as having both self- and child-focused components, and that child-focused parental RF is associated with child but not parent attachment security. Further, child-focused parental RF indirectly mediates the association between parent attachment avoidance and child attachment security. These findings extend previous work on parental RF to parents of school-age children and, in so doing, inform developmental models of attachment relationships in middle childhood. Discussion focuses on the importance of these findings in informing theory, prevention, clinical practice, and policy.